Five days ago I purchased a very clean 1999 Accord Coupe EXVL with 38,000 orig miles from an individual. I paid $11,000. I had it smogged and oil changed the next day. After 485 miles the oil light came on. I stopped it immediately and had it towed to a dealer. Bearings & crank are gone and engine oil pressure is zero at idle. Its going to cost $5,000 to get it out of the shop. The dealer says it was run out of oil. It has plenty of oil and hasn't run out since I owned it.

The seller told me he used Mobile 1 5w-30w. He claims he was advised to change the oil every 15,000 miles. This sounds crazy to me and I think that could be the cause of the trouble. What do you think????? I am really distressed and want to put the blame where it belongs. The puzzle is the light didn't go on until 485 miles. Any other ideas? I thought the oil pump could have failed. The oil srainer in the pan is clean. I really feel cheated and need some advice.

 

I've heard that synthetic oil can be changed every 10k miles, but the filter must be changed every 3k miles. You could get a used engine installed for less than 5k.

 

I think theres a syn that claims 15000, cant remember which one though. But it is still based on how hard you run your car, and like agent said, the filter needs changed every 3000, there are a few filters that can go for 6000ish, but those arent high performance and if you run your car hard it wont really help you

 

is the oil pan damaged ? like car ran over something and put a dent in pan ?? ,,

as for the oil change,, a lot of people don't agree with me , but i always advice to change oil and filter no longer than 3000 to 3500 miles ..

if the car was run out of oil before you bought it,, and there was damage already there,, i would think the engine would have been noisy ,,

was there a knocking ( rapping ) noise from the lower part of the engine ?? did the dealer take a close look at the filter ??

if you got to pay for all of this,, i would install a low miles japanese engine ,, they come with 35-45 k miles ..,,, If you go that route, make sure to install a new t-belt and water pump before installing it in the car ,,,,,,,,,,Also , if you go that route, it would be cheaper for you to buy the engine and have it delivered to the shop,,,,,,,,if the shop buys it,, they will bump the price up,,,,,,,,


JAPAN ENGINE INC i have bought low miles engines from these guys for almost 7 years now and am yet to have any problems with the engines i get , they have 2 locations CA,, and OH.
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And no i do not get any commission by reccomending them

 

I don't care how synthetic my oil is, I'll never let it go past 3,500 miles. And like everyone else mentioned, you still need to change the filter.

As far as the car running out of oil, it probably won't, but the oil isn't circulating through engine if you have 0 oil pressure (or isn't circulating enough with extremly low pressure) and the motor will seize up.

I'm thinking that you would hear the sound prior to this mess, since it wouldn't sound like a quiet honda... did it sound ok when you bought it?

 

Again as stated, if the oil was true synthetic Mobil1 then it probably would have lasted 15000 miles but the filter would have still needed to be changed about every 3000 to 5000 and the oil would again need to be topped off.

I would go another route to find you issue, failed oil pump, bad pickup, something other than the engine running out of oil.

 

To answer all the questions so far asked:

I didn't hear a knock. The motor was quiet. The oil pan is not dented. The oil strainer is clean. The previous owner just drove the car to work and back. I don't think it was driven hard. Personally I change the oil in my vehicles at 3,000 to 3,500. I just feel better safe than sorry.

The motor is a 6 cylinder VTEC. In my 485 miles of driving the car, I drove very softly. Never let the tach go over 3200 RPM at the gear change. I feel like taking the car back to the seller and asking for some reimbursement, but I just don't know if it was his fault. Maybe the pump failed. Maybe the shop that changed the oil & smogged it, ran it before they refilled the oil. Would it have gone another 400 miles before the light came on? I don't know.

 

so when the dealer checked it out, they found no leak correct ?? and there was planty of oil in it..........was the dealer the same place that did the oil change on the car previousely ??

 

No leaks found. No, unfortunatelly Speedee changed the oil & smogged. The Honda dealer is doing the work now.

 

that's about weird.... when the dealer checked it though they said there was or wasn't suffecient oil in it? Have the determined if the pump failed or what happened at all yet?