My wife informed me that her car needed an oil change a couple weeks ago, though there was no sense of urgency. Discovered yesturday it was almost 15k since last service. Hmmm.....Now in her defense, she does drive a couple hundred miles each day round trip to work so the miles clip off pretty fast.

I went to service the car this morning and found that no more than 1-1.5qts. of oil drained from the motor. While there is no noticable leaks or burning oil, I assume over such a long duration the oil naturally burnt off little by little.

My concern is what could be expected from such low oil? Granted there was not a light indicating low oil or any other check engine light illuminated. Is there any particular area I should direct some preventitive maintenance to? The motor did seem to runn a bit quiter after I serviced, again I assume the added noise could be in direct correlation with increased friction from inadiquate oil level...anything to expect down the road (near future) relating to that?

I plan to service again in the next few thousand miles and while doing so complete a full engine flush to clear any built up sludge created by such a long interval between last services.

Vehicle has 224k miles (long distance commuter). I normally service every 7.5k. I run Mobil 1 filter and Mobil 1 5W-30.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

I think you described it perfectly. A bit more wear than if it had the proper oil level due to more heat and less oil to carry the dirt the filter doesn't remove. If the long distances are highway miles then the car should be in better shape than if it was city miles with lots of stop and go.

The CVVT solenoid is famous for building crud and failing so cleaning the engine now is good. I recently discovered my 2001 had some partially clogged oil passages in the top part of the cam cover. Some Marvel Mystery Oil or Seafoam in the crankcase followed by an oil and filter change will help. Mobil 1 is good stuff to use.

You never really know for certain but you seem to have caught it early enough to avoid severe damage. It did not spin a main bearing and that's always good.