my car started making rattling noises, for about a week, it kept on going and coming back and vice versa. Today i took it a mechanic and he diagnosed it and he said my car was running on litre of oil instead of 4!!! so i got an oil change right away and the noise disappeared. Could there be damage to my engine that i just dont know yet. And i examined my car, my home garage and there were no leaks.I just got this car and i only did 1 oil change before this one which was a month before this. Could it be that the guy that had my corolla used synthetic oil, and i am using regular motor oil? because i dont know where the oil went..and i want to modify my car should i risk putting my money in it in case the engine goes.
#1 you should check your oil every time you get gas.
The oil either burned off, leaked out, or both.
Or you took it to some crappy shop and they spaced and only put in 1 bottle.
How many kilometers on the car?
If it drove for a month with only 1 liter it would be alot worse than if it slowly leaked out/burnt off over the month. Any smoke or burnt smell from under the hood or smoke out the exhaust?
My corolla mysteriously loses oil sometimes without seeming to burn or leak it, I just top it off and it runs great.
Same with my Corolla. Sometimes it too mysteriously loses oil. The other day I was checking all my fluids and topped up whats needed to be topped. When I went to check the oil it showed being real low so I topped the oil and works fine.
#1 you should check your oil every time you get gas.
The oil either burned off, leaked out, or both.
Or you took it to some crappy shop and they spaced and only put in 1 bottle.
How many kilometers on the car?
If it drove for a month with only 1 liter it would be alot worse than if it slowly leaked out/burnt off over the month. Any smoke or burnt smell from under the hood or smoke out the exhaust?
My corolla mysteriously loses oil sometimes without seeming to burn or leak it, I just top it off and it runs great.
I have 214000 kms on the car...it runs fine now im just afraid ive cause damage to the internals of the engine.
Engine damage is very possible - but no real way to know until you tear the engine down to check. I've seen extreme cases where an engine will let go within a week of running that low of oil, another extreme where the engine ran for another 200K miles before it let go.
Best thing to do is to check the oil levels (all fluid levels for that matter) as often as you can. Monitor any oil consumption. This could be a one time freak accident - the car could be fine for the rest of its life (minor engine damage and all). Thing you want to avoid is running that low again and again - then you are almost guaranteed to have serious engine damage.
Try and avoid add-in oil additives. Those tend to mask problems, a bandaid fix at best. You want to just feed it the oil you plan on running (conventional, blend, or synthentic - doesn't matter, just use the same stuff for now) - and monitor oil usage. If usage becomes excessive (more than a quart of oil every 500 miles or 800km) - then try a different oil, staying within the viscosity recommended by Toyota (5W-30). Then repeat the oil monitoring, see if it gets better or worse.
If you are really worried about the engine - get a compression test on it right away and send in a sample of used motor oil for a UOA. Compression should be no more than 218PSI and no less than 145PSI in each cylinder. There should be no more than a 15PSI difference between cylinders. If compression is poor - then you are on borrowed time. UOA analysis will tell you what the wear metals, contaminants look like in the motor oil. Lots of metal or water in the oil, again the engine is probably on its way out.
Engine damage is very possible - but no real way to know until you tear the engine down to check. I've seen extreme cases where an engine will let go within a week of running that low of oil, another extreme where the engine ran for another 200K miles before it let go.
Best thing to do is to check the oil levels (all fluid levels for that matter) as often as you can. Monitor any oil consumption. This could be a one time freak accident - the car could be fine for the rest of its life (minor engine damage and all). Thing you want to avoid is running that low again and again - then you are almost guaranteed to have serious engine damage.
Try and avoid add-in oil additives. Those tend to mask problems, a bandaid fix at best. You want to just feed it the oil you plan on running (conventional, blend, or synthentic - doesn't matter, just use the same stuff for now) - and monitor oil usage. If usage becomes excessive (more than a quart of oil every 500 miles or 800km) - then try a different oil, staying within the viscosity recommended by Toyota (5W-30). Then repeat the oil monitoring, see if it gets better or worse.
If you are really worried about the engine - get a compression test on it right away and send in a sample of used motor oil for a UOA. Compression should be no more than 218PSI and no less than 145PSI in each cylinder. There should be no more than a 15PSI difference between cylinders. If compression is poor - then you are on borrowed time. UOA analysis will tell you what the wear metals, contaminants look like in the motor oil. Lots of metal or water in the oil, again the engine is probably on its way out.
Dang you are one smart dude, so i should drive the car for roughly another 1000 miles and see if theres anything different? like performance wise?
Sure. Just keep an eye on the oil levels and make sure it doesn't suddenly drop on you. Note anything that seems out of the ordinary. Vibrations, rough idle, smoke from exhaust, loss of power, poor fuel economy, etc. If everything seems OK, change the oil and filter little earlier than you normally would, just to be sure that nothing bad gets pumped around the engine too long and you should be golden after that. Nothing too crazy about a 1/3 sooner, ex. if you plan on changing the oil every ~3000 miles (5000 km) - do it at 2000 miles or 3400 km.
Since you didn't mention seeing a CEL or low oil lamp - you probably are OK. Unfortunantly, that low oil light comes on at such a low oil pressure (~4PSI or less) that once you see the light - more than 1/2 the time that engine will probably be a goner.
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