Oil pressure warning light illuminates driving in a curve and there is insufficient oil - damage assessment

[Bandolero]

Hi everyone,

I’ve got a bit of an unfortunate situation.

While driving the i30N, I noticed the oil pressure warning light briefly coming on. When exiting the motorway, I figured out that it would flash on when taking corners at a certain speed. My assumption is that the lateral forces caused the oil to move away from the oil pump pickup, resulting in a temporary loss of oil pressure.

I stopped and checked the oil level. The dipstick was completely dry.

I then walked to a petrol station, bought oil with the correct specification, and added a total of 2 litres. After adding those 2 litres, the oil level was just at the MIN mark on the dipstick.

The car belongs to relatives, and I also assumed that the vehicle had some kind of digital oil level warning or electronic oil level measurement. I learned the hard way that this is apparently not the case.

The car had an oil change and service 15,000 km ago. I have no idea how long the oil level had already been too low. With a total oil capacity of 4.8 litres, that would mean there were only about 2.3 litres of oil left in the engine. For this calculation, I assumed roughly 0.5 litres between the MIN and MAX marks on the dipstick.

Now to my questions:

1. A consumption of roughly 2.3 litres over 15,000 km — would you consider that an acceptable amount of oil consumption? The engine is definitely consuming the oil; there are no visible leaks.
2. The car has already been driven about 20 km since topping up the oil, including motorway driving at around 120–140 km/h. There were no noticeable problems. Is it reasonable to assume that we may have been lucky and avoided any engine damage?
3. An oil change will be carried out very soon. Would it also be worth asking the workshop to perform a compression test or any other checks while the car is there?

Thanks in advance.

From now on, the oil level will definitely be checked regularly using the dipstick.

 

[s.arhangelov]

So, first of all 15 000km is too long to go between oil changes.
I've done 110k km (change very 8-10k) and never had to top off any oil, even a little. I'd clean the engine bay thorougly, drive 500-1000km and check for oil leaks.
It is possible that during the last oil change, the shop didn't put in enough oil to begin with so the car hasn't burned it but didn't have enough in the first place. Make sure it's changed properly this time. Also take a good look at the old oil filter and look for metal flakes. That is the easiest indicator for engine damage (I doubt it has any).

 

[Bu11eT]

I also assumed that the vehicle had some kind of digital oil level warning or electronic oil level measurement. I learned the hard way that this is apparently not the case.

yep, the i30N has NO digital gauge or warning light for this. It's old school dipstick-checking.
The only warning light the car has is a switch that illuminates the low oil pressure warning light. But that toggles on such a low value, that its effectively too late.

If you had to top up 2 ltr to get to the mimimum reading, I'd say its either a massive leak or a workshop did not put enough oil in during the last oil change. When did the low oil pressure warning light appear the first time, just recently?

 

[tacthecat]

If oil pressure only occasionally dropped off on some corners for only a second or 2 and then extinguished there was likely no damage. The oil should be changed at the recommended interval and you need to check the consumption (weekly or monthly) until you can determine if there is an oil consumption issue. It's rare for the i30N to burn oil. How many miles on the motor? (And you're a "Lucky Stiff" to have a relative let you use their i30N for a long period - TAKE CARE of IT!)