I was driving my moms 89 CRX Si the other day, and the oil light came on about 10 city blocks away from the house in stop-n-go traffic. I drove straight home and parked it, but at the last stoplight before I got home; I noticed the car started to idle a little rough. Not idling too, too bad, but rougher than normal and there was no bad noise. Anyways, my mom was gonna walk across the street to the store today, so I told her to pick up a quart of oil, as I thought it may just be a little low. About 15 minutes later she called me and said she was putting the oil in the car, but it was running right out the bottom. I went outside and looked under the car. The oil plug bolt was missing! My question is, how much damage do you think the engine incurred driving 10 stop-n-go city blocks with absolutley no oil in it. If it helps any, I had Mobil 1 fully synthetic oil in it with Z-max engine additive as well. Remember those commercials when synthetics first came out, with "scientists" running the engines with syn. put in and then draining it, and running them for hours and they were still running? I keep thinking of that hoping not much damage was done. Anyone with knowledge of engine internals, please respond, and tell me what you think. What parts are most susceptible to damage with no oil? The rings?....Thanks for any help. PEACE OUT!

 

put the drain bolt back in ,fill it up with oil.start it up if it dont knock or make any noises then you should be fine.i drove on i 95 for 10 miles with the oil light on doing 80 and it was fine.it still runs good but the rings were bad befor that.it burned 4 quarts a week.now it just sits on the side of the house,pissed!

 

DOHHH!

 

oil light comes on, time fore a new engine...
just because the car runs after and doesnt make any werird noises doesnt mean nothing is wrong
the oil light comes on where there is almost no oil pressure (4.3lbs i think..) honda should have about 10lbs per 1000rpm, so if you were driving under any load, at 4.3 lbs the damage has been already done to the engine

 

What kind of damage should I expect? Thanks for the replies. PEACE OUT!

 

I had my oil light come on once, then came a new engine, uts its prolly cuz it was a dumbestic

 

i was traveling from wisconsin to new york when my oil light came on in pa, i was gonna get off the next exit and fill it but i guess that was too far to go ....cause my camshaft broke ...

 

Hmmm Lets see
1) Bearings
2) Piston Rings
3) Just about every part that makes friction in the engine...

Bad j0j0

Get it fixed ASAP .
Good Luck




[Modified by JDM_DOHC_SiR, 8:45 PM 8/8/2002]

 

Honda use what is called a "Simple Bearing", which means there are not any "rollor" type bearings used. Sooo, all you have is very thin coat of oil, seperating the two parts. Anytime that is interupted, then there is metal to metal contact....

If it still runs, you probably just shorten the overall life of the engine....

My new/used engine, looks like it suffered some serious oiling issue. Judgeing by the shape of the bottom end. When I pulled it apart yesterday... hehehe

OT -Speaking of that, does anybody have a D16 crank, they want to part with?



[Modified by 88_SC_CRX_Si, 6:43 AM 8/8/2002]

 

Yeah, the bearings operate like your bald tires do when they hydroplane...The missing oil will cause the Polished Journal Surfaces of your Crankshaft to rub against the Main Bearing Caps and the Rod Bearing Caps, causing heat buildup and violent scraping...This damage also occurs on the cylinder walls and cam shaft jounals when there's no oil...How did the oil plug end up missing?

Zee

 

How did the plug come up missing?... I wish I knew. All I know, is that I was driving it and the oil light came on, so I just thought it was starting to get low on oil. Still, I knew I shouldn't be driving it with the oil light on, so I drove sraight home. I parked the car. The next day when my mom was putting in the oil, it was coming right out the bottom and thats when she called me outside. I looked under the car, noticed the plug was missing, and thats when my worries began. I then knew that when the oil light came on, it wasn't just low on oil, but completely lacking oil... I did get a rather reassuring story from my cousin today. He said when he had his 89 Prelude Si, he was driving back home from San Diego to Fresno, when his oil light came on while he was driving through the Grapevine(a fairly steep mountain-range roadway here in California). He said he continued for about 20 min. at freeway speed until he came to a gas station. He popped the hood and smoke rose out of the engine bay. He checked the oil, and it was bone dry! He refilled it with oil, and continued home. He said the car drove great all the way until he sold it 1.5 years later(it was still running great when he sold it). I'm hoping because I use synthetic oil, that that provided some extra protection while the engine was running oil-less. Anyways, thanks for the replies. PEACE OUT!

 

Oh yeah, ^^forgot to mention^^, he did replace the piston rings... PEACE OUT!

 

The part I don't understand is how the light only came on at "stops". By the way, great story!! LMAO!!! Tell your mom that she has to do a b-swap. Tell her that is the only thing possible at this point, otherwise the crank will shoot out and kill her. LOL!!! Just joking dude...Good luck no matter what you do at this point.

 

Thanks for the wish of good luck. Yeah, now if I could just convince her to put in a b18, haha. Money's kinda tight right now, but hopefully I'll win plenty with the NFL season coming up. PEACE OUT!