How much damage do you think i have caused my zafira letting it go dry of oil?

Question

i was on my way home yesterday and my exhaust light started flashing i was not far from home and drive back then later realised i had no oil.

Answer 1

If you checked your oil with a hot engine, then it may seem like there is none in there because it hasn't drained back down into the sump. This takes about half an hour.

If you were running nearly dry,  you may have actually improved things a little. I ran my mondeo nearly to the bone, and ended up with increased performance.

This is very important, get a friend or your local garage to do an engine flush and pop on a new oil filter. This will flush out any shards of metal that have come loose from grinding metal parts, you dont want those hanging around in your engine.

good luck

Answer 2

It could be lots - my brother did this to my car and I had to get a new engine! Get a qualified mechanic to look it over and dont drive it anywhere til you know what the damage is or you've been given the all clear!

Answer 3

First thing to starve is camshaft bearings If they have picked up it means a new head as they do not have shells but run direct in a line bored cylinder head

Answer 4

In addition to the previous answers assuming you have still some oil in the sump, the resulting wear would be enough to ruin the emissions test at the next MoT.

What a stupid thing to do.

Answer 5

Talk nicely to your  bank manager!

Answer 6

What's the exhaust light?

Have you dipped the oil?

Does any thing show on the dip stick?

If there is little or no oil in the engine, the oil indicator light on the dash should have come on well before there was no oil in the engine.

If you have run the engine with little or no oil, you could have done considerable damage to almost every thing in the engine.

But first do a check on the oil level using the dip stick before you go to a garage.

If nothing shows on the dip stick have a look around the underside of the engine for any obvious oil leaks. Is there oil on the floor below the car where you park it?

How often do you check the oil level?

Could be a big expense if you have run it dry.

Answer 7

The exhaust warning light (engine management) doesn't come on when your oil level is low - the two instances are probably unconnected, could you give more detail, how you 'realised you had no oil' and how much you put in the car.

Answer 8

Just because you don't see oil on the dipstick doesn't mean the crankcase went bone dry. How any quarts of oil did it take to fill it back up to the mark? If only 2 quarts you should be fine, more than 3 better plan on some serious engine work being required within the next few months.

Uaually if the car still runs and you don't hear any new clanking or clunking you should be fine. Still that don't mean it didn't cause any damage to the camshaft and rod bearings and not know it yet, only time will tell here.

An engine totally out of oil won't run more than a couple minutes before seizing up. Like I said if the car still runs OK and you were only a couple quarts down I wouldn't worry.

Answer 9

You may have not caused any damage at all ... check the oil and water levels levels first before driving it again.

The light that came on could be for a number of reasons ... normally it means lashing out around £55 to hook it up to a computer to have it diagnose any faults.

Did you have any performance issues when the light came on or was the car behaving as normal?

Answer 10

put some oil in it and start it up.  if its not noisy don't stress about it.

find out where the oils going though-  if its going out the exhaust your motors half-stuffed anyway.

Answer 11

normally it would shaft the engine...you MAY be lucky if it didnt make any nasty noises by thetime you got home...now there no oil and NO OIL...empty = dead....a little and your in with a chance.

Answer 12

A lot - you may even need a new engine.  Hope not - good luck.  And stop being such a woman driver - if you are going to drive you need to know what all the lights mean.