Baywatch

Ok ill give the basic story of what happened to my car

I was doing about 110 -120 and the car stalled. I tried to start it with the key and it wouldnt, so I put it in 6th and released the cluch and it kicked back on. I slowed down to about 60 for a few min with no issues, so I did about 80 or so the last half hour of my trip home.

In the morning the oil light was on so got some gas and put some oil in. I continued to drive to work in semi-traffic. I was doing about 60 and it stalled on me again, so i did the same thing, put it in gear and started it back up. Shortly after I was getting a huge loss of power but was still able to drive it. then i started getting a flashing check eng light. the oil light was also on at this time. I decided to get off the highway. I stoped at the end of the ramp and thats where it stalled again. I was unable to start it back up this time.

When the tow truck arrived i was able to start it but it had barely any power, i couldnt even drive it up the flatbed.



SOooooooooooooo now its at the dealership and they are saying that it had 0 engine oil. I had actually lost the engine cap sometime last week and have not replaced it yet. basically they are telling me that because the cap wasnt on they are not going to honor the warrantee.


what do you guys think i should do?

Mazurfer

Even though it's only third down.................I recommend punting!

You were doing 110-120 without an oil cap? Did I read that right?


Sorry, I know this didn't help........but you are probably screwed at this point...from what I read.

Baywatch

there was no engine oil on the inside of the hood.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

If you don't punt, this is what will happen next down:

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

wow, a buck twenty with no oil cap is probably not all that wise.

Was your car leaking oil? How'd you 'lose' the oil cap? Did you change your own oil?
IF the car had ZERO oil, then it had to have gone SOMEWHERE. There's only 2 options here:
1) it went back up and came out due to no cap in place. (you say there's no evidence of this0
2) it leaked out from the bottom of the car either because the drail plug isn't secure or the oil filter was loose?


This probably isn't going to end well for you

Baywatch

also forgot to add t hey are reporting error code po300, and i asked the tech about the enging pressure test and he said it was low, but couldnt give me an exact figure.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

I don't see a po300.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/rx-8-technical-info-cel-codes-pcm-pin-list-collision-guide-26291/

Baywatch

just because they say it didnt have oil doesnt mean that it actually didnt have oil,

i dont really know could it be burning oil?

and if you read my post i put oil in after i was doing 120, the light was on and i put in 2 bottles that morn.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

yeah, either a major oil leak or the dealership is B.S.'ing you.

Mazurfer

Po300 is a random misfire....see

http://smrmicro.com/rx8servicemanual/

Chapter 4, page 12 and then page 143.

Baywatch

sorry p0300

P0300 Random misfire detected Flash/ON 1 or 2 Misfire ´ (See DTC
P0300 )


i searched on t his and what i saw was stuff only related to ignition.


basically what i want to know is if engine cap being off could actually be the cause of this failure. And if it is can i do some fighting and get it replaced anyway. I have been searching and i see some recalls for people who have lost power, which is actually what is happening to me. The engine is starting now and your able to move it around. I actually drove it into the parking spot at the dealership

Mazurfer

Tough call.....when you took it in, did you mention that you haven't had an oil cap for over a week?
I think you will have a tough case if you said anything at all and also that they know there was no oil in the car(or very little) when they looked.
I am shocked that you didn't find any under the hood as Jedi says, so how about on the egine itself or near the oil filter?
When was the last time you did an oil change? Could someone(or you) not have tightened down the drain plug or filter?


In terms of the po300
Yes, it could have caused this failure, it's not just ignition related..........see my post or reply above.

Go to page 143 of that same chapter(#4) that you may be looking at.

http://smrmicro.com/rx8servicemanual/

Baywatch

ok let me ask another semi-stupid question

lets say that there actually was no oil in the engine, wouldnt some other lights come on? engine temp and oil pressure gagues?

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

oil pressure gauge is a 'dummy gauge'. It always goes to the EXACT same spot if there's oil pressure. (any at all)

Low oil light would come on.

xsnipersgox

wat the hell is going on? i didn't read that you don't have oil cap anywhere, then i see gas...

if there is no oil in ur engine, ur engine will seize up (aka wielding itself together) in matter of minutes.

if u were driving with ur gas tank near empty at 120, you could be running out of fuel, someone also said to me that there is a shutoff of ignition/fuel >120 when ur low.

Mazurfer

One might think it would eventually drop to zero in this case, but it might be really quick and insignificant at that point.....right?
Oil light will be the very first sign I would imagine.
Temp light just monitors coolant temp not oil or engine temp.

staticlag

Theoretically the oil pressure gauge would be down.

Leaving the cap off while driving at speed may squirt oil out the engine. On rotaries its different than in a valve cover.

The car does burn oil by design and needs to be checked on a regular basis, every 3rd fillup or so.

xsnipersgox

i really don't think having the cap on or off will cause u to have dramatic lost of oil. it already has a built in breather connection to the intake. check the intake box and see how much oil is in it. if u had 0 oil like i said, ur engine would be welded dead.

Baywatch

it runs, just has no power

Baywatch

i did the oil change and its alittle overdue so im pretty sure its not loose filter or plug. Could it actually burn that much oil?

Mazurfer

Car sounds like it's in limp mode(that's a safety feature). It's good that it starts and runs, so maybe it's not as catastophic as it first sounded.
It would be hard for it to use that much oil, but not totally impossible given the speeds you are driving. This would all depend on the amount of time you last filled it up with oil. According to your first post...............the morning you put gas and oil in it(after the first problem), you lost two quarts real quickly. That's what really bothers me.
If there truly is no oil anywhere on the engine or in the bay, then it almost has to be that drain plug. They can leak...especially if the washer wasn't changed.
I tend to doubt you could have that much oil up in the intake, but....you never know.

Sea Ray

From the way it sounds like you drive it, yes it could really burn that much oil I'm afraid.

I check mine every other fill up, and add maybe 1/2 quart total in between oil changes at 3k miles. But I drive normal, what ever that is anymore.

Old Rotor

Yes it could burn that much oil. You said it was a little over due for a oil change. So is that 5K or 7.5K since the oil was changed? The Rotary will burn in most cases with average driving a quart every 1 to 2 thousands miles. If it is driven hard(120 MPH say!) it will burn twice as much or more! So in 5K hard driven miles it could be way under the bottom of the dip stick and the engine could be toast. You do know that the Rotary engine is oil injected and has to be added to every so often don't you?

Baywatch

old rotor : if you read up youll see i put oil in that morning, drove 20 min and the dealership is saying i had 0 oil in the engine. so thats like what 4-6 qts in 20 miles?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

at this point it's irrelevant; you took an engine issue to the dealer without an oil cap in place

they'll use any excuse possible and you handed them one on a silver platter with a chocolate mint on the side ...