Oil change mistake

Figured I would share this clusterf*** of a routine oil change I did today.

I do my oil changes at my brother's house since we aren't allowed to do it in the condo parking lot. Everything is going fine, I start using my oil filter remover (which rips the hell out of the oil filter) before remembering that I had forgotten a new one. I check the damaged one and don't feel any holes (should have checked better). So I decide to drive home and replace it then. On my way home I smell a bit of burning oil when I get close to my house, I know this is going to be ugly, I open the hood... oil everywhere. I guess the oil filter was punctured. So I check the oil level with the dipstick, and it appears totally dry (you all know how tough our dipsticks are to read), so I throw an extra two quarts I had lying around in, change the leaking oil filter, check the dipstick again... now due to it being a pain in the ass to read I think I have two quarts too much (the streaks were pretty far up past full).

I go into my house and clean a bucket out, measure what 5 quarts would be on the bucket, drain the oil in my condo parking lot only to find that the oil was way too low, probably only had two quarts in it.

I am sure on the way home that I was just flinging oil all over the place, I just hope it didn't run dry for too long, seems to be running just fine (with the two quarts I put in). So, it sits in the parking lot until my brother can pick my dumb ass up and take me to advanced or walmart to get more oil.

Ugh... what a dumb mistake.

 

wow what a headache lol

 

Weird thing is... no codes or anything. Didn't overheat... so I think I am safe.

 

All I can say is WOW! Just wow.

 

Jesus Christ..... If all you got out of the motor was the 2 qt you put in you ran it dry.... Your cams and main crank bearings have probably been compromised....


Why on earth you would continue to drive it after you found the leak is beyond me.

 

No low oil pressure light?
I'd do a oil change, have a sample or two sent to an analyst and see what they say.

 

Meh, it's probably fine. The oil light never came on so he never lost pressure. Not a great idea (clearly) but if there was oil pressure then the top end was getting oiled.

 

This ^^^

My auto teacher said that it didn't how little oil there was as long as the oil pump wasn't sucking air.

 

Mostly true. Oil does like volume though so that it can cool some in the pan before recycling. Race motors are "dry sump" in design so parasitic drag from parts splashing in oil doesn't happen. There you have oil in larger cooling devices and other reservoirs.

 

I forgot to add this: I didn't find it until I got home at that point I changed the leaking oil filter and threw 2 quarts in before taking it to the wash bay.

I doubt it's compromised, no lights ever came on and I didn't over-heat. Even when your oil pan is dry there is still some oil in the system.

 

That's a very good question.... but I checked with my OB2 sensor and had no codes.

 

Another reason I don't buy used vehicles.

 

You buy new vehicles every 3-5000 miles?

 

If you didnt get an oil light you didnt hurt anything. Drive it keep an eye on it. Dont freak out about it. That is an excellent point about the oil light not functioning but its easy to tell if its working properly. Just turn the key on with out starting, you should see it!

 

What does this mean??

 

If your shit is slapping in the oil, you have overfilled the crankcase.

 

Yep, it works just fine. I had also checked my OB2 sensor and no codes were ever thrown.

 

I would say lucky. Sounds to me like you ran it pretty close.