40K miles, no oil change, engine seized, Yikes!

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OH THE HORROR!!!!!

So much for extending "way" out..

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Friend back in college bought a new 7th gen Civic si (or whatever generation a 2003-2004 would be) and when the engine gave out on her at 40-something thousand miles, she thinks she maybe had the dealer change the oil once, but can't remember. She never checked the level or had anyone else do any maintenance on the car.

That car was stolen while sitting in her apartment parking lot, since she couldn't afford a new engine.

I was thoroughly impressed with how long that darned thing went before giving up the ghost. When I visited her a couple of times a year back in college, I never thought anything was amiss when I drove with her in it (probably 20-30-something thousand the last time I drove with her, IIRC,) though I admittedly didn't know anything about cars back then.

I never got the details before it was stolen, but I've always wondered if the thing would have gone longer if she topped off the oil when it was low (i.e., did it seize because it was all gummed up or did it seize because the oil level lowered to below some critical point where it rapidly caused failure?)
 
Well, I knew a lady who had an '83-ish Toyota Cressida and NEVER changed the oil in almost 120K miles. The car actually made it to almost 120K before the engine finally seized. To me, that is a tremendous testimony to Toyota engineering. Think how long this engine would have lasted if it had had proper oil changes. Probably 300K or more. This lady thought that you didn't need to change the oil until the oil light came on! UGH.....
 
Yikes!

My girlfriend in high school had an old Dodge Neon that her brother's had before her. They didn't change the oil in the 3 years they had it and when I go to check the fluids for her the dipstick was dry and there was probably 1/2 qt that came out when I changed the oil. Those were nice little dodges
 
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This lady thought that you didn't need to change the oil until the oil light came on! UGH.....


And this resulted in the birth of the oil life monitor.
 
Back in the 1970s I worked with a guy who bought a new Chrysler every other year. He was not a car guy and felt maintenance was a waste of time and money, so he never changed oil or anything else over the 2 years of ownership. Not sure how many miles he put on those cars, but never had a mechanical failure. I felt sorry for the next owner who ended up with his cars. Probably why I never wanted to own a Chrysler
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It's hard to kill them if you just keep it topped off. No oil is a lot worse than dirty oil. And people obsess about a cheap filter going 5 or 10k miles, like that's never been done before. My Suburban has only gone 2000 miles in the last 3 plus years, I'll probably change the oil in 2016.
 
Originally Posted By: sasilverbullet
Post from reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop...

Dodge engine seized. Only 40,000 miles, the oil had NEVER been changed. It was like pudding.

The horror pic:
http://i.imgur.com/tqIThiE.jpg



Oh, the humanity! For Clessie's sake, somebody take that truck away from its owner. I know I can go 24,000 miles between changes, but my truck doesn't have EGR or DPF or SCR. Maybe there was a coolant leak that made the oil congeal like that? Can you post an oil analysis?
 
My wife, then girlfriend had a Z24 and it had over 20,000 miles on the oil change. When I changed it for her it had thick black gooey oil come out. I had to pound a screwdriver thru the Pennzoil (rebadged Fram)oil filter to get it off. She drove it another year and sold it. Then we got married and she got my Mercury Couger with only 10,000 miles on it. That's how it works. Oil changes were every 3000 miles back then.
 
Yep pretty well proven here that you can drive a new car 40k before it seizes for lack of oil. About 70K if you top it off. So all the oil changes that you do just extend the life from 70k to 150, 200 or 300k miles - whatever is the life of the car, not the engine.

Says to me you could certainly get away with 15k OCI maybe 20k if you wanted to be cheap and probably wouldn't have oll related problems.
 
Well !!!
At what point did the sludge{a generic term}affect the operation of that engine?
Was it the sludge clogging up the oil pick up or the oil gelling that did the engine in?
Could it have been the cooler weather that made the engine cry uncle and die.
Was is a fast painless death for the engine or was there sign of impending doom over an extended period?
 
Holy guacamole. Must have worked it hard. Owner is badly in need of education or a good thrashing. What a waste.
 
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My wife toasted her Chevy that her parents gave her to take to college because her Father never explained the whole check/change oil process. The sad part is that was a JL on the corner maybe 1/4 a mile away.
 
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