I took my 2019 Mazda CX5 Turbo into a Mazda dealer for it's first 5,000 mile maintenance and while driving back to my town noticed that the check oil light was on. I called the service department and asked them why that would happen and the service manager said he didn't know. Told him that after turning engine off and then turning it back on the oil light was off. He said then to not worry about it. 3 days later drove it again putting about another 55 miles and once again noticed check oil light on again. I took it to the Mazda Dealer in that city where they discovered that the dipstick registered no oil at all and when they pulled the pan there was only 2 quarts in the pan. They drained that remaining oil and filled it with 5 quarts of oil. I am afraid that driving the car this far with such low oil will cause premature engine problems or failure in the future. What should I do?
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1Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! I'd wonder why it is losing oil in the first place. If you can point it back to a manufacturing problem, then Mazda should not only be fixing it, but most likely putting a new engine in your vehicle. There's no telling how much damage has been done. While some oil is better than no oil, to have the oil warning light come on means (in most vehicles) there's less than 5psi of oil pressure. That's not enough to keep the engine running without damage ... that's what the light is there for.– Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦Jul 3, 2019 at 21:02
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I need to clarify something and have to say that I know very little about cars so when I the oil light went off I asked the service manager why it would come on and then go off after just having an oil change. He said it didn't know why it would do that but since it went off not to worry about it. When I turned on the car to drive to Eugene OR it came on again in a remote area with no cell service. After stopping and turning the car off and waiting a few minutes I turned it on again and the light was gone. I drove it right to the Mazda dealer in Eugene.– Kathryn Rogers MusialJul 4, 2019 at 1:19
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@KathrynRogersMusial I apologize.The tone of my comment was inappropriate and unnecessary. I've deleted my comment. But I stand by its substance: had you stopped right away when the oil light first illuminated, and checked the oil level, you could have added oil and avoided the many miles of driving that may have damaged the motor. What was originally only the dealer's responsibility (not filling the motor correctly) thus became more serious, and potentially some of your responsibility as well.– DavidRecallsMonicaJul 4, 2019 at 4:40
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@KathrynRogersMusial - If the oil pump pickup in the engine is in oil then it can pick oil up, have oil pressure (hence light out) and pump it around the engine. but with oil being pumped around the level in te bottom of the engine drops a touch, possibly uncovering the oil pump pickup. At which point no oil pressure. Up / down hill can also make a difference. Stop the engine and oil has a chance to drain down, filling the bottom of the engine. Note, a few engines have an oil level sensor as well / instead of an oil pressure sensor.– KickstartJul 4, 2019 at 13:22
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if you still have the oil, you can send it for analysis; you'll find labs doing it for around $50. That will tell you right away if some metal to metal interactions happened and if there is damage to the engine.– ThomasJun 22, 2021 at 23:33
1 Answer
What should I do?
Hope for the best.
If the oil light was red, not yellow, it's not the "check oil" light. It's the "stop driving immediately, oil pressure low!" light. There's a risk of imminent engine damage with low oil pressure.
If the light was yellow (which it probably wasn't given that it turned off automatically and wasn't "sticky") then you probably haven't suffered engine damage. However, the 2 vs 5 quarts was somewhat worrying, I'd bet the car doesn't have 3 quart difference between "low" and "full" marks (my car has only 1.5 quart difference).
This sounds like the dealership didn't put enough oil in the 5000 mile service, if the problem happened immediately after it. However, the oil light made this problem your responsibility.
You can't demand them to change or overhaul the engine just because you ignored the red oil light. The correct action upon seeing the red oil light would be to have the car towed back to the dealership and demand them to put more oil in.
So, that's why your only option is to hope for the best. Continue driving the car, keep an eye on oil consumption in the future, while saving money for your next purchase / engine replacement / engine overhaul at the same time. In the best case, the car works just fine, and requires no engine replacement or overhaul.
Edit: should've read the comments
I need to clarify something and have to say that I know very little about cars so when I the oil light went off I asked the service manager why it would come on and then go off after just having an oil change. He said it didn't know why it would do that but since it went off not to worry about it.
This is bad advice. If you have this in writing, you could kindly ask them to investigate the engine and repair any damage, if necessary. Having such bad advice in writing would be very useful evidence in a court of law (but legal advice would be out of the scope of this site), and I'm sure the dealership would understand that too.
