Razz1

Yes, no damage done.

I was going to say 1 1/2 quart.

That's what the oil light is for. To tell you it's low.

This has happened to other people and the dealer told me it's no big deal.

guitarjunkie28

cut your oil filter open and see if there's any metal in it.

khoney

I'll open myself up to some criticism in the interest of discussing the oil light on different vehicles. The oil light came on in my wife's Isuzu Trooper (who cares about her car, anyway? :D). I sh*t you not, I put in 3.5 quarts. Now that to me seems like a late warning system.

JM1FE

Oil LEVEL vs. oil PRESSURE.

Most cars (including the Trooper) have an oil pressure light. If oil's low enough for the oil pressure light to come on, it's way too low and you have a high probability of damage. It's not intended to say "hey, add oil!", it's intended to say "hey, you're screwed!".

Some cars (including the RX-8 and my VW GTI) have both an oil pressure and a separate oil level light. The low oil level light should give you enough margin to add oil with no worries about damage.

RotaMotion

I definitely agree the light you saw was a low oil Level light, so you're okay. Also, if your oil pressure gauge (it's actually just an on/off switch that looks like gauge--idiot gauge--don't know what PSI it turns on/off) never moved you still had oil pressure and are okay.

Okay, so this whole discussion got me thinking. The little red light that looks like an dripping tea kettle is the low oil level light, but where is the low oil pressure light mentioned in the quote. What does it look like? I couldn't find anything in my owner’s manual.

Also, since we own cars that like to run out of oil. What happens when the pressure falls off. Does the redline Beep go off to get our attention if we don't have to be looking at the idiot gauge?

Nubo

the halfway point on the dispstick is really only about 1/2 quart low, so I agree you were 2 quarts low. The low mark represents about 1.8 quarts. So you were just a bit below the low mark. Probably not cause for alarm.

So now you know you have to check oil occasionally.

Now, go read the OTHER parts of the manual...

guitarjunkie28

well look on the bright side:

if you smoked the bearings, you can always have me rebuild and port it :D

burnoutking999

I wonder how much the shipping on that would be, ouch

guitarjunkie28

luckily, the renesis weighs less than its predecessor

bxb40

To the original thread starter: if you are still concerned with engine damage, have the dealer check the engine compression. That will tell you if seals and gaskets are OK or if you scratched your chambers due to low oil.
But my guess is that you are OK even if you got to the lowest oil level allowed.

TCReedy1

What a lot of flurry and verbage! We design and manufacture engines and we put engine oil level warning lights into our engines. Like all OEM manufacturers we design our low oil lights to operate just before any sort of critical point is reached. In otherwords, when the light comes on you should really stop and top off but in your case, there would definitely have been enough oil in the engine to keep the essential bits such as main bearings lubricated. Now, if you`d decided to thrash the car for another 1000 miles it could have caused damage. In our experience, engines are a bit tougher than you think. Did you keep an eye on the oil pressure gauge on your dashboard...because so long as it reads a little above the center mark when the engine is running, you have essential oil pressure and your engine is lubricating itself happily. Upon topping off your oil to the correct level, did all the little noises disappear? If so, you are very unlikely to have caused a problem. If you are still in doubt, take car to dealer and ask them to check a couple of things; have an oil pressure check done at idle, 2000 rpm and 8000 rpm. Then do a compression check to see how the rotor tip seals are doing. If oil pressure and cylinder compression are within spec, go home, poor a long cool drink and tell yourself to keep a better check on your oil level.

If either is below spec....you have caused damage which needs to be fixed.

Good luck

Tom

guitarjunkie28

i very seriously doubt anything but the e-shaft and bearings would be damaged in this case--and that's if anything at all.

i've seen low compression as a result of the bearings going out (the rotors slopped all over the place), but on disassembling the engine, no damage to the apex seals was present.