is there any harm to driving the car hard for 300 miles on 1/2 quart low oil? The level was a half quart below the low mark on the dipstick. When i saw it I immediately filled it up.

 

should be fine. Just not something you want to let happen often.

 

*

 

every 1000 miles i was always 1/2 a quart short so i refilled 1/2 a quart every 1k miles and changed the oil every 2k miles

 

i did this for like 30k miles with no problems

 

Well, if it's not low, how do you know when to add more? All rotaries burn oil as a normal function. This is why you should check your oil level atleast as often as every other fill-up. BTW, on the FD, the difference between F and L on the dipstick is 1.7 liters, not 1 liter.

 

do not make a habit of it

 

don't boost

 

He is not talking about just being 1/2 quart low. He is talking about being half quart below the L , which would make it around 2.2 quarts low.

I just wanted to point that out.

O and one more thing....CHECK YOUR OIL MORE OFTEN!!!!!

 

I missed that. Wow, that is not good. I'll repeat Call 911: CHECK YOUR OIL EVERY MORE OFTEN
At least every other fill-up.

 

Just ask Batman how bad it is to drive around with low oil(more like none).

 

The oil level warning light comes on when the oil is low. My FD doesn't burn oil since I don't go crazy hard on it. Once the light comes on, top off the oil immediately. Did your lights come on?

 

i change out my oil about every 500 miles so it never happens to me :-)

 

Wow, and I thought I was being **** doing it every 1500! Your engine will probably live forever!
(of course, living in Hawaii the rest of the car will probably rust out in about - oh - 15 minutes!

 

500 miles! Do you change your oil every time you wash your car or something?? What a waste of money and natural resource. I bet it's still golden when you drain it.

 

delete

 

hey i do not waste the oil, i dump the oil in my daily drive.

P.S. Your very close about it rusting in 15 mins btw!

 

Yeah, I'm on about the same program as that too.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by skunks
[B]hey i do not waste the oil, i dump the oil in my daily drive.

My mistake, you do two oil changes per car wash. One on the FD and the other on the daily driver!

Seriously, that's more work for no reason. 1500-2000 is pretty frequent. I do it every 3k mi since I don't push it very often. On track or city driving, 1000-1500 would be ideal.

 

thanks for all the replies. looks like i just need to check more often since i drive it really hard. The light did not come on. I heard it comes on after the level is below the bottom of the dipstick. They should have had the light come on earlier.

 

...is "NOT" excessive!

If the turbo engine gets hot enough to warrant using synthetic but you can't or don't use synthetic then the dino' oil will boil/break down alot sooner. So now you are not only puting your engine at risk but your turbos as well!

If you don't top off the oil with every fillup but you change the oil every 1.5k mi then you'll never drive below the "L" mark. Although, adding a quart after 1k mi is way better.

The price also adds up to the same thing.
2 dino' oil changes @ 1500mi
= 1 synthetic oil change @ 3000mi
= $45

You could probably get the same results every 2k mi, if you add a quart 1/2 way.

 

how many quarts of oil do u generally put in ur fd? ive got an r1--holds more cuz of 2ndary oil cooler . and like on sat. when i changed it i threw in like 4.75 qts of valv 10w30 (and mazda oil filter). usu i drive my car pretty easy (cant get another ticket till aug 02...cuz u have to wait 18mos. for traffic school option) and change every 11-1300miles..which still ends up being like 4 mos. cuz i have a beater ford probe for errands and commuting. is the time issue a big deal or is mileage and how hard u drive ur rex more important??

 

boden11,

In your case 3-5 months or 1500 miles would be fine. You live in California anyway so your not running as rich fuel wise as opposed to someone in a colder climate. Where i live winter is over and i do not use my FD as much so it sits 6 days a week in the garage so during those cold winter months when i would start it up it would run rich due to the cold weather and would dilute the oil with fuel. So i started changing the my oil every 1,500 or 3 months. Warm weather is here so its back to 3-5 months or 2,000 miles

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by djantlive
[B]I own a old Benz which needs about 8 quarts of oil and i use it every day, on the other hand i use my fd as a weekend car and most of the time i dont even use it (since i am so busy) on the weekend so every 500miles on my fd i change the oil and about 4.25 quarts falls out of the engine so it takes about 2 oil changes to fill up my Benz. combine that with the island being only 120 miles around (meaning if i were to cruise around the island every week it would take me about a months to get to 500 miles, usually i go on cruises that are about 60 miles only so it takes me about 2-3 months to get to 500 miles), it takes me over 3000 miles on my Benz before i get 500 miles on my FD so that makes it worth my while to change the oil out every 500 miles. In any case its only a dollar for a bottle of oil and Im gonna have to change out the oil in my Benz anyways so why the hell shouldn't I change out my oil every 500 miles??? Do you got something about having fresh oil in my FD?