Lack of oil

SLDAWSON1989

MEMBER
2011 CHEVROLET EQUINOX
3.4L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
102,000 MILES

My daughter drove her car without oil for approximately 3-5 total. Started grinding and drove straight home. We added oil and it ran it for a few minutes, let it sit for several hours, then started it again. Sounded better but not great. Drove it a very short distance and accelerating did sound good, and we were going very slow. Pulled into driveway. We noticed no leak or dripping but found oil in all wheel wells and on the outer rim of tires. Did she just mess up her engine really badly?

1 Reply

SQM

MECHANIC
6,383 POSTS

Hello,

Generally speaking, driving without oil or very little oil can permanently damage the engine. As it will create hot spots in the engine due to friction. The engine can even seize up due to excessive friction and heat.

Your fist step would be to find where the leak is coming from. After the leak is taken care of then you can add oil and try some engine oil additives to see if that helps.

Take a look at this guide, it covers the typical oil leaks:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-is-leaking-oil

Now if there is permanent damage to components it will likely need rebuilding or replacement. This type of damage will lead to noisy engines and other issues.

I have seen oil leaking out due to having a loose oil filter or drain plug after an oil change, so might want to check the filter.

Let me know what you find or if you have any questions.
Thank you.