I started my 2001 MN6 coupe to go home, and the DIC lit up that I had no oil pressure. The gauge showed zero too.
I rolled down the window to listen to the echo off of the car next to me, and there was no indication of lifters clacking or rods knocking. I shut it off, and checked my oil, and the dipstick had no oil on it.
I checked it again, and sure enough, no oil.
I walked to a nearby gas station, and bought some oil, walked back and added 3 quarts.
Started the engine, and had 55 PSI of oil pressure.
then drove to a Auto Zone, and bought 2 quarts of Mobil 1, and added it.
I was kicking myself the whole way home......How could I have missed this?
When I got home, I checked the dipstick, and I was 2 inches above the fill line!
has anybody got an explanation for this?

 

WOW, that's sure puzzling!

 

never heard of this before, but just throwing something out there. started the engine and the oil pump pumped all of the oil out of the pan and something kept it from returning? I don't know what that something could be.

 

First off, remove some of the oil and get the level to the full mark. Don't operate the engine with too much oil.

A few questions:

When did you last change the oil?
When did you last check the oil level?
Has there been any work done under the hood?


Dannyman

 

You don't know how to read a dipstick. The car will tell you if the oil gets low. Your oil pressure sender may be going out.

 

Don't be so harsh...sometimes weird s**t happens. Case in point, a number of years ago, I was out on an extended cruise in the Pontiac T/A I used to own. I had been driving around for about an hour-hour and a half. I'm about a block from my house, on my way home, and suddenly the car begins running rough, and I hear the lifters clattering. I glance down at the oil pressure gauge, and it's close to zero! I let the engine run a couple more seconds, to keep up the momentum of the car, then dump the clutch, kill the engine, and coast the rest of the way, right into my driveway.

I get out, pop the hood, check the oil, and according to the dipstick, it's full. I look around, there are no visible leaks. It's getting both dark and late, so I push the car into the garage, both dis-heartened and puzzled. Next day, I drive my old car to work, and all that day, I'm thinking of what could be wrong. I get home, jack the car up pull the oil filter, and cut it open. Don't see anything wrong...get another filter off the shelf, fill it with oil, and install it. I check the oil, and again, the dipstick shows it's full.

I then pull the coil wire, spin the engine over, and within a couple of seconds, the oil pressure gauge jumps up to normal. Put the coil wire back on, fire the engine, and for the next 5 years, the car ran just fine.

Go figure......It happens!!

 

I believe the DIC message comes from the low oil press switch by oil filter. The gauge reading comes from the sender behind intake. The chances of both malfunctioning is remote. I would have to assume there really was no/little oil press.

Did you check the oil level before adding the last 2 qts?

Maybe you were ~3 qts low. If there was only 2.5 qts in pan, I doubt you would be able to maintain a solid oil press.

Low oil quantity message should have appeared when you were just over 1 qt low.
Maybe that sensor isn't working correctly.

 

no low oil message, and the car drove fine to work. I have the oil pressure displayed on my heads up display. I don't remember it being low and there was no check gauges message on it either.
I usually have water temp displayed on the DIC.

big gun your an imbecile if that's all you can come up with.

I thought it couldn't be low, that's why I checked it twice.

I drained the excess oil out, and changed the oil filter in case it had some problem.
oil pressure is still 55 cold and around 48 hot.

drove it to work Sunday night and again today. no problems whatsoever.
watched the heads up and the gauge, and not a glitch.
I changed the oil pressure sender about 2 years ago. no oil problems till this.

Just a side note, the water temp is around 175 normally in the winter with the right amount of oil. I have a 160 thermostat.
with the extra oil, the engine barely got to 163

 

I don't know how much oil the pickup needs in order to be submerged, but you obviously got enough in there with the 3 quarts. Then you drove and blindly added 2 more quarts. The problem here is you still had a bunch of oil suspended in the engine which can take awhile (1-2 hours) to completely drain back down into the pan before you get an accurate reading on the dipstick. This was true both times you added oil in fact. What you should've done is just stopped after the initial 3 quarts because now you had consistent pressure, drive home and park, let the engine cool down, check the stick, and then add accordingly.

 

I had checked it a week before. normally it uses a half quart in 3000 miles. I probably put 200-300 miles on it in that time.
It is 13 years old and 66,000 miles. normally in a go to work style of driving, it probably never sees 3500 RPM.
I usually check it hot, because that is what is probably in the pan when it is running..

 

Hey, you are the one who dumped 5 quarts of oil in your vet when it probably needed 1 or 2 at most. You also obviously missed the low oil warning if it was in fact low. If it needed 3 quarts and had no oil pressure that motor would have be clattering to wake the dead. If it was that low where do you suppose all that oil went? How much did you have to drain out?

 

[QUOTE=zz28zz;1586085213]I believe the DIC message comes from the low oil press switch by oil filter. The gauge reading comes from the sender behind intake. The chances of both malfunctioning is remote. I would have to assume there really was no/little oil press.

The sensor by the filter is for the oil level. The low pressure message can be caused by the pressure sensor behind the intake. It can fail and read zero and the low pressure message will appear, mine did.

 

[QUOTE=BigGun;1586086506]Actually, I'm pretty sure the low oil level sensor is near the starter.

Ref the bottom right corner of the attach image.
The image was used to show an oil leak, but it does capture the low oil level sensor.

 

You're doing it wrong.

 

[QUOTE=zz28zz;1586086572]Yes, you are correct about the location. Maybe the sensor is not working. I found some even better pics here.
http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/foru....php?p=1990516

 

I know it's basic information, however;

I try to follow what the manual says:
- warm up the engine ( I like normal operating temperatures )
- vehicle parked on flat level surface
- shut-off engine and wait 3 minutes minimum
- clean dipstick and fully insert, keep tip down and check level

I try to repeat this anytime I check the oil.

I'm guessing you're going to keep an eye this for your next few rides. The last time I had low quantity it turns out the drain plug wasn't tight. This didn't happen on the vette; but I was still less than impressed!

If you're losing oil it can only be one of two things; it's leaking or consumed. Keep on eye on it and let us know what you find.


Dannyman

 

The owner's manual says to check the oil a few minutes after driving it, and specifically states not to check the oil when the engine is cold. Doing so will result in an incorrect reading.

 

No, YOU are doing it wrong.

 

Nope, I'm not. I've done it the same way on every vehicle I've ever owned for the past 20 years, and the list of things that have NEVER happened to me include...

1. Engine failure from insufficient lubrication
2. Idiot light illuminating telling me to put oil in

If you'll notice, step 3 of the procedure in the manual says to let the engine sit for ~3 minutes. In that 3 minutes, most of the oil will drain back down to the pan. The difference in the measurement then v/s the following morning will probably be < 1 cup of oil and not even measureable on the dipstick. Try it yourself if you don't believe me. Why GM says to warm up the engine first I have no idea. Perhaps to accommodate for thermal expansion?

 

Either have I, but that's not really the point.


It is measurable and does make a difference according to one of the designers of the C5, Evil Twin. This non-traditional method for checking the oil would not be mentioned in the owner's manual if it made no difference. An LSx engine is not the same as every other engine you've had in your cars.

I have. It makes a difference and the reason is in the design of the LSx engine. The design engineers would not have gone through the trouble of making sure this information was included in the owner's manual otherwise.