Hi, a while ago I was driving over a speed bump at low speed and the oil light came on and engine died I restarted the car and it cranked fine and I drove her home 5 mins down the road to my place to check the oil and found out it was very low and changed the oil which a litre probably drained out and found tiny metallic shavings in the oil and one piece which resembled a circluar metal washer but wasnt quite round. I dropped the sump and couldnt find any other metallic shavings in there. I put the sump back and put new oil in and the car seems to run ok no weird noises as far as I can hear and its been a few thousand kms since the incident.

My questions are below.

1. Did I catch the low oil just at the right time or have I done damage to the motor and a rebuild is inevitable?
2. Will a compression and leak down test give me an accurate picture of the engines health?
3. I hear rod bearings are the first things to go when running low oil in the s2k, how do I check if they are stuffed?

Note: my car is a 99 JDM ap1 I was running 5w30 semi synthetic at the time the oil light came on and my engine had done about 90,000kms. I'm now running valvoline 10w30 which doesnt seem to burn like the 5w30 did.


Any help would be appreciated!

 

There was damage. How much is the question. Compression test will tell you nothing. Check the oil for metal and have it tested if you want. I would check the bearing surfaces too. How low where you?

Wiggle the oil sensor wires just to check if it's loose, but I doubt that.

 

i was on the lowest point of the oil dipstick from memory

 

about how much quarts did you drain out? If you have any oil mark on your dipstick, even it's on the tip... you are not LOW LOW.
Low mark to Top mark is about a quart. When car shuts off and on, oil light illuminates. I'm not sure if you were confused by that.

 

If you stalled on the bump the oil light is no big deal. If you stalled because of low oil you're in trouble.

 

Metal shavings in oil is bad. I suggest do an oil analysis, i guess about $45 or so. Look for data on bronze, that's the stuff in the rod bearings. i doubt cylinder walls got scored, rod bearings are the thing to watch.

Do you mean you dropped the oil pan? You might want to investigate further where the piece came from, like take off the oil pump.

 

The car just stalled on the speed bump and the oil light was illuminated and i restarted her and it started and drove straight home to check the oil. I dropped the oil pan to check if there was an obvious signs of damage or blockage and couldnt find anything that stood out.

Is it easy to replace just the rod bearings if they are the culprit... does the whole motor have to come out and what do the bearings normally cost?

 

Was the light on before the stall or after? I don't think I'd catch it before, but if the car stalls a few lights will be illuminated.

 

i think the red oil light came on just moments before the stall. The car has never stalled on me before coasting in 2nd gear which I was in. maybe there was a momentary loss of oil pressure as the car went over the speed bump which cut the engine off?

 

Post a pic of the washer you drained out, can likely say what it is.

If you only drained out a liter, you were not showing anything on the stick. THREE quarts in the engine wont even show on the stick.

What you saw on the stick is a false reading from not checking BOTH SIDES of the stick. Learn to do so.

yes rod bearings are the first to go. If you have no knocking on dry-cold morning start-up or under load, you may be lucky.

Not sure why you stalled. This car has no safety that shuts the engine off due to low oil psi.