What's worse than the engine oil light coming on?...no engine oil light.

splats · Post by **splats** » 14 Jan 2017, 21:26

Hi.

I have a '96 850 turbo w/ 185k miles on it. I've owned it for the past 5 years.

Long story short: the oil light didn't come on and when it should have. (The lamp in the dash is ok.)

I drove home from work on Friday (20 miles) - I heard a rattle when I started it at work (but didn't think too much of it) - I didn't hear it on the way home until I pulled into my drive way. Turns out the engine was low on oil, and now it has a rattle. Today I changed the oil and filter, but it made no difference. I have not checked oil pressure.

So, what do I do to fix the rattle/knocking? Change the lifters? Clean the oil intake? Shoot it between the eyes?

(I really like this car. I am a bit distraught at the moment...)

Thanks for any input/thoughts/advice...
Splats.

Post by **theWIFES_S70** » 14 Jan 2017, 21:59

Man, sorry to hear about this. Just curious, how low did you let the oil go?

Post by **EstVolvo** » 14 Jan 2017, 22:03

How much oil came out during the oil change?

splats · Post by **splats** » 14 Jan 2017, 22:22

About 3.5 quarts came out. So it was about 2 quarts low.

Post by **abscate** » 15 Jan 2017, 04:41

You should be ok.

If it's lifter rattle ( continuous) drive it for a bit and see if it improves. You really should use synthetic if you aren't.j

If it's a rod knock ( loudest when you lift foot off gas) drive it locally only and avoid high speed /high revs

When it goes to tock or thunk...its decision time

beigg · Post by **beigg** » 15 Jan 2017, 07:38

does the oil have a "glitter or metallic" look to it?

splats · Post by **splats** » 15 Jan 2017, 08:37

Thanks for the advice, Abscate. I'll try your suggestion. The rattle is continuous at idle. I don't notice it getting louder when I take my foot off the gas. And I'll switch to synthetic on my next oil change.

splats · Post by **splats** » 15 Jan 2017, 08:39

beigg, thanks for the reply, I know where you're going with that question. There's no glitter in the oil.

Post by **abscate** » 15 Jan 2017, 08:47

splats wrote:Thanks for the advice, Abscate. I'll try your suggestion. The rattle is continuous at idle. I don't notice it getting louder when I take my foot off the gas. And I'll switch to synthetic on my next oil change.

Thats good. Worst case maybe some new lifters, maybe even avoid the whole clip of bullets if you have been living life with a full karmic bucket.

splats · Post by **splats** » 15 Jan 2017, 11:50

abscate, you were right. I drove around for 15 or 20 minutes and the rattle has pretty much disappeared (completely, even?). I'm going to let the engine cool down to see if returns.

(I'm waiting to find out, but the karmic bucket may have been filled in my favor when I had to change the heater blower motor in my '89 240...)