No oil, did i damage my engine severley?
 

**please do not make fun of my English since Korean is my first language**
**Advices on my syntax are welcome :)**

I know I'm a dumbass. however
This is my first rotary
and I never owned a car that I needed to add oil beteen oil changes before
so here is my concern
for weeks I had had strange problems
like weird engine sound(loud and not smooth), rough idle, hard start..etc
yester day I was on highway (at least 20 miles away from my house)
and suddenly oil light came on; disappeared 20 sec later
I know I should have driven slowly when there is no oil but
stupidly, I became anxious that I drove it to my house as fast as I could
After I got home, I checked oil, and I got shocked.
My car did not have oil at all!!!
I mean no oil! (I carefully checked several times, but no oil...)
I added oil immediately to half point between low and high marks on dipstick.
I started car and drove it few miles to see if i damaged something
surprisingly, all the problems that I was having were gone
engine got its beautiful voice back (love it!!)
no rough idle...
still I think I drove my car too long without oil
did I damage my engine severley?
how come oil light appeared when I had no oil at all?

No oil....
 

You probably didn't have "no oil", most cars have a pressure light, when it comes on, you have no oil pressure = no oil left. What you saw was likely the oil LEVEL light, when it comes on you are really LOW oil level, but still have some left.

How many jugs of oil did you have to put in, to make it mid-way on the stick?
The RX-8 has about 8 quarts total.

S

no oil, and driving as fast as you could probably did not help the engine one bit. Nothing like high revving the rotary with no oil!

I used to live in Korea :)

As long as it runs okay now, there's not much you can do. Just keep the oil topped off, and keep driving.

Maybe someday we will ended up not putting oil at all lol

8 quarts? Don't you mean ~3.7 US quarts?

:eek: Your Right, You Are A Dumbass!!!

Not going to comment on the oil thing since I've had a bit of the bad luck with advice today :o
Anyway, for being worried about your English, you seem to speak it a lot better than most highschoolers and plenty of college students. I'd say you have nothing to worry about on the language front.

no he does not mean that. 3.7 quarts is the approximate amount that is changed during an oil change . However the car holds close to 8 quarts with alot of it being in your oil coolers and the various lines.

The twin-oil cooler MT6 US version has ~7qt capacity. 3.7 qts is the approx oil change amount, as half is left in the system during a normal oil change (unless you tilt the hell out of it : ).

i'm sure you have scuffed up the rotor chambers pretty good. maybe not enough to destroy the motor. can't really say anything at this point. just be aware of any funny noises or changes in performance. and you can pretty much believe your warranty is voided if you do have engine problems later on.

jo-shim-hae!!!!!

i'd go get it checked out at a dealership if i were you, even if all the noises and problems seem to be gone... if there is any damage, they could fix it before it gets worse? and like DANomite said, getting it checked may help with warranty problems.

Did you buy the car brand new? If so, I would take it to the dealer you got it from, and explain what happend.

Pretty sh1tty that the dealer told you nothing about this!! Each dealer (3) that I visited told me the engine had some quirks. Until I bought the car, none were very specific about the quirks BUT they all DID mention that you need to top off the oil pretty often. So i think it's pretty bad on the dealer's part, not to warn you about those things!!

Did they tell you not to always let the engine warm up before shutting it off too?

Either your dealer was pewpy, or the ones I went to were just really cool about letting you know that stuff.

Good luck with it! BTW your english is great, I agree, better than a lot of "english as a first language" students!

Poor guy probably did not know about the Rotaries thirst...I fear he really messed up his engine...poor guy...poor 8...poor Renesis...

There isn't anything a dealer could 'check out' without removing the engine.

His best bet is to make sure he's got oil NOW...and keep the oil in there :)

Your English is much better than our Korean, so don't apologise. :)

Check the oil every time you buy gas
Add oil as necessary to keep it near the top line on the dipstick
Not halfway between
Not above the top line either
Never below the bottom line

I would drive another 1-200km and then have the oil changed
Have it changed again after another 5000 km or so

Keep track of your oil consumption from here forward
If you use more than 1 liter every 2,000km or so then your engine may be damaged
Seals may be ruined and/or engine chambers scored
Either one would be VERY expensive to fix, especially the second

NEVER drive ANY vehicle after the oil light comes on
Pull over to a safe place immediately and STOP the engine
Do not start the engine again until the oil level is correct
You are very lucky your engine still runs at all

P.S. READ your owner's manual, it would have warned you about all this. Not reading your manual is what made you a dumbass. ;)

There is nothing you can do about it now. Keep adding oil as needed. If you did serious damage you'll know soon enough, I expect.

Curious, How does this system handle viscocity breakdown of the oil? It sounds like that you will probably have a couple of the original quarts of oil floating around in the car throughout its life. Is there a total system replacement recommendation? I didn't see this addresses in the owners manual.

The remainder just ends up getting diluted every change... probably not a big deal, but that's the reason I change my oil every 2500-3000 miles, instead of the Mazda recommended interval (5k-7.5k). You could pump it out and flush the system if you really wanted I suppose, but I'd imagine you'd want to make sure you pumped it back in to the lines and coolers so there wasn't 3+ quarts of air in the system.


To the thread starter - I would recommend sending a sample of whatever oil you have in your system to get analyzed by a lab- I use Blackstone labs in indiana myself. For $20 they'll give you a breakdown of your oil and can tell you if there are particles of the apex seals, side seals or housing floating around... basically check out the health of your motor without taking out.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

To the thread starter - I would recommend sending a sample of whatever oil you have in your system to get analyzed by a lab- I use Blackstone labs in indiana myself. For $20 they'll give you a breakdown of your oil and can tell you if there are particles of the apex seals, side seals or housing floating around... basically check out the health of your motor without taking out.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/[/QUOTE]

If it comes back positive, go trade your car in as soon as possible.

The rotary uses oil to cool the rotors when driving hard. Since you drove it hard they could have overheated which can damage the "O" rings in the oil seals on the rotors. Or thermal expansion will cause the rotor to rub on the steel housings hard enough to damage them. In both cases your problem will be REAL HIGH OIL consumption. The gas seals and rotor housing are usually not damaged, so the engine will run OK.

If the low oil light was operating properly you may be OK and no damage.

Pot = Kettle

I put quart and half and it went up to middle point of dipstick...
another question
are dealerships going to void my warrenty?
can't i say low oil light wasn't properly working?

No worries....
 

A quart and a half low is no biggie, don't worry.

...but no need to mention anything to the dealer that could be held against you - there is nothing you or they can do about it, so let it go. You put oil in when the level light came on, you are OK.

S

You were about 2 quarts low - you want to fill it to the top line of the dipstick, and add whenever it gets halfway down. Actually, I just add a few ounces weekly - every Friday afternoon, I go out and wash my car (or take it to the wash), then clean the glass, check and correct the tire pressures, and check all the fluid levels, including the oil. About every 2 weeks, I need to add about 2 ounces (1/8th of a bottle) thus keeping the oil always at the full line.

I doubt you damaged it - the "off sound" might have been the oil pump cavitating a bit (sucking air).

Change your oil and filter IMMEDIATELY though - if you did any wear or damage on it, getting the oil out for fresh will help the situation by getting rid of any offending dirt or suspended metal bits.

Then, I'd change it again in another 1000 miles - just to be sure.

And check it at least weekly from here on out.

Thank you so much guys
I just drove my car for few miles and no trouble so far
finally i can have some sleep..:)