Running on one quart of oil

I had the clutch replaced on my 2009 2.5i in December (nothing faulty with the clutch, I just foolishly got stuck in the mud at about 10k miles), and then in February went to the same dealership to get a new key programmed. Now, the car has about 29k miles. The last time I personally checked the oil level was probably last fall, and the ensuing incident should be a reminder to all that this isn't frequent enough. No other work was done on the car in the past year.

Last week the oil pressure light briefly lit up, for less than a second, while braking. At the next station, the oil dipstick had a mere trace of oil on the sides of it from being splashed up. After adding one quart of 5W-30, the stick was bone dry. Shocked and in disbelief, I added another quart and saw the very bottom of the stick marked. A third quart got it to the fill line. The car was running for at least weeks if not months and maybe up to a thousand miles on about one quart of oil out of a 4.2 quart capacity. No oil was found leaking out of the car in its usual parking spot.

My next step will be to call the dealership and verify the dates, the mileage, and the work performed. Do they keep records of fluid levels when service is performed? More importantly, how bad was this for the engine? Is there any thing I need to do to the car?

errr.yeah..... keep it filled up and consider yourself lucky it survived.....may still make it to 100K after all that... may.

^

Exactly. Lucky Lucky Lucky

I had the clutch replaced on my 2009 2.5i in December (nothing faulty with the clutch, I just foolishly got stuck in the mud at about 10k miles), and then in February went to the same dealership to get a new key programmed. Now, the car has about 29k miles. The last time I personally checked the oil level was probably last fall, and the ensuing incident should be a reminder to all that this isn't frequent enough. No other work was done on the car in the past year.

 

Last week the oil pressure light briefly lit up, for less than a second, while braking. At the next station, the oil dipstick had a mere trace of oil on the sides of it from being splashed up. After adding one quart of 5W-30, the stick was bone dry. Shocked and in disbelief, I added another quart and saw the very bottom of the stick marked. A third quart got it to the fill line. The car was running for at least weeks if not months and maybe up to a thousand miles on about one quart of oil out of a 4.2 quart capacity. No oil was found leaking out of the car in its usual parking spot.

 

My next step will be to call the dealership and verify the dates, the mileage, and the work performed. Do they keep records of fluid levels when service is performed? More importantly, how bad was this for the engine? Is there any thing I need to do to the car?

Uhm... welcome to the forums... you're off to a terrible start. Big of you to admit to this in your first post. If you don't go to church... now is the time to start... praying too. Dealerships do not keep record of fluid levels. Consider yourself lucky sir. I look under the hood at least once a month. 3 cars so almost every week. Glad to hear nothing has happened thus far.

Would used oil analysis be useful to discover engine damage in this case?

Edit: I definitely did get lucky; I haven't heard any strange noises or felt anything wrong so far. Will keep fingers crossed.

2.5i, you're probably fine. When was the last time you had the oil changed?

The dealer should have record of what maintenance was performed, it should be on any print-out they give you. They won't have a record of the levels, but they will indicate if they SHOULD have checked it.

On any print-out they give you there's usually an item for standard inspection. They typically inspect brake wear, fluid levels, etc. That almost certainly would've been done as part of the clutch work. They probably didn't check anything when they did key fob, sice that doesn't require opening the hood even.

oil change, plus filter and monitor. If you're anal get the analysis done to see if anything is damaged. The reality is there isn't much preventative you're going to be able to do if a bearing was ruined.

And these are the stories that make me never want to buy a used car again.

I had a stripped bolt on a block right from the factory. Not sure it matters. Human error is about 2%.