I went to the shop today to get some estimates on exhaust and timing belt, however, when we were looking over th ecar and doing the oil, there was no oil on or in the dipstick slide. There was a very small amount in the pan. When i took off the intercooler pipes a few days ago, there was about a dime sized puddle of oil, but nothing to major, had to wipe it out with a cloth. The mechanic said that it was most likely the turbo leaking oil, however its never had an oil change since january and had been sitting. Possible solutions, problems?

 

How much was in the pan? Didn't the oil light come on? Depending on how many miles you went, some oil use is normal, may be some leakage. Lesson is, you should check your oil more often-don't let it run so low...

 

My volvo used to leak oil like a sieve, and still it would only lose about a quart every two weeks, and that was a combination of leaking and burning. The only way this could happen is either you are burning a lot of oil, you have a torrential oil leak that only happens when the car is running, or the car simply didn't have any oil in it when you parked it however long ago that you did.

 

the oil light never came on, i checked the oil when i got it and it was fine, but i drove 500 miles after that in a week and then got it changed, however it had been sitting for 5 months un driven with oil in it, so over a small leak then, it might not have had alot in it when i checked. Theres no leak when i drive, the only thing i can think of is not having enough to start with. Hopefully it holds better now.

 

The oil light doesn't always work properly. If the oil light doesn't come on when you turn the key like all the other lights then it doesn't work anymore.

 

Do you have your oil changed at a large service chain? I am starting to formulate a theory about these places, after hearing something like this a lot the last few months.
It seems to me that the difference between full and just touching the dipstick on most all cars is about 5-600ml (1 pint).
If you fill say a dozen cars a day to just touching instead of full, you save 12 x 600ml or 7.2 litres (16 pints) of oil, almost enough to do two more oil changes, so you've made yourself two oil changes worth of oil to charge out.....tell me these places don't think this way.

Regards, Andrew.