how low on oil can a standard car get before there is a mechanical problem

What is the OCI that you target? If you use a cheap filter and oil and a low OCI, I would just change the oil when it gets down to 1 quart low when its close to the OCI. If you use an expensive oil and filter and a higher OCI, I would possibly buy a 5 quart bottle and install 4 quarts initially and then use the fifth quart for top offs to extend up to the higher OCI that the more expensive materials warrant.
 
I believe it was about four years ago when my 2001 Volvo blew an oil seal. At the time this happened I was driving at 65-70 MPH in the mountains of West Virginia. I don't know exactly where it happened, but I did notice that a number of cars that had been running with me suddenly backed off at least a quarter of a mile. After cresting a mountain there was at least a five mile glide down to the next valley, albeit still running at 65-70 MPH.

Once I got to that valley I exited the four lane highway and drove through a small town at 30-35 MPH. There were no obvious signs of trouble yet. Once leaving town and picking up the pace a bit, the oil light came on briefly while rounding a curve, but went right back out as soon as the road straightened out. The engine still sounded fine, but this oil warning started repeating with every meaningful curve in the road. By this time I had a pretty good idea of what was happening, but I pressed on 12 miles to the next town and stopped at a NAPA shop. This vehicle has a six quart oil change and it took four quarts to bring it back to the full mark, meaning I was driving it four quarts low. Granted this is a European car designed to run on the German Autobahn. At the time I was running 0w-40 Mobil 1.

After adding those four quarts, I tried to find a shop that would look at the car, then turned around and retraced the last twelve miles to see if maybe somehow I could baby the vehicle back towards home or at least a shop that knew something about European cars. In sixteen miles of driving I lost another three quarts of oil! Suffice it to say the car wasn't going any farther without repair.

Rolling the clock forward, that vehicle now has another 50K miles on the odometer and is still running strong. Wear metals were running in the single digits until last year, and roughly half the Blackstone universal averages for that engine. Keep in mind that this engine has a large sump, but it seems to me that you probably shouldn't lose any sleep if you were to briefly run your vehicle more than a quart low. The most important word in that last sentence was "briefly" and also note that I never got a steady low oil pressure warning.
My car barely holds 3.8 quarts, a quart low would make a big difference.
 
The answer seems to be most people think running near the ADD line is a bad idea but some have gotten away with that and lower. When I first drained the oil for a change I looked at the stick first. It was just a bit below the add line which would put it at 3 QT on a 4 QT sump. I thought that was a problem. After I drained it and looked at the catch pan I was not so sure. The sump area is about 1/4 the size of my catch pan and my guess was that even with 1 QT on the engine the sump would still be full and the pick up tube would be at least 5 to 6 inches in oil. The entire oil pan may not be full but the low area of the sump should be. When I looked at how much oil was in the catch pan and the size of the low spot of the oil pan I was not worried. Now, thinking of it as %25 low it does not sound good. I change at 3.000 and during that time it will consistently go from the full line to the low line. It has been steady like that for several years now. Now my plan will be to put about 1/2 a quart in at about 2,000 to bring it back up to full. That way it will be in the middle of the full and add line, about 1/2 qt low at the 2,000 OCI. I will have a bit extra in case the burn rate picks up or I need to go over a few hundred miles before I get to the change.
 
I think it really depends on a lot of factors.

Lets say you’re running one full quart low, well how many quarts does your engine take? How often do you do that? And how long is your oil change interval?

Having less oil in your engine requires the REMAINING OIL TO WORK HARDER: the additives will drop quicker, the velocity will change quicker, it’ll shear quicker. There’s less of it, it’s doing more work. And as the oil gets “dirty” there’s less oil for it to disperse.

So, I think it really depends on how often this happens and for how long. Once in a while I don’t think it would be a big deal...or maybe you’re only running low for the remaining 1,000 miles of your oil change interval, but if it’s happening all the time and it’s happening throughout your entire oil change interval? Yeah, I think you’re going to run into some problems (wear, more consumption, sludge, stuck rings, possibly worse). IMO.

Know your car: know when that engine needs to be checked, know how long of an interval works for you, know what brands to use, and then act accordingly. I’ve had cars where I knew I had to check that oil level every 1,000 miles...and I’ve had cars where I knew checking the oil was a waste of time because the thing would almost NEVER use any oil between oil changes. And then decide what works for you. But I think an oil burner can go a long long time if you just keep that oil level where it’s supposed to be.
 
I was dumb and did not check oil in my truck for 11 months / 3000 miles of driving. It never used even a quarter of a qt before. It was down to 3 quarts out of 6. No low oil pressures or lights or any wierd sounds. Hope to never have it happen again . But seems the engine survived ok. I will be changing oil twice a year now even at 1500 miles to be sure.
 
The ADD line is the add line. My owners manual, and I bet yours too, reads to let it get there before adding. Is it politics to cover minor consumption? Undoubtedly. Is it a hold over from buying canned quarts of oil and having to use the entire can once it's open? Probably. Are there cars that will blow up if you run them less-than full? The Contour 2.5 V6 comes to mind, they had oil starvation problems on the corners.

