Coworker ran car dry of oil....

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One of my coworkers recently had her 2011 Sonata die on the way to work. She explained what happened and the first thing I though was that the engine seized up (huge recall related to this). Turns out she ran it out of oil! She was able to coast down the hill into our parking lot thankfully, and later added oil and believe it or not it fired back up!

If the engine died from lack of oil, would that not cause significant damage? Either way I am pretty impressed that it's still ticking along seemingly fine.
 
How long ago, either time or mileage-wise was the oil last changed? Do you know what was used in it last time? Whew, what a close call.

Also dealt with this the other day with some oil I had on hand and wanted to get rid of:

Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Charity car lot 05 Toyota Camry with 183k miles. Exterior in good shape.

Just a big top off since oil level was very low and it was 7k miles over due for an oil change per the sticker.

.5 qt. MMO
.5 qt. SynPower 20w50
2 qts. Napa 5w30
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
How long ago, either time or mileage-wise was the oil last changed? Do you know what was used in it last time? Whew, what a close call.

Also dealt with this the other day with some oil I had on hand and wanted to get rid of:

Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Charity car lot 05 Toyota Camry with 183k miles. Exterior in good shape.

Just a big top off since oil level was very low and it was 7k miles over due for an oil change per the sticker.

.5 qt. MMO
.5 qt. SynPower 20w50
2 qts. Napa 5w30


No idea when the last time it was changed. I was going to offer to check it out for her, but her boyfriend had already showed up and put in straight 40 weight 0.0
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Wonder if it died purely from no oil or if there is some sort of fail safe that shuts the engine down to protect it.


Hopefully they got luck and this was the case?
 
If it ran out of oil and the engine ran until it died, there isn't a likely scenario that I can think of where the engine did not sustain major damage. As far as I know, very few cars have auto-shutdowns due to low oil level and I doubt Sonatas number among that group.

I can't afford new vehicles but these stories are largely why I wish I didn't have to stick to 100K+ miles used cars...

Should start saving up for an engine overhaul, just in case.
 
I ran out of time for the edit feature in the post above. The stories do sound similar to what the OP reported above. My guess is the engine mentioned above won't last long. OP prob shouldn't get too involved so he isn't blamed for anything.

Sonata Engine Failure Stories
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Wonder if it died purely from no oil or if there is some sort of fail safe that shuts the engine down to protect it.


I'm thinking this fail safe shut off may be the case. I know some newer vehicles have this type of system and I think some have had it for a while. Not sure about the Hyundais. I've heard of issue when the sensor acts up but I wouldn't mind having it.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Let Chad and his 40 weight deal with this thing.


Bingo! Then when it tosses a rod through the block, that's his problem, not the OP's
thumbsup2.gif
 
The 2011 2.4 is a pig of an engine. Dirty, and needs lots of maintenance. Mine turns synthetic oil black in 1000 miles, and I change it every 3750 miles.

Mine uses about a half quart every 3750 miles, and I check it weekly. It blows black carbon out the tailpipe once in a while, and I have used every gdi cleaning product on the planet.

Also it does not like 87 octane fuel, seems ping less on 89, and none on 93.

Would not recommend this car to someone who does not lift the hood regularly and tinker with things.

Other than that, car runs fantastic and is very smooth and is decent to drive.
 
Geez, not that I would try it but my Harbor Freight generator has a low oil shutdown circuit.
 
Originally Posted By: twouvakind
Geez, not that I would try it but my Harbor Freight generator has a low oil shutdown circuit.


That's a Chonda and a much better engine design. I've been around a couple sizes of the Predator generators and they're great.
 
Some cars have to have oil pressure for the computer to send power to thh fuel pump. So a crash and a dead engine will turn off the fuel pump
Maybe it saw no oil presssure and shut the pump off?
 
The engine was almost certainly damaged. Will not be a car that gets to 200k.

I would suspect burning oil will be what is noticed first and will only get worse.
 
Even my '73 Chevy Vega had a low oil pressure shut-off for the electric fuel pump, and that was more than forty years ago.
It would surprise me if any modern car didn't have such an inbuilt fail-safe.
Easy enough to do with any modern PCM.
If this was in fact the case for this Hyundai, then no damage was done.
Change the oil or check its level? Who knew?
Electronics save yet another clueless owner.
 
I DOUBT these Sonatas have a fail safe engine cut off due to low oil level. This many of them die from low oil level, which would be prevented by such a fail safe.
 
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