# Waiting for the oil light? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 14, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000 "2015-03-14T17:13:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/41 "2015-11-05T13:47:41Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > If you ignore the oil light, the engine gets real noisy. Are rotary engines different? In my experiment it just quietly caught fire. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/42 "2015-11-05T13:56:11Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/43 "2015-11-05T15:40:11Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Maybe, but if you bring your vehicle in for a warrantee repair they’ll use any excuse necessary to avoid paying for it, and running 1,500 miles beyond the stated oil change interval is one they’ll grab in a hurry. If you’re already beyond the warrantee period you could go for it. I know I’ll stretch the service intervals once I get past 100,000 miles. The 3000 mile change is a myth, considering today’s engines and oils. Most modern API SN rated oils can do 5000-6000 miles in an engine without an issue, even in what they call “severe service”. Many cars have an oil change interval that recommends just that these days. Better oils like the European manufacturer rated ones, and the higher US specs like DEXOS 1, or the myriad of “fully” synthetic oils out there can make 10,000 miles, as those oils and specs are usually engineered to guarantee safe extended oil changes. The oil monitors basically monitor things like temperature and RPM, and use that along with assuming you’re using the specified oil type, and calculate when the oil will need a change. This is understandably conservative, as you might have bought the very cheapest oil you could find that _barely_ meets the specs, and they need to make sure that you don’t kill your engine following their recommendations. If you’re running a premium oil of some kind, you’re probably not going to need a change as soon as the monitor would suggest. But they’re all assuming you keep your oil level properly high, which means either doing something rather robotic like checking it every time you get gas, or getting a feel for how fast your engine consumes oil, and checking/topping off periodically. For example I know my pickup will burn about 1/2 quart every 5000 miles, so I check it every 2-3 months to make sure it’s still on track. Waiting for the oil light to come on is kind of like waiting for your smoke detector to tell you that the food in the oven is finished. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/44 "2015-11-05T15:58:00Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Are rotary engines different? In my experiment it just quietly caught fire. Yes, while they have a crankshaft they don’t have pistons. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/45 "2015-11-05T15:59:50Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Waiting for the oil light to come on is kind of like waiting for your smoke detector to tell you that the food in the oven is finished. That’s a pretty good analogy. ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/46 "2015-11-06T00:39:40Z")
The only time my oil light came on in my '99 Subaru impreza was 3 seconds before it grenaded. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/47 "2015-11-06T01:27:39Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > so it’s losing enough oil in 5,000 miles where the oil pump is sucking air? That engine is trashed, and if she wants to continue using that car she will have to get her hands dirty. > > honestly, if the automobile was invented today, none of us would be allowed to own one. Wow. It wasn’t that many years ago that if you had an engine that got 1,000 miles before having to add a quart you had a good engine. Now you are saying that an engine that is maybe using a quart in 1500 miles is trashed. Do you have cite that it is trashed? FYI normal oil usage for Toyota is no more than 1 quart in 1, 000 miles. A quart in 1,500 miles while annoying is not trashed. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/48 "2015-11-06T01:49:52Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > … even if I can’t physically open the lugnuts or whatever. They really ought to make 'em like pistachios: partly open and you just have to finish the job with your thumbs. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/49 "2015-11-06T07:21:25Z")
Shoot, when I saw this thread bumped I was hoping it was the OP coming back to say that the “is this a good idea?” question had been definitively answered. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/50 "2015-11-06T09:27:38Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > It’s nice to have because if it comes on you may be able to pull over immediately, shut down, add oil, and not have any permanent damage. But I sure wouldn’t drive to the nearest place that sells oil, I’d walk there. This. Tell you sister that, when the oil light comes on, sh is supposed to pull to the side of the road and stop, and then call a tow truck. That light is to tell her something has gone **seriously** wrong. Of course, the light was designed by folks who thought you’d check to oil every time you bought gas. If you aren’t doing that, the light might have come on just to tell you you’re stupid. But you have no way to tell the difference. Sometimes, driving home with the light on is just shortening the life of your engine. So her method of “checking the oil” may just mean the multi-thousand dollar repair that is engine replacement happens a few years earlier. And maybe she’d planning to sell the car before then. Explain how being a jerk to the next owner is worse than being a jerk to yourself. I’m no saint. I have driven to my mechanic when my drain plug fell out. I have driven cars with the oil light on. I have driven cars after the heater stopped blowing hot and started blowing cold air because I was less than a mile from my destination, where i could let it cool off and refill the radiator. I have also hand an engine seize while I was driving because of damage from when I overheated it weeks before. On two different cars. I have had an automatic transmission catch fire while I was driving it. I have blown an engine (the entire inside of the engine compartment was covered with a mixture of coolant and oil, and none of either was still in the engine). And I have learned the hard way that if your tire has gone soft enough that you can feel it through the (power) steering, driving on it can destroy the rim. **ALL** of those things happened to me because I did not maintain my car properly, or did not stop and get it repaired at the first sign of trouble, but instead kept driving it. Don’t be like me. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/51 "2015-11-06T09:44:16Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But they’re all assuming you keep your oil level properly high, which means either doing something rather robotic like checking it every time you get gas, or getting a feel for how fast your engine consumes oil, and checking/topping off periodically. You whipper-snappers day with you cushy lives. The reccomended interval for checking the oil on a VW Beetle (my first car) was _every single day_. Like a pre-flight checklist, you were supposed to check the oil before you started the car. And because it carried no reserve, you needed to add oil if it was as much as a _pint_ low. Now adding a pint isn’t a big deal nowadays, when oil come in plastic bottles with screw-caps, but back then oil cam in _cans_, and you opened them either with a simple punch to make a hole, or with a fancier spout that punched through the top of the can. No way to re-close it if you didn’t use the whole thing. So you’d have to figure out a place to store your open can of oil, and hope no bugs got into it. Now get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000/52 "2015-11-07T01:45:30Z")
My first car was a 1959 Chev Biscayne that had a no-maintenance prior owner. He just put in a quart when the light went on. The oil had not been changed in years (It had no filter, they were optional on the six cylinder). When I got the car in 1968 it had 65,000 miles on it and used a quart of oil every 60-70 miles. The engine knocked at idle. I think it was rather amazing that it ran at all! When I pulled the drain plug, nothing came out. There was a nice layer of sludge over the inside of the oil pan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waiting-for-the-oil-light/715000.md?page=2)