Drove over 3k miles with only 4 quart of oil how bad is it
 

Normally I'm pretty good with topping up oil between oil changes, but got busy with work, didn't change oil for about 8 months with about 8k miles since last change.
Today when I changed the oil and dip stick didn't even get any oil. only got 4 quarts of oil out of it. Though the oil looked light brown and not black at all.
I estimate I probably drove about 3-4k miles with oil well below the dipstick low level. I drive the car pretty hard. How bad is it?
It's a 2013 frs with about 50k miles

That's a low mileage example! I thought mine was pretty low at 84K km but it sounds like yours is around the same.
We cant tell you if you damaged your motor by neglecting to maintain a minimal oil level, but Im pretty sure that if you caused any problem, your engine will tell you. Or more likely, accelerated wear and living on the edge will b to the detriment of the next owner who will have no clue until the engine starts making noises or other issues. The car is your property and you can do that if you want to, but I doubt you would tell this to the next owner, would you? THAT, I have issues with.

TL;DR. Good work! Extreme neglect with anything can only lead to bad things, but don't worry.

With 4 quarts in it I doubt you hurt anything.....just don't keep doing it.

22R

I assume these have a low-oil warning light.

At what level does that come on?

Only when pressure is far too low. If you're driving and it comes on, you're probably already past the point of no return

I would be more worried about why you're burning/losing so much oil in 8k miles.

lol no.

you will get a low oil pressure light when your engine no longer has oil in it and oil pressure falls to zero though.

Intriguing. What's the point of even having a warning light then?

These things should come with instructions for their owners. They could be called Owner's Manuals.

Considering these cars take 5.4 L of oil, only draining 4 L means you're 25% low. Again, if you don't give a shit that's great, but would you have the ethics to not resell the car without disclosure of such things? Likely not. So, your carelessness might be to the detriment of the next owner.. People do dumb careless shit.

I'm especially dumbfounded when it's an enthusiast that visits this site, who usually would care more not less.

nah I don't think I'll ever sell this. Especially if I can find a good AE86 to buy. Tryin to get all 3 generations :burnrubber:.

Years ago, a friend pulled into my driveway with a horrible knock. Spun rod bearing. She admitted that she thought the oil light was for when it was time to add a quart.

She had been driving her Tercel like that for at least a year before it died.

She also made a little shrine for her crankshaft. Called it Ode To Oil.

When work demands I pull 70 hour weeks. The enthusiast in me takes a back seat.

Machines don't care about excuses. Live & learn.

Not making excuses. Not new knowledge to me to keep the oil topped to recommended level and I admit I've neglected this one time.
But when there is crazy deadlines at work I pick getting a fat bonus over a car worth less than $15k .

This might be the WRX owner in me (it's my current daily, and I've owned it 12+ years), but the general rule of thumb there was the check it at the gas station at each fill-up. That meant you were checking it every 200-300 miles and on a level surface.

You don't need to follow that exact procedure, but it's for people that don't have a garage or park on a level surface... or who just forget to check the oil. Doing it every fill up ensures it's never going to be catastrophically low. It's overkill, but that's the point.

Personally, I check my BRZ's probably every weekend or about every 100-200 miles in the garage. Also, put about 1/4" or so over the full mark so there's some leeway in there too. That way if it ever does burn any, you have a small reserve before it's even to the "full" mark.

Double post.

That's an admirable sacrifice. Do you put gas in the car? If you know it consumes oil you should check the dipstick every couple of tanks. Worse case, buy a litre at the gas station and i
top it up. And not sacrifice a car that's worth only $15k. It sounds like a silly excuse.but then again I wouldn't work sweatshop hours unless the incentive was really big, big enough that after not too long I'll never need to do it ever again. OK I'll stop with the unsolicited advice.

PS, my brother in law owns a '60 Vette, '68.5 Jag E Type, a '55 Austin Healy 100M, and a new Bentley and Ferrari.
None of those awesome vintage cars would still exist to be restored if nobody cared when their car's values were low. Your eyes would bleed if I showed you the Barrett Jackson values on his restored/restomod vintage cars.

Fair point. I do keep half a quart and a funnel in the trunk incase it's low , but recently I've neglected to check and refill, got too many things on my mind.

Normally I don't lose much between oil changes, I've checked the seals when changing the oil yesterday and it didn't seem to have leaks. I did see some some residual oil on the oil change nut, so that could be why it was losing more oil than normal. New washer changed so hopefully it's good now.

I used to do this before I let my strict oil regimen slip recently, I need to start doing that again:bonk:. Funny thing is sometimes people will come up to me and ask me if everything is ok at the gas station

After draining 4 quarts out of it I put in 5 quarts(not 5.4) back and it was up to the full line, so realistically it prolly had a bit more than 4 quarts and I wasn't able to drain all of it.

Any idea how low before the light comes on in these cars? Years ago my friend's G35's light came on and we were only able to get 2 quarts out of it. The engine didn't feel the same after that and he trade it into dealership.

With 4 out of 5 quarts my main concern was sump not getting oil when cornering as I corner pretty hard in this car. Does the light come on in this case?

Yep, I get that too. Anytime you open the hood, everyone thinks there's a big problem or something lol. No one checks their oil, coolant, or anything anymore. A lot of people don't even know where the hood latch is in their car, which is sad.

I wasn’t joking when I said you have to have literally zero oil pressure for the light to come on. The oil pressure switch activates when you have less than 2.1psi of oil pressure which is like, catastrophic engine grenade scenario. I’ve seen people put windows in their blocks without that light ever coming on.

That being said, being a quart and change low isn’t going to kill your motor unless you were doing some high-G cornering like that.

Sadly it's not overkill for a Subaru engine. I think they are the only modern vehicle where you need to worry about checking the oil frequently like that.

My WRX went 7-8 years without ever using more than 1/3 quart in a 5000 mi OCI. I might have added oil 3 times in 70,000 miles, checking every 500 miles on average. And then one day after a longer gap of maybe 1500 miles I checked and the dipstick was barely touching oil. Couldn't find a leak and it didn't use any in the following 4000 miles. Shaky PCV valve maybe? Inexplicable.

I don't recommend anything with a Subaru engine to anyone.

It's called an idiot light for a reason. If you depend on it, you're an idiot.
This is literally the most common configuration for oil lights on the planet. Very very few vehicles employ an actual oil volume light.

If I had to wager, it's probably fine. Any major damage would have already showed itself. Mostly just a reminder to yourself to keep an eye on it. I had a saying with my old Miata, if I wonder if I should check the oil, it's time to check the oil. But those engines were known for burning oil.

Excellence in engineering.