Drain plug left off from oil change, now the engine makes noise and keeps shutting off

LORENZO SALGADO

MEMBER
2017 HYUNDAI ELANTRA
2.0L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
41,200 MILES

Beginning:
I'll start with what happened first. Had someone do an oil change for me and about 2 weeks later while I was on the highway oil light was flashing while I was driving, and I pulled over to the nearest gas station and oil spewing under the car. Tried to get back home and car shut off immediately on the highway.

Present:
Towed it to a mechanic and showed me oil drain plug was missing and that's how I lost my oil. Drain plug has been replaced, along with a new oil filter again and oil and about 3 days later car shuts off again. Car will start, make a puttering screeching noise then stop immediately, oil light, battery light and engine light turned on, but no codes are found during the scan.

Is my engine shot or is there something else going on?

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
12,963 POSTS

Being it was driven without oil it is very possible the engine is bad; they generally don't last long without oil. However, if it is still starting and then shutting off it could be something else. Think you could shoot a video of it and upload it here for us to hear? As a test you might want to remove the accessory drive belt on the front and then see if it still does it, you could have something else like a bad alternator or A/C compressor that is causing a lot of belts drag and stalling it out. This might give you a few things to look at.
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-squeaking-noise