The scariest thing that can happen to a driver is when their car runs out of oil. Knowing this feeling from personal experience, it does bring the question to mind. What happens if my car runs out of oil? Here is what I found with my search on this topic.
Your engine is filled with moving metal parts, and this movement causes friction and friction causes heat. The engine oil in your engine cools and lubricates moving parts. While this oil also dissipates the heat that is being made from friction. In the case that you have no oil in the engine, the temperature will increase until the engines moving parts either break or seize due to the heat and friction.
Well, that answers that question, but I want to know more so we can better understand this and how we can prevent it.
Prevent yourself from being stranded on the highway with an overheated vehicle. Here’s my article on How often should I replace my car’s thermostat?
Why would my car run out of oil?
There is always the chance of running out of oil in your engine. The time that this happened to me was an accident and a life lesson. My car hydroplaned and ran off the road. When the vehicle went off the road, it hit something that tore a gash in my engine oil pan.
I did not know this happened, so I kept driving every day like normal. Until I was supposed to meet up with some friends. Because lousy stuff always happens when you have plans. I was driving down the road when I heard a loud clang, and the car died.
I tried again and again to start it, but nothing happened, I pushed the car back to my house to check it out further, then I noticed that the engine locked itself up and it was no good. As I said, this happened as an accident, but this does show that this can happen anywhere to anyone. So to answer the question of why would my car run out of oil. In this situation, it was because of the vehicle hitting something.
You also need to make sure that you are checking your oil when you stop for fuel. This will give you the chance to do a quick lube check on your vehicle to make sure you are all topped up. In the cars that are burning oil or losing it quicker than usual when you need to make sure you are checking your oil level at every fuel up.
On average though there are three ways your oil level can change in your vehicle. You can lose oil by there is a hole in your head gasket, and the oil is going into the coolant system. You can leak oil out of the engine caused by a hole in a hose or a torn gasket.
Then you can burn oil by your piston rings being worn, and the oil seeps past the piston and into the combustion chamber to be burned off.
If all these things are great in your car and your oil is staying level, then you have an excellent oil system and your engine is doing what it supposed to. Burning and losing oil is very common in older vehicles because of the normal wear and tear of that vehicle.
This usually happens around 10-12 years old you can see some of these problems starting to increase with your vehicle. Dirty oil is also bad for your car, due to the particles that are filtered out by your oil filter. So make sure that you are changing your oil and oil filter at the proper time as instructed by the manufacturer’s recommendations.
It is always better to be safe than sorry. Heres my article on 5 Simple Ways to Protect your Car in Hurricane Season.
Where would my car run out of oil?
As I said in my story, I was driving down the road, but you can run out of oil anywhere. It is up to you to make sure you take a trip or just driving your vehicle like normal that you have done a proper pre-trip inspection to prevent any surprises while driving.
This is when looking under your car for any leaks and checking your oil dipstick for the adequate level of oil would be in your best interest because let’s be honest, no one wants to break down in the middle of nowhere.
Have you ever looked into the advantages of spending more on your brake pads? Don’t worry, I have and what I found is here in my article.
Is it bad for my car to run out of oil?
YES, it is most definitely bad for a car to run out of oil. Due to the loss of oil, your engine is going to continue running as it should, but you will start to
hear metal on metal grinding until the engine seizes entirely.
The loss of engine oil increases the amount of engine wear during that timeframe. The engine wear can quickly lead into the vehicle’s engine seizing, so make sure to keep an eye out for that while you are driving in your car.
How can I prevent my car from running out of oil in the future?
We already covered a few different options to prevent the situation of running out of oil entirely. It mainly comes down to you, adding your engine oil checks to your scheduled preventive maintenance. All big problems start as small problems, and you have the chance to catch them when they are minor problems you need to be observant and take care of these repairs when they are small problems.
Think about it like this, if you caught a damaged engine mount when it first started as a loose engine mount you would have saved not only the time that you spent on the repair but the money you spent on the repair as well. This can be used with your oil system as well.
If you see an oil leak due to a loose-fitting, then tighten that fitting, clean it off and run your vehicle to see if you corrected the problem entirely. Cars are an investment in your life and speed up your transportation options in life.
So make sure you are doing your part for your vehicle and make sure it always keeps the right level of engine oil in it.
Thanks for checking out my article! I hope you enjoyed it and it was helpful to your problem. Check out my YouTube channel for how-to video guides as well! I hope you check out my next piece!