I've run into a lot of people that think the dipstick goes from "full" to "dry", unaware that it only measures the top 50% of the oil including the danger zone between the tip and the ADD line. Then you hear old wives tales about someone that ran their car "dry" but they put some 30-weight non-detergent oil in that they got at a liquor store and it drove another 100k.

And they're right, and this website is meaningless.
 
I would argue as long as the sump is able to tap into the oil, you are fine. But.....I would NEVER recommend that. But to answer your question, no major engine damage should occur as long as the pump is pushing oil.
 
Far Too many factors to make a blanket anwser for all vehicles and all situations.

My wife had an ancient abused 4runner with a pretty bad oil leak, I was bad about remembering to check it and she was bad about telling me the oil light was on, it routinely got 4 qts low on a i think 6 qt system, possibly 5 qt, thats about where the oil pressure light came on, it survived like this for many years,

Butt one day I was driving when it happened, I heard a faint pop, and some clattering noises for the few moments,, and it immediately lost power, drove it for a few weeks like that, and finally did a compression check, almost no compression on #3, other cylinders were good, I speculated it broke a ring or something, probably related to habitual oil starvation, no noise other than the few seconds of the event. No knocking, I drove it to the junk yard with the AC running on its 22 year old factory AC chage and 340k miles on the odometer.

Many of Toyota's motors are tough, also they are low stress to begin with, especially the truck motors,, plus my wife drives like a 90 year old grandmother, would a diffrent motor doing for instance amature drag nights or mountain roads pulling high G's at high power be as accommodating? Probably not.

Don't do what I did, keep it above the low mark on the stick.
 
I knew a guy in high school who had a 318 and he would wait until it started knocking, then he would dump in 5 quarts. Claimed he had been doing that for 20k without issue.
A friend's parents had an 86 Dodge 150 with the 318. It smoked and had bad valve seals, they would often get low enough it started ticking before they'd add oil. It actually never died as far as I know.
Also my first winter beater, an 86 caprice 305 got ran very low a number of times by my friend I bought it from.
 
Far Too many factors to make a blanket anwser for all vehicles and all situations.

My wife had an ancient abused 4runner with a pretty bad oil leak, I was bad about remembering to check it and she was bad about telling me the oil light was on, it routinely got 4 qts low on a i think 6 qt system, possibly 5 qt, thats about where the oil pressure light came on, it survived like this for many years,

Butt one day I was driving when it happened, I heard a faint pop, and some clattering noises for the few moments,, and it immediately lost power, drove it for a few weeks like that, and finally did a compression check, almost no compression on #3, other cylinders were good, I speculated it broke a ring or something, probably related to habitual oil starvation, no noise other than the few seconds of the event. No knocking, I drove it to the junk yard with the AC running on its 22 year old factory AC chage and 340k miles on the odometer.

Many of Toyota's motors are tough, also they are low stress to begin with, especially the truck motors,, plus my wife drives like a 90 year old grandmother, would a diffrent motor doing for instance amature drag nights or mountain roads pulling high G's at high power be as accommodating? Probably not.

Don't do what I did, keep it above the low mark on the stick.
22RE?
 
here's a related question.. Do all cars have a oil light warning? Do all cars even have an oil pressure sensor?

I know the sensor on my 4.0l jeep was faulty. It read just a tad over the normal reading, and then stayed there all the time. That type of a sensor failure could toast your engine if you wait for the sensor to read the oil level. Only way I noticed was the gauge in the dash display. No gauge, no warning. wait for the warning to alert you? It won't.

That is why I won't trust oil pressure sensors. You wait for it, you're fuked.
 
I knew a gal who had a Dodge mini van. She would only add oil when the oil light came on. No apparent problems. I don't know how many miles she went before there was an issue. My company also had a Chevy van with a V-8. I remember walking past it one day idling. The motor was knocking terribly. I shut it down and checked the oil to find none on the dip stick. Filled it up with oil and it ran for at least two years thereafter until it was sold.
 
here's a related question.. Do all cars have a oil light warning? Do all cars even have an oil pressure sensor?


Every Car I have owned has had something, low oil quanity light, low oil pressure light, oil pressure guage, or combination there of.

I am not sure if every car has something.
 
I think it really depends on how low the pickup tube goes. If it starts sucking in air then yeah it’s over for the engine
 
My daughter’s 2002 Blazer (4.3 V6) consumes a lot of oil. She drives short distances. I spite of my best efforts to admonish and educate her, she has run it countless miles with nothing showing on the dipstick. Either this is a very durable engine or it is so out of spec that there is little friction. She can go through a quart of oil in two weeks. In any event, I’ve given up on trying to educate her.
 
My daughter’s 2002 Blazer (4.3 V6) consumes a lot of oil. She drives short distances. I spite of my best efforts to admonish and educate her, she has run it countless miles with nothing showing on the dipstick. Either this is a very durable engine or it is so out of spec that there is little friction. She can go through a quart of oil in two weeks. In any event, I’ve given up on trying to educate her.
Again, I'm very sure that when theres no oil on the dipstick, the engine still has a reserve amount of oil to protect it. I've seen too many cars that don't register on the stick, and have still run fine after 5000 miles at that level. Engineers take stupid into consideration with design factors.
 
Back
Top