Hi all,
My father owns a '99 Boxster with a bit over 50k miles on it. He puts about 2-4k a year on it, so I imagine some of the rubber bits are rotting out due to lack of use.
Anyway, he called me yesterday after taking a drive out to Lancaster with his wife. He said that he had looked down while driving back from Lancaster and found the temperature needle buried in the red and the check engine light on.
He continued to drive and pulled over at the nearest gas station. He said he didn't see any oil on the dipstick and proceeded to add 4 quarts of oil (this car has a 9-10 quart sump). He said smoke was coming out of the dipstick tube, which I said was not completely abnormal on a car that was just stopped after a long drive.
He then proceeded to drive it home, with the check engine light still on and the needle buried in the red the whole time.
Total driving time that he knows of with the temperature gauge all the way in the red: 30 minutes.
I'm at a complete loss at this point. I would think the engine would have a catastrophic failure long before 30 minutes if it was operating that hot. I think one of the following happened:
1. Best case scenario: A sensor failed, giving an obscene temperature reading and my father overfilled the crankcase significantly (unless, since I think oil would've been bubbling out the dipstick from adding 4 quarts).
2. Head gasket failure: No oil left in his garage, but the car started eating oil on the drive out there. But he doesn't report any blue smoke, just a general "smell of oil".
3. Oil return feed line failure - I think this runs over the top of the engine...would've dumped oil which immediately burned off. Could've been a long-term, slow thing which wouldn't have left a puddle of oil.
Anyway, I'm posting this here but I'm wondering: Is there any way that engine could be ok if it had overheated on the highway for 30 minutes? I imagine the cool air of going 55 would help keep it from grenading, but I can't imagine that wouldn't warp the head.
Joe
My father owns a '99 Boxster with a bit over 50k miles on it. He puts about 2-4k a year on it, so I imagine some of the rubber bits are rotting out due to lack of use.
Anyway, he called me yesterday after taking a drive out to Lancaster with his wife. He said that he had looked down while driving back from Lancaster and found the temperature needle buried in the red and the check engine light on.
He continued to drive and pulled over at the nearest gas station. He said he didn't see any oil on the dipstick and proceeded to add 4 quarts of oil (this car has a 9-10 quart sump). He said smoke was coming out of the dipstick tube, which I said was not completely abnormal on a car that was just stopped after a long drive.
He then proceeded to drive it home, with the check engine light still on and the needle buried in the red the whole time.
Total driving time that he knows of with the temperature gauge all the way in the red: 30 minutes.
I'm at a complete loss at this point. I would think the engine would have a catastrophic failure long before 30 minutes if it was operating that hot. I think one of the following happened:
1. Best case scenario: A sensor failed, giving an obscene temperature reading and my father overfilled the crankcase significantly (unless, since I think oil would've been bubbling out the dipstick from adding 4 quarts).
2. Head gasket failure: No oil left in his garage, but the car started eating oil on the drive out there. But he doesn't report any blue smoke, just a general "smell of oil".
3. Oil return feed line failure - I think this runs over the top of the engine...would've dumped oil which immediately burned off. Could've been a long-term, slow thing which wouldn't have left a puddle of oil.
Anyway, I'm posting this here but I'm wondering: Is there any way that engine could be ok if it had overheated on the highway for 30 minutes? I imagine the cool air of going 55 would help keep it from grenading, but I can't imagine that wouldn't warp the head.
Joe
