Missing oil?

[XXBULLETSXX]

Ok, I know this is bad but I'll be honest. I haven't checked my oil since I last changed it. I put in 5w30 Mobile One.
While leaving work yesterday I pulled out of the parking lot and noticed my oil pressure gauge was bottomed out. I quickly pulled over and checked my oil. My dip stick read I had no oil, sort of. The thing that confused me was that I have no oil on the floor of my garage nor is there any in my parking spot at work??? I haven't noticed any an smoke out of that tail pipes when I start it up (morning, noon, or evening). Finally I haven't noticed any oil residue in the tail pipes?

SO WHERE DID IT GO???? This has really got me worried. Please help.

 

[the98stang]

Ok, I know this is bad but I'll be honest. I haven't checked my oil since I last changed it. I put in 5w30 Mobile One.
While leaving work yesterday I pulled out of the parking lot and noticed my oil pressure gauge was bottomed out. I quickly pulled over and checked my oil. My dip stick read I had no oil, sort of. The thing that confused me was that I have no oil on the floor of my garage nor is there any in my parking spot at work??? I haven't noticed any an smoke out of that tail pipes when I start it up (morning, noon, or evening). Finally I haven't noticed any oil residue in the tail pipes?

SO WHERE DID IT GO???? This has really got me worried. Please help.

Holy sh1t man...how could you drive your car with no oil in it ?! How low is the oil reading? You need to get a compression test done ASAP to make sure your engine is till good. DO NOT DRIVE THE CAR!

How many miles are on the car BTW?

 

[sgarlic]

What do you mean it said you had no oil, sort of?

I would do the following:

Bring an oil catch can to wherever the car is parked, remove the drain plug, and see how much comes out. If it's a bunch, I would suspect the oil sending unit took a crap.

If it's none, I'd check underneath the car for obvious signs of leaking, around your entire engine, around the oil pan, around the drain plug, check the filter tightness, and the filter housing for leaks.

If you had zero oil pressure you'd probably hear some valve clank or knocking, and probably would've heard the noise before you noticed the gauge at zero.

 

[Mike97gt]

ok before you panic, your presure guage could have went south on you and you would only have to be a couple of quarts low to have no reading on the stick.

add oil and see how much you have to add to get a normal reading. then if you still ahve no presure, it's the sending unit for the presure guage. very common.

BTW if it had no oil presure you would hear it clacking away, even before the bearings spun.

 

[the98stang]

ok before you panic, your presure guage could have went south on you and you would only have to be a couple of quarts low to have no reading on the stick.

add oil and see how much you have to add to get a normal reading. then if you still ahve no presure, it's the sending unit for the presure guage. very common.

BTW if it had no oil presure you would hear it clacking away, even before the bearings spun.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but running an engine a couple courts lower than average is NOT good. That would be equivolant to our body losing a sh1t load of blood...

 

[DisposableHero]

yeah just do what the other posts say.. see how much oil comes out when you empty it...

my oil gauge has gone crazy a few times going to zero then jumping up and back down to zero.. i got freaked out too and let the car sit for a few minutes then restarted it and it was all good

 

[DropTopPony]

I took it! The Sopranos were coming on and i needed to slick my hair back to get in the mood and your car was the first i ran into. Sorry

 

[XXBULLETSXX]

What do you mean it said you had no oil, sort of?

Well I had a hard time getting a good reading on the dip stick because I kept getting lines of oil that were all over the dip stick. BTW, the engine was off like it should be, but it was like checking your oil with the engine running?

