Any auto mechanics online?

May 2021 9 117 Report

Any auto mechanics online?

I have a 94 ford explorer i drove it while the check engine light was on and when I got off the freeway it was making a clicking sound. When i checked the oil it wasn't reading on the dipstick (probably a 1 ct or less) Now the truck drives horrible. It sounds like a piece of **** and most the time when i drive it the acceleration is horrible and it doesn't down **** till it hits like 3 rpms so i'm assuming it's not running on all cylinders but it still drives and it doesn't smoke or overheat...so would a tune up fix the issue?

Cars & Transportation / Maintenance & Repairs

kevusaborn

Verified answer

The oil doesn't sound like the issue here. Yes, you were low, but not to the extreme. 1 quart

or less you said, ( that's not going to kill the engine unless you were really running hot for a

while ).

If the light is still on, you've got to find out why, I wouldn't jump to a tune-up until I found out

why the light came on, is still on ? or what happened here. Find this out first.

Get it looked at real soon.

Good Luck...

Paul R

Assuming (probably 1 ct or less) means you added less than one quart of oil to get a reading on the dipstick, I'm guessing you are still down almost 2 quarts? Or did adding less than one quart of oil give you a max reading on the dipstick?

If you were down nearly 3 quarts (1 quart to get a reading, two more quarts to get it up to max line where it belongs), you had less than 2 quarts of oil in the engine, and may have done some damage such as fractured piston rings which will affect performance, but should likely lead to engine smoking. If you spun one or more bearings on the crankshaft (main and/or rod end bearings) that could cause the engine to run poorly and would not show up as burning oil, but should show up as low oil pressure. If you don't have an oil pressure guage on the car it's hard to know what it was and if it has gone down.

The only disturbing fact is that you heard clicking noises which don't usually come and go with tune up issues.

So spending money on a tune up may not do much for you if your broke something mechanical.

One quick test to see if it's at least running well on all cylinders at idle is to take a pair of insulated pliers and remove one spark plug wire at a time while the engine is idling. If a cylinder is not working well, when you pull the plug wire it will have little or no effect. If the cylinder is working well, the idle will drop dramatically at first, and then try to level itself out again.

Before you try the plug wire test, with the engine off, make sure you can remove each wire first. Struggling with stuck wires while the engine is running is no fun.

If you find a dramatic difference on a particular cylinder you can try pulling that sparkplug and changing it and/or the spark plug wire and see if that fixes it.

Another way to check spark plug wires is to start the engine at night with no light around. If you see a light show going on under your hood, you have some pretty bad plug wires (but that may not be your only problem).

The bottom line is that from your description it sounds like you ran it very low on oil and if that caused the problem, it is likely a tune up will be a waste of money.

On the other hand, if the low oil was simply a coincidence, and the clicking noise was there before but you just didn't notice it, then you simply may be due for a tune up.

Good luck.

Matt

OMG!!! Why don't people keep an eye on their fluids and check your oil at least once a week. It's an engine. A machine. You know, something that needs maintenance. It doesn't keep itself up YOU have to do it. The clicking is either a valve or a lifter tapping. You HAVE to keep the required oil level in it or you'll destroy your engine. PUT OIL IN IT!!!

It's not smoking because A.) it doesn't have a leak, or B.) because you don't have enough oil in it to burn if you DID have a leak. I'm not surprised that it isn't over heating. I've seen many that won't overheat unless drove for a long distance.