Oil light immediate disaster averted

[crashdesk]

Thought I would share my complete incompetence with you all.

Driving into work yesterday and the Oil warning lamp went on. Never been on before on any car I have owned. Continued driving and luckily the mechanic I go to was close by. First time I have been to him since purchasing the car this time last year. Up comes the hood and out comes the dipstick (sounds kinky but you know what I mean). Absolutely empty! Gulp

He filled it up for free with about 2.5 litres. Wasn't until I started to read up on this that I realised I narrowly averted total engine melt down, or should I say seizure. I still realise that damage could have been done but not worth worrying about now. Learnt my lesson and checking oil levels once a week from now on 

Oddly the enough the car is running better than ever but no excuse for my lax attitude to regularly checking the car.

As a matter of interest there is a debate as to whether the warning lamp as it is called in the handbook is to actually warn you when levels are low and you need to top up quick or that the damage has already been done. Your opinions and no scare mongering as other people with no knowledge on the subject seem to do. 

[jimojameso]

Yeah engines tend to run better with oil in them!! 

[sub39h]

yeah the oil light means critically low - so if you had to top up 2.5L, bear in mind on the dipstick there is about 1L between max and min, so you'd have dropped well off the bottom of the dipstick as you say

i'd recommend checking your oil level at least once a month, ideally more frequently than that 

[Gene Hunt]

My last GTI did this,pulled over at road side straight away & checked level on dip stick. It was above min level & below half. Shut bonnet down & after start all lights went out,carried on for another couple of miles untill i could get some oil, top up & never did it again?. Found it strange when oil on stick was above the min level so suppose it could just have been a one of temp fault?.

[andy1979uk]

Was it the yellow or the red oil light ? As I believe one is a warning and the other is a 'stop'

[screech]

Dont forget if the oil was dipped only within a couple of mins of turning the engine off, a lot of the oil is still at the top of the engine working its way back down!

[crashdesk]

@andy1979uk Yellow

Didn't know there was a red one too. Hopefully I never have to see that one

[Beddie]

@andy1979uk Yellow

Didn't know there was a red one too. Hopefully I never have to see that one

Yellow oil warning is to warn of low oil level and only requires 1 litre to top up to full again, if you did have 2.5 litres put it at that stage then you have most likely overfilled it, I'd be checking the level asap and maybe draining some out as you run the risk of damaging the cat amongst other things if it's too full...

[mad_pete]

what they said, engine should be cold for oil level check. You can get an oil sucker to pull out any excess without too much mess. I was use to my 4.2 landy and I filled my wife's golf up. It wanted about 0.75 litres and I put about 2 in.   My wife's GT diesel had it's light come on it was fine. As was my merc (although that very politely and accurately puts a message on the display that I should travel to the nearest garage immediately and place 1.5 litres of oil into the car)

[crashdesk]

3rd day with no side effects. Keeping my fingers crossed that no damage was done. Still hokin' the hell out of it 

[Deako]

Hope he used the correct oil too.  2.5 litres sounds like a hell of a lot from the oil warning lamp.