in december 2010 I took my car to the dealer in penna who has done all past maintenance.they were to do a check-up before i left for florida . i drove well over 1000 miles and the car kept making noise when I accelerated.after 2 visits to a dealer in florida, they found there was only 1 quart of oil in the engine.the dealer determined that the oil is not leaking.The Penna dealer simply forgot to refill the oil. What will driving all those miles with one quart of oil do to the engine in the future? the engine has 115000 miles on it.
I don’t believe that you drove from Pennsylvania to Florida with only 1 quart of oil in the crankcase. It also surprises me that it took 2 trips to a dealer for him to discover that the car was low on oil. If the Pennsylvania dealer did change the oil and then forgot to refill the crankcase, then where did the 1 quart come from?
I would think that the first thing a service tech would do is pull the dipstick and check the oil–much like the doctor checks my blood pressure on every appointment.
Lets re-write this,
"After driving from Pennsylvania to Florida without ever checking my oil, it was discovered that there was only one quart left in the crankcase…How much more abuse can I expect this engine to tolerate before it fails completely?
Answer: Nobody knows…
I have my oil checked every December.
I have replaced the valve seals on older RX models due to oil consumption. It is very possible your engine is consuming the oil. Keep a few quarts of oil in the vehicle and check you oil each time you refill the fuel tank.
Twenty years ago when I drove clunkers if going on a long trip I would take along a case of oil. On one trip my 1970 Mustang used 9 quarts of oil (2000 miles). Can you imagine if I waited for someone else to check my oil?
If you only had one quart it really got beaten up as their is less volume to take the normal wear oil occurs.
If your oil light was not illuminated or flickering I would not worry away.
Water under the bridge.
So maybe this motor (not vehicle) was good for 400,000 miles. Now maybe 300,000 miles so it may never matter.
Happy driving.
Lesson learned pull your dipstick and check the level every few fillups.
In the old days of full service gasoline stations, most attendants would check under the hood. While there were abuses of short-sticking (not pushing the dipstick all the way down), most stations were honest. I’m certain that checking the oil at gasoline stops saved a lot of engines.
Do you have full coverage?