Sudden oil loss

[Shawn O'Leary]

I took a short drive this evening to run errands. All smooth roads; didn't hit anything or go offroading or anything like that.

 

I was about 5 minutes from home and the truck starts making an audible chime sound and the DIC is flashing "low oil pressure turn engine off." I parked on a side street and turned it off. Oil was gushing out of the engine and running all over the air dam, down the knuckle to the front passenger tire and onto the street.  The whole load of oil drained out. 

 

GMC roadside assistance towed it to my dealer. My last oil change was a couple of months ago so I can't imagine it's something like an improperly installed filter. Could the main seal fail at just 5,500 miles?? It's the 6.2L engine. 

 

I was quick to park and shut it off, but I'm quite concerned the engine may have been harmed. 

[bshort]

Oil cooler line?  

[Sierra Dan]

You are not the fist. Many sudden oil loss instances have been reported.

[TXGREEK]

Won’t speculate or just guess but I’m sure it quite possibly a simple fix.


Sent from above

[Shawn O'Leary]

Oil cooler line it is. Had them collect an oil sample that I'm going to send away as a baseline. A few weeks after repair I'm going to change the oil again and collect another sample from the filter to send in for a comparison analysis to see if there are signs of damage. 

[bshort]

40 minutes ago, Shawn O'Leary said:

Oil cooler line it is. Had them collect an oil sample that I'm going to send away as a baseline. A few weeks after repair I'm going to change the oil again and collect another sample from the filter to send in for a comparison analysis to see if there are signs of damage. 

Filter is a bad choice for collecting an oil analysis sample.  Suck it out from the dipstick with a vac pump if you can.  

[eppieguy]

My Vac pump wouldn't go all the way down to the pan, tried and tried and no success. 

[bshort]

15 minutes ago, eppieguy said:

My Vac pump wouldn't go all the way down to the pan, tried and tried and no success. 

Need a longer suction tube.  I get the line from the hardware store and chuck it after each use.  Something like 19 cents a foot.  

[Shawn O'Leary]

Ugh.... they refilled it with oil and started it up to see how the engine was running and it seized about 3 seconds in. Looking like an engine replacement. 5,500 miles... unbelievable. 

[bshort]

23 minutes ago, Shawn O'Leary said:

Ugh.... they refilled it with oil and started it up to see how the engine was running and it seized about 3 seconds in. Looking like an engine replacement. 5,500 miles... unbelievable. 

Guess I should go give my cooler lines a tug.  

[OnTheReel]

48 minutes ago, Shawn O'Leary said:

Ugh.... they refilled it with oil and started it up to see how the engine was running and it seized about 3 seconds in. Looking like an engine replacement. 5,500 miles... unbelievable. 

Don’t get me wrong, the whole situation is awful, but I’d almost say that’s a good thing. I feel like I’d never trust my engine again after running without oil. You never know how long it would take for problems to appear.

[Limelight]

14 minutes ago, OnTheReel said:

Don’t get me wrong, the whole situation is awful, but I’d almost say that’s a good thing. I feel like I’d never trust my engine again after running without oil. You never know how long it would take for problems to appear.

Yeah,  but to play Devil's Advocate here, they can't even fix leaking rear windows here as of late.  Engine replacement?  I would have to get out of it and get another one to ever be happy I think.  This just sucks.

[HondaHawkGT]

1 hour ago, Shawn O'Leary said:

Ugh.... they refilled it with oil and started it up to see how the engine was running and it seized about 3 seconds in. Looking like an engine replacement. 5,500 miles... unbelievable. 

It's good that it did in a way.  They probably would have tried to tell the engine is fine and sent you on your way other wise. It's annoying that they use these crimped external oil lines. Toyota and GM need to find an oil line supplier that doesn't suck at crimping hoses.

[Shawn O'Leary]

It is good, in a way, that the engine will be replaced. But, wow, is it disheartening. I contacted a friend who is a GM engineer; he took the VIN, dealer name, etc. He's going to call to have the faulty parts sent to his team (he works in the truck division). Hopefully they do something about this problem.

[OnTheReel]

34 minutes ago, Limelight said:

Yeah,  but to play Devil's Advocate here, they can't even fix leaking rear windows here as of late.  Engine replacement?  I would have to get out of it and get another one to ever be happy I think.  This just sucks.

True. Hopefully they are just stabbing a new long block in it. I’m not the most mechanical person in the world and have done that successfully, so I would trust most GM techs to handle it. The window stuff is a lot about cosmetics in the end, and I don’t trust them to not make a mess of that.