pdpsihavok

Hi guys , im new to the forum. i had my s2000 for about a year now. I always lurked but never joined until now. The other day i was driving then i drove over a speed bump (low speed) and saw that my oil light flashed on. It was on for like 3 sec then disappeared. I panicked and went to a gas station to put in about half a bottle of oil then drove home and left it there. My car had always made a ticking sound when next to walls and other cars so i assumed it was just my coils , vavles or TCT. but when i put in that hlaf bottle of oil, the sound went away which made me think, i was definitely driving on low oil for a while.

Today, i started my engine and no oil light came on. sounded normal. I then went to take off the vtec solenoid to see if there was any metals in filter and there wasnt. I checked the oil dipstick but i couldnt see any oil at all. Should i be worried? I'm planning to do my valve adjustment , replacing all the valve gasket along with oil change tomrrow.

pdpsihavok

I'm sorry i dont mean to sound like rude or anything.. im just panicking right now... any help would be greatly appreciated !!

zeroptzero

no sense worrying about it. Many times the damage doesn't show up until later down the road, unexpectedly. Sometimes you can get lucky and get away with it once or twice, it depends mainly on how hard you were driving your car with low oil. If you weren't at high rpms and you weren't cornering hard you might be okay.

Don't let it get that low again, check your oil frequently and make sure you understand how our dipstick can read differently on the two different sides. Also, read the dipstick after pulling it out, cleaning it off and reinserting it into the engine, don't go by the first reading.

windhund116

You sure the oil light stayed on for 3 seconds? I know when something like that happens time slows down, such that 1 second seems like an eternity. Anyhow, I'd change the oil & filter. Keep track of how much the engine is burning. If it is not using any more that usual, don't worry about it. Think of it as one life lost (out of nine).

pdpsihavok

Thanks guys for the quick replies... i shouldve knew these high revving engines would lose oil this fast... i really appreciate the advices and will be checking the oil level frequently now

pdpsihavok

oh yeah trust me... it felt like an eternity when that thing came on...

AP1Driver

Yeah..... This car doesn't have 9 lives on low oil, unfortunately. He'll be lucky to get by with one...

Chuck S

The oil pressure light should never light. There's a problem if it does. Even if it blinks. Fine and fix the problem. 1/2 quart low on the dip stick should not light the light.

How low was the oil? Did you check or just dump 1/2 quart in there? The dip stick can be hard to read so look at both sides. If the oil is in range on the stick it's fine.

-- Chuck

pdpsihavok

I just dumped 1/2 quart in there when i first saw it. then the light never came back again, however when i went to ccheck the oil level after it sat overnight, i couldnt see the oil at all lol but when i started it, it was fine...

zeroptzero

The real name of the light is the engine death light.

If you can't see the oil mark on the dipstick after putting in 1/2 quart, you are at least 2.5 quarts low at that point, and anywhere up to 5 quarts low.

If it was my car I'd have the used oil analyzed when you go to dump it in the near future, see if it has any abnormal metal and bearing wear in the sample. Blackstone labs is one lab that you can use.