My grandson brought his 09 v6 accord to me for an oil change and we only got a quart out of it. I scolded the heck out of him for not checking the level, or not attending to the check engine light. I scanned the car and got P3400 which is activation not working probably because of low oil,

Of course now I am concerned if the engine is on its last legs. He is checking the oil every day until we get a handle on its oil consumption. When I get a chance I will do a compression test.

I would like to gain data on possibility the engine will survive running on very low oil level. What has been the experience of others in this situation.

 

The engine has to be eiher burning oil or has a leak unless the oil wasn't changed for a very long time. Definitely need to address the oil loss first. A compression test and an oil pressure test are warranted. Did the low oil/oil pressure light turn on?

Low compression likely means piston ring or possible cylinder wall damage. Low oil pressure would be from the crank/rod bearings getting worn out.

If those two tests come back normal, then maybe he was lucky.

 

Thanks for your response. I am not sure it has been burning oil abnormally although my concern is oil consumption going forward. He did not put in oil since the last oil change and we found out about the low oil by changing the oil. He got an engine minder thing to change the oil. That probably means it used about 3.5 quarts for about 5000 miles. No, low oil liight, neither low engine pressure, don;t know if that light exists. I have a scanner and can get the oil pressure and it is easy to get compression at least on the front cylinders. After that I will post the data so others will have a data point on this issue.

Thanks for your response.

 

I wouldn't do a compression test or oil pressure test just yet. Just go forward and keep an eye on it. There's a decent chance that it may be ok. I'd check the oil level at every 4-500 miles. If it burns a qt every 1k miles that's ok. I've heard of several people running on one qt of oil and the engine still survived and ran fine.

 

Thanks for the response. I was hoping others had survived this situation. From a scanner I have, the oil pressure is around 3 volts at 2000 rpm.l Which I tihink coresponds to about 50-60 psi. So, good so far. I am watching oil consumption, and as you say if it is under a quart per 1000 miles I will call everything good. Thanks again.