Driving last night, I smelled a strange burning smell, followed by some smoke under the hood. Pulled over & there was a good amount of oil spayed all over. It continued to leak. I put 2 quarts in & made it about a mile before she died. It’s being towed to the mechanic now. What happened & what’s it gonna cost?
Sounds like a blown head gasket. It also sounds like in continuing to drive the car, you blew the engine. If it’s simply a blown head gasket, it’ll cost between $600-1200, depending on how easy it is to get to the head gask etin your make/model vehicle. If you’ve blown the engine … $4000 and up, depending on the make/model. This happened to me about year ago, almost the same scenario. Your best option is to buy a new car.
I have to agree with evilhanz’s assessment. This sounds like a classic case of a motor “fusing” due to lack of lubrication. Unless it’s a Ferrari, you’ll probably want to be looking into a new set of wheels.
Hopefully your car is still under warranty, or the head gasket on your car was under recall. Can you tell us the year, make, model, and mileage? You might want to check http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/ to see if you have any recourse with the manufacturer. I doubt it.
When this happened to me, I did some research to determine whether I was a bad driver, or if I was driving a bad car. Unfortunately, in recent years, American-made cars have been engineered with an inferior head gasket design, relying on composite materials that are subject to failure at around 50-60k miles. This vital component should NEVER fail during the useful lifetime of the vehicle.
Just last week, I had the head gasket replaced on my Dodge Stratus, (under warranty this time whew, and it was caught before any damage occured). Fortunately, the replacement gasket is made with multiple layers of steel.
It’s an '87 Olds Calais w/83K.
You failed to mention whether you recently had your car serviced (e.g. oil change). If so, one possibility is that the mechanic failed to tighten the crankcase oil plug or the oil filter, allowing the oil to drain out. If so, the mechanic would be liable.
You describe an ACUTE & CATASTROPHIC loss of oil. That demands an explanation.
If it is the head gasket, you will be pissed when you see the bill.
The price of the gasket will be around 20 bucks.
Labour will be around $1000.
“Labour will be around $1000.”
On an olds? More like $1400. But then since he drove it after, add the head to it.
Well, it’s gonna cost about $250 (I didn’t take the call, so I’m not sure what it was exactly yet). Thanks for scaring the shit out of me, though!
What was it JC? What did they say?
At least it was your car, you should see what the guys say when its your body.
[snl]I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!!![/snl]
–Tim
Every single person that I know who has driven a mid-80s Olds Calais (myself, my former roommate, two neighbors, a friend and a cousin) has had this happen before 100,000 miles. I’ve been told numerous times that it isn’t the design of the car but I still feel differently.
He said one of the gerbals exploded 
. The replacement gerbal only costed $9, but $241 was for labor.
He actually said it was the ‘front crank gasket’?.. ($9).
Yet another bizarre incident in the macabre history of spontaneous gerbil combustion.
(No wonder the labor was so expensive. Have you ever tried to clean up an exploded gerbil?)
Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had all day. 