Hi
My girlfriend has a 2005 350z. After being away for a week, she drove the car yesterday only to have it overheat. She stopped the car as soon as she noticed and got towed to a garage where she and the tow truck driver had a look. Coolant level was fine but she had to put in 3 litres of oil..... I know.... I was none to happy about this either.

My question is what should she do about this now? The tow truck driver said, have it towed and get it serviced, as he noticed one of the fans intermittently turning. He said not to tell the servicing garage that it had been run that low on oil, as they will charge through the roof. Which I agree, its basically a stupidity levy.

Given there is a good chance she has done some sort of damage to the engine, how would you recommend dealing with it? I feel the garage should know so they know what to look for, but am I just opening her up for an endless bill...

Thanks,
Tony

 

My only worry is where did the 3 quarts of oil go to begin with? theres either lack of oil change and oil was slowly consumed which is common on DE's from what i hear or theres a major leak which the shop will quickly see and know what happened.

 

If the engine is running OK after the oil was added, it's probably going to be OK. I'd change the oil and filter to be on the safe side, especially if it's been a while since it was serviced. Check for obvious oil leaks, and see what's going on with the fan that runs intermittently.

If it's not running OK and making strange noises, it's gonna be expensive.

 

Thanks for your responses. Thermofan is with an Auto Electrician being fixed at the moment. Will be serviced as soon as we get it back. Fingers crossed for no damage... As for oil leaks, never a trace on the garage floor, but I'll be checking it out when it gets back.
Thanks again,
Tony

 

If there are no visible leaks and the oil was that low, then she might have bad piston rings. Instead of scavenging oil back to the block, the rings are allowing the oil to enter the combustion chamber, thus burning oil with the fuel.

 

A bad PCV valve can also cause high oil consumption, and it's a lot less expensive to fix.

 

So, how did this turn out? Was the engine OK?

 

Bumping this old thread, but I'm curious how it turned out.

Painful story: Turns out in my 350Z I was down to 1 litre of oil. Damn. I just pulled it out from winter storage and now I'm wondering if there's a leak. I'll have to keep an eye on it. The details are it was last changed in June 7th 2012, driven until November 22nd 2012, and put away for 4.5 months and taken out April 8th, 2013. So I've had it out for two weeks and put it in the shop yesterday. Two weeks maybe on super low oil.

Stupid of me not to check the oil after taking it out. At least I didn't drive it far, and never drove it hard while wearing off the fuel stabilizer and it never overheated once.

Lesson learned.

 

Did you check the oil level before you put it away last fall? Having that low a volume of oil virtually guarantees the bearings and drive chain will suffer additional wear.

 

I did not check the oil level before I put it away. I'm not sure if the oil was lost during the 4.5 months storage, or gradually over the 5 months before storage. I only drove the owned and drove the car for 2.5 months before storage, to which I *think* I checked the oil. I cannot remember doing so, but I cannot see myself not checking it with it being a new car. I had a garage looked over the entire car, even put it up on a lift, days before purchasing it. So it's probably safe to say that the oil was ok 2.5 months before storage. It could be that it was not checked since.

I'll be checking it all the time now. Especially now that I know whatever happened it is being lost at a rate far too great.

Best case scenario is that the car was driven in this state for 2 weeks (not hard). Worst case it was driven in this state for 3 months, but not likely.

 

The oil would not have been lost during storage.

Regardless of who you buy your car from, always change the oil/fluids as soon as you get it - don't just check the levels, actually change everything. It's a minor cost that can prevent a huge amount of damage.

 

It could have been consuming or low on oil before you bought it.

 

This is great advice. I know that even changing fluids that are not usually changed are a good thing to do (radiator, etc.), because then you know they're clean, and have a starting point to measure from.

I've only changed my oil so far. I should follow this advice and change everything.