Oil Filter--engine seized

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: iltowne
This happened in November of 2008. I do not know if there was an oil trail, I do know there was oil all underneath my car where I pulled over. I did not find the oil filter...I guess there really isn't an explanation for my $5000 loss
frown.gif




But in my mind's eye (I've had mishaps with double gaskets and whatnot) ..all I could see with this event is an incredible oil bath draining all over the place from the car. The engine bay ..the undercarriage .....everywhere. That oil would not just happen to find a perfectly sensible drain point to leave ZERO evidence that wouldn't be boldly apparent.

Everything should have been covered with oil. The second you stepped out of the car you should have seen dripping everywhere. Opening the hood should have had some of it on the hood itself ..just from splashback and the shear velocity that it was being pumped from the engine.
 
Originally Posted By: bepperb
Well, it does sound like it was there when you left, but obviously fell off at some point. 2600 miles is probably too far for the filter to not have been installed properly. I'm not sure if it's bad luck, or a vandal, or what.

Sorry for your misfortune.
+1 I'd hate to think someone would actually go to the trouble to vandalize your car in that manner. Just difficult to imagine there wasn't some sort of evidence that the filter was leaking at the gasket first, and on the ground. Some bad luck there.
 
I don't believe it's that far fetched to believe the wrong filter stayed in place not leaking until the moment it decided to let go, for whatever reason. And depending on the speed of the vehicle, airflow through the grill and under the car allowing it to blow down and out emptying the crankcase in seconds with minimal mess, aside from the long streak down the road.

Hindsight is always 20-20, but what you should have done was walk back up the road for a good long ways while you waited for the tow truck, looking for that oil streak with your filter laying somewhere nearby in the weeds. Maybe return the next day looking even further back your path if necessary. That filter may have been the evidence necessary to win your claim against the iffy lube joint.
 
i think those toyotas have horizontal mount filters mid way up the engine, or slightly more angled up than horiz. anyway i don't think curbs or anything low could take em off. do you have pics of the threads? any cross thread?

i would search for the trail from the roads you took right before it happened. once my filter mount was loose (the lock nut was loose) and i was losing oil but the filter was tight. i was leaving little half inch trails everywhere on the roads i usually take, and they were visible for over a month afterward
 
Originally Posted By: expat
If the oil filter was missing when you started the car, you would not build oil pressure to begin with.

So, the filter must have come loose and dropped off while you were driving.
BUT, you would loose pressure as soon as the filter became loose and oil was lost. It Seems strange that you would continue driving (oil light on) until the filter fully 'un-screwed it's self until it fell off it's threads!
Something is not quite right here??


It depends on how big the leak was at the filter until the oil pressure would decrease enough to trigger the low pressure light.

If the leak wasn't very small, there would be some oil pressure until all the oil was pumped out of the engine. But the OP said the filter was missing ... so it's possible it took a while for the oil to get pumped out, but in order for the filter to fall off it has to be unscrewed a long way ... like 1/2" away from the base.

I'm thinking someone removed the filter, and it took 4 miles for the OP to notice the light and probably noticed it way too late IMO. Sorry this happened ... not a good thing to experience.
 
but if it was malicious, they would have had to jack the car up and catch the oil that would have made a massive puddle. wouldn't it be easier to steal the drainplug and drain the oil in a container?
 
Depending on the orientation, you don't lose that much oil whe you remove the filter. You would get a huge mess when you started the engine without one. See the picture of the driveway where the Fram had the hole in it.

Note, the engine in my truck survived my wife driving it several miles with no oil. After the light didn't go out, she called me. Good old Pennzoil YB.
 
Originally Posted By: iltowne
Then as I pursued it and seeing as though I drove 4 miles that day when this happened and they oil filter can be easy accessed I started to hear that if someone wanted to jack my car that is the way to go...


So was there any oil in the parking lot, or on the road from where you started driving if from on the day of this indecent?

Was there any oil trail on the road anywhere from the point you started driving the car that day, to the point where it seized up?
 
When the front wheel kicked up a 1/4-20 bolt that punctured the oil filter on my Goldwing, there was a oil streak on the road that was visible for a few weeks... and that was from a hole that was only the size of a pencil.
 
Is it the v6? The filter on that doesn't hang down where it is easy to get at. If that filter, which is on the front of the engine, comes off, the whole engine, windshield, etc are going to see a lot of oil in about one second. There would be oil all over the engine compartment. I hope the mechanic was telling it right.
 
The OP warning light would have to be on some time before the engine was destroyed, It would make noise, feel sluggish, and even then, you might get by with new bearings. Unless you really pushed that sucker into the ground!
 
Originally Posted By: expat
The OP warning light would have to be on some time before the engine was destroyed, It would make noise, feel sluggish, and even then, you might get by with new bearings. Unless you really pushed that sucker into the ground!


Definitely. Engines will run quite a while down the road with no oil in the sump. The oil light had to have been on for quite a while.
 
Originally Posted By: SuperBusa


Definitely. Engines will run quite a while down the road with no oil in the sump. The oil light had to have been on for quite a while.



I've been reading this for the past day or so and was thinking the same thing...the light would have been on from the moment the car started and you would have had a significant power loss before the engine seized. Sounds like the OP kept going, just to keep going.
 
You know, it's really funny how people on here think they know engines like they supposedly know oil. I guess it shows.

One second those bearings loose oil pressure (especially at hwy speed), boom, you spin a bearing. And the OP doesn't need a CEL because he can hear the engine making a real loud knocking sound.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: SuperBusa
Originally Posted By: expat
The OP warning light would have to be on some time before the engine was destroyed, It would make noise, feel sluggish, and even then, you might get by with new bearings. Unless you really pushed that sucker into the ground!


Definitely. Engines will run quite a while down the road with no oil in the sump. The oil light had to have been on for quite a while.


I don't want to bash the OP or generalize from my limited experience, but I have to agree.

If you are going to vandalize the oil filter, why not the oil sender to?
 
I almost had this type of horror story about 10 years ago. I flew from the midwest down to southern Georgia where my son was attending college, to help drive him back home for his summer break. In preparation for the trip, he had taken the car, a '94 Merc. Cougar V8, to a Castrol car care center for an oil change a day before the trip. We drove the 17 hr. trip back home in one stretch, changing drivers every few hours.

The next day, on a whim, I checked the oil filter, just to see what type of filter they used and to my horror, I could loosen the filter, with 3 fingers, very easily. No leakage was visible on the outside of the filter or on the bottom of the chassis. It was the last time any of our cars has had someone change the oil.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

G
So I put a Wix oil filter 51334 on my 2018 tucson base model 2.0L and immediately the check engine light came on.
2
Replies
39
Views
2K
Triple_Se7en
A
Wrong filter previously installed
Replies
16
Views
756
OLEJOE
cb4017
Slightly used PF66 from my 23 ZR2
Replies
14
Views
780
ZeeOSix
Mewbs
FRAM Ultra XG3600 Cut Open - 2000 miles - HPL EC30
Replies
10
Views
3K
Mewbs
F
Ecogard X10040 cut open
2 3
Replies
45
Views
2K
ZeeOSix
Back
Top