On my '96 Accord Coupe at least, not the Stook.

I was cruising along at anout 40 mph when the Engine Oil light started blinking. I was close to home and crippled it home. All the oil is out of the engine and the oil seems to be leaking out from between the crankshaft pulley and the engine block. That is the front seal right? What would cause my seal to fail? Car has 80,000 miles on it. Just old age or could something else cause a failure.

If I fill the engine back up with oil do you think it would be OK to ease it a few miles to a shop or should I call for a tow?

 

While a seal failure at 80k miles is probably unusual on a Honda, I'm sure it's not unheard of. I think I wold have the car towed.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TrojanHorse
[B]On my '96 Accord Coupe

 

Sorry that happened! Glad you were close to home and at least "crippled it home". Hope everything is alright; chance to hotrod the Accord engine on rebuild?

 

Definitly have it towed to minimize damages. I had similar problems on my civic. I had it fixed 3 times because the problem kept reoccurring. At the time I was at about the same mileage. My Civic was an '88 though. Best of luck to you getting it taken care of.

 

Never keep driving when the oil light is on. You will destroy your rings and the engine will have to be rebuilt (assuming it doesn't seize first). Pull over and call for a tow.

 

Two and half years ago, I had a similar experience w/ my '96 Accord. I was a several miles outside of Fallon, NV (desert, middle of nowhere) and my oil light came on. I pulled over, looked underneath a saw oil slowly dripping (a drop every few sec). I was in deep sh!t. Cell phone was out of range. I was on a deserted road (1-2 cars per day!). And it was nighttime. I took my chances (yeah I knew I may loose the car, but I didn't have any other options). I drove 10 mi and made it into Fallon where I stayed overnight. Got it towed the next morning to the shop, it turned out the oil filter was damaged and wasn't sealed correctly. I'll never forget that experience.

BTW, I still drive the same Accord (it's my beater) it now has 260,000+ mi (original engine). I lucked out! Hope things work out for you too.

 

It's all about your judgement on situation. Of course, you should not drive with oil lights on and should not drive with flat tires, but something I would not do is changing tire on shoulder of highway. This is the story I heard from a tow truck driver. On Route 80 in New Jersey at night, two friends were driving. The owner of the car was in passenger seat and his friend was driving and they had a flat tire. Friend pulled over to the shoulder to change tire and a 18 wheeler ran over the guy. The guy was killed instantly and in panic, owner of the car fled with flat tire. The guy's body was laying on the road until next day morning...

ruining car is bad but ruining your life is worst. what ever road repair you need, make sure you are safe first.

cheers,

 

Ok, off the sermon. I know that driving with no oil is a huge No-No but I was only about 2 miles from my house on a holiday week-end with no Service depts open. Plus the wife with me, so nobody to come pick me up. If I was by myself I would have pulled over and left it there.

Called a tow for tomorrow. Does $225 + parts sound like a good ballpark repair figure? Anyone?

 

See the dealer. This was a known problem on Accords for several years, Honda may do it in good faith. There is no reason the seal should fail EVER, let alone under 200k miles. Again, this was a KNOWN problem, covered by warranty or at least TSB.

$225 sounds damn good, this requires removal of all the belts and timing belts, I'd suspect a bill closer to $600. Change the timing belt and water pump unless you already just did, they are cheap and labor will be included in the seal work. You don't want to have that done again.