But when I first started it up, like always I checked my gauges and everything looked fine. But 60 seconds after I pulled out of the parking lot I noticed my oil pressure gauge bottom out. When I saw that I crapped my pants and pulled over into a gas station. I check the oil there and that's where I got the funny reading (no solid line of oil at the bottom of the dip stick).
So I decided to risk it and drive about 300 yards (lucky) to an Advance Auto parts and buy some more Mobile One. I did that because I heard that synthetic and regular oil don't mix or something like that which could be just the same as no oil???
I added a half a quart of oil at a time until it started to show up on th dip stick (2 quarts). When I left Advance my dip stick looked like I had too much oil. So I drove it home and checked it in the morning and it then said I was a half quart low. I drove it to work and check it again at lunch, still a half quart low.
After work I added a half quart and drove home. Got home and later that night I checked it again and it seemed to be right on the money.

All this time I have seen no oil on the ground, or any signs of oil leaking from the engine. I have from time to time smelt burning oil but I've always thought it was someone elses car. I wiped the inside of my tail pipes and no oil rez.

I think I'll follow the advise mentioned above and do a compression check this weekend. Let me know if you think it might be something else that I'm missing. I'm scared out of my mind that I may have blown a ring and I'm starting to wonder how much it would be to swap everthing out for all forged internals, Yikes $$$$. has anyone ever done a Cobra motor swap?

 

[the98stang]

Well I had a hard time getting a good reading on the dip stick because I kept getting lines of oil that were all over the dip stick. BTW, the engine was off like it should be, but it was like checking your oil with the engine running?

But when I first started it up, like always I checked my gauges and everything looked fine. But 60 seconds after I pulled out of the parking lot I noticed my oil pressure gauge bottom out. When I saw that I crapped my pants and pulled over into a gas station. I check the oil there and that's where I got the funny reading (no solid line of oil at the bottom of the dip stick).
So I decided to risk it and drive about 300 yards (lucky) to an Advance Auto parts and buy some more Mobile One. I did that because I heard that synthetic and regular oil don't mix or something like that which could be just the same as no oil???
I added a half a quart of oil at a time until it started to show up on th dip stick (2 quarts). When I left Advance my dip stick looked like I had too much oil. So I drove it home and checked it in the morning and it then said I was a half quart low. I drove it to work and check it again at lunch, still a half quart low.
After work I added a half quart and drove home. Got home and later that night I checked it again and it seemed to be right on the money.

All this time I have seen no oil on the ground, or any signs of oil leaking from the engine. I have from time to time smelt burning oil but I've always thought it was someone elses car. I wiped the inside of my tail pipes and no oil rez.

I think I'll follow the advise mentioned above and do a compression check this weekend. Let me know if you think it might be something else that I'm missing. I'm scared out of my mind that I may have blown a ring and I'm starting to wonder how much it would be to swap everthing out for all forged internals, Yikes $$$$. has anyone ever done a Cobra motor swap?

You could also drain the pan and see what the oil looks like. If it has metal shavings, you most likely spun a bearing. If It looks clean and your compression test goes good, I'd say the oil sending unit took a sh1t.

 

[stng]

Well if it helps my car has never leaked a drop of oil, but I still use about a quart between oil changes. I talked to the oil change place guy who owns it as he used to be an ASE mechanic and he told me that it is much more common to use/burn synthetic than regular oil, and that I am not the first person who has mentioned it. He also said that it depends on how you drive the car eg. if you are constantly getting on it you will use some. I went through this about six months ago, did the whole compression test and all 8 were within 10 lbs of one another...

 

[ACSPONY]

Check for oil seepage around the valve covers too.

 

[SLY GT]

bad pcv?

 

[Mike97gt]

I work on fords for a living and trust me those sending units "drop off" all the time sometimes they read 0 when cold. somtimes they drop off then come back.

it's a crappy sending unit that feads a idiot guage. in case you have not noticed. the presure is on or off it never changes.. oil presure can be as low as 10 psi at idle and as high as 60 psi under load or when the engine is cold. ford uses the idiot guage to cut down on idiots bringing the car in when they see the presure drop at idle.

that oil presure guage droped becuase the sender went out on you. they can go out intermintently.

and if you were more than 3000 miles since your oil change then i would not be shocked to see you 2 quarts low. I think you should monitor you oil useage and get a real oil presure guage.