Not starting properly after running the engine when it was low on oil

RICHRICH95

MEMBER
2004 NISSAN SENTRA
2.5L
4 CYL
TURBO
2WD
MANUAL
125,000 MILES

I was driving to work and everything was fine. I started it after work and heard a terrible squeaking noise that wouldn't stop driving down the road. My dumb self didn't check the oil. Well, anyway it makes a clunk noise when trying to start now when I drove down the road after work it stalled and wouldn't start back up; it makes a clunk gave a little crank and then clunk like the normal kind of a bad sound you get when starting car, but doesn't complete. I can rotate crank shaft pulley with torque bar I put oil in, still no start.

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

I think you are on the right path. Basically, when this happens the force from the combustion in the cylinder pushes the piston down into the crank journal. However, when the bearings are metal to metal, they actually lock up instead of rotating.

So, it starts to turn, and it may fire and then stall. Once it is bad enough the engine will start to turn and then it will lock up again.

It may turn by hand but eventually it will most likely lock up completely.

Let's start checking this by draining the oil and changing the filter so that we can inspect it for metal.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-change-engine-oil-and-filter

Let's drain the oil into a clean pan so that you can swirl it around and look for metal. If you want any of those gold rush shows, you are doing this like looking for gold. When you swirl it the metal will be at the bottom of the pan.

If there is metal, then we are basically looking at replacing or rebuilding the engine.

Let us know what you find. Thanks