Ok let me preface this by saying Ive been changing oil in cars since 2000. And evidently im an idiot!
Car: 2017 civic Si
mileage 8k
Doing an oil change a few days ago, i drained the oil, replaced the plug and oil filter, didnt put new oil in yet. Got distracted by someone for a few minutes. Came back to the car and started it like a freaking moron! By the time I realized how much of an idiot i am and turned it off, 3 to 4 seconds had passed! So, it basically ran for 3 to 4 seconds with no oil in it.
The car wasnt at operating temp as it sat all night and i didnt start it or dirve it at all before starting my oil change. So i think that makes it even worse because there was no fresh oil remaining on the bearings or internal parts.
Filled the car with oil. didnt make any weird noises or have any lights come on. Ive driven it for about 150 miles since this happened and nothing seems out of the ordinary. But have i weakened the rod bearings from this few seconds of no oil? will a bearing fail eventually now when i least expect it?
I feel like the biggest dumba$$ in the world. At this point im just hoping that everything is ok… i hope as i still owe 18k on the car…
Oh-boy that’s bad. I’m sure You tore around 8,5 miles out of the bearings.
If it only ran for 3-4 seconds, the engine is fine. Don’t worry about that.
Don’t sweat it man. While it’s possible that some life was sacrificed, it is minimal in the grand scheme. In all probability, you will never see any adverse effect from it aside from never forgetting it happened. I did something similar with a prized big block I built. Never had any issues with it but I still kick myself for doing it…
You reduced engine life by about 900 miles if you had to put a figure on it. On a 300,000 miles potential life that’s about 9/300000=0.00003 or 0.003%. A cold start in winter in Minnesota combined with a jackrabbit takeoff will cause that wear many times over.
oh, i forgot to mention that i filled the new filter with oil a little over half way before i installed it. do you think this may have prevented any wear that was done to the bearings during that dry start? or does oil only get suck up through the oil pickup and not the filter?
