My mother right now is going through a ruff time in her life because her husband doesnt work because his knee is allmessed up*won't go in to detail* Right now she is working two jobs and she don't drive.......so her husband*kenny* does. She told him many times to check the oil...hye didnt....and than his car started making some weird sounds. Thats when he finally checked the oil and noticed it was bone dry. So he bought oil and filled it up*3 quarts* and the car drove great. He than parked it and wen't in the house for not even 20 minutes. He went to go to the store and his car didnt even start up. The fans and stuff turned on when he turned the key....the engine didnt even rev.

I called a few friends and they said the engine is shot. This makes no sense tome sense he filled the car up with oil.....the car ran great....than it stopped working. Could it be an unrelated issue...or do you think the engine is shot. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

Car details:

1997 mercury sable ls or gs...its the station wagon(don't know if that information would spark any insight)

 

Engine most likely is shot. When you have no oil. Your engine will

a) Overheat.
b) Wear extremly fast. Bearings will seize, Rods can bend, Head gasket will go, Cylinder head will twist, cylinder walls will become stratched and won't seal, basically any metal on metal peices will become very worn, and unusable.
c) Mass amount of metal shavings will pretty much crowd the engine, getting into seals and bearings.
d) The engine will eventually seize. When that happens, Your pretty much done.

Best advice, Get rid of it. It would be too expensive to fix. Plenty of scrap companys offer good prices for car's sometimes between 100-500 dollars for a complete car. There's also a few places you can donate scrap cars for a tax write-off.

 

Since it doesn't sound like they need a tax write-off, they can likely sell it to a scrap yard for $350 to $500. I said that to say that it's likely that the motor finally locked up. They could aways pay a mechanic to check it out before they bail on it. I don't believe that a car needs ALL of it's oil to operate properly but they probably had a 4 qt motor running on 1 qt, not good. Also, if it took him that long to check the oil, it likely had NOT been changed for a couple of years.

Start checking CL daily for a replacement car, at their location or yours. I picked up a '96 Saturn for my mom, paid $500, put about $400 in it and drove it 950 miles to her.

 

Most people dont need a tax write off lol, But its an option none the less.

Many companies (Here at least) will tow your car away for you, and still offer you that 300-500 dollars, without you having to bust yourself paying to tow it anywhere. Look in the local newspaper, theres usually a few companies that offer money for scrap.

Good luck

 

His car is all out of wack.....I calledmy buddy over to check it out and now its atleast trying to turn over.....we took the starter out and tested it...guess what its shot.....so i dont know if the oil and starter are related, we will find out tomorrow when i put the new one in...ill let you all know. Thank you for the answers.

 

try to turn the engine by hand (rotate the crank with a socket and ratchet). Pull spark plugs so the compression stroke won't fight you to give you false conclusions. if you can spin engine by hand a couple of revolution then you should be okay. I would suggest draining oil to check for metal filings along with filter. If you see metal then get ride of car because it is shot.

 

That's what I don't like about old cars. Take care of one thing and immediately something else totally unrelated goes out and you're second guessing the 1st thing.

At best the car will run and use a quart of oil every 300 to 500 miles. Maybe they can stay on top of the oil and drive it a while. However, I do agree with Lunger, do an oil change immediately.

 

Thank you Lunger ill pass on the word to the rents, hopefully they listen to me this time. Yeah rspi it happened to my 850 a few times, two things happen at once which are unrelated. My step father checks oil as much as he remembers to pay the insurance......he is always late which results in fees....in the oil situation..the fee is a blown up engine...we are putting the new starter in tomorrow and from there ill follow lungers steps and see what happens...i have my fingers crossed.