Driving A Car With No Oil #TBT - Fifth Gear

In this week's #ThrowbackThursday we revisit the time Tim Shaw tried driving a car after draining it's oil. Guess how that turned out.

[aakksshhaayy]

basic car maintenance should be part of driver licensing...

[seriall]

For car lovers, this must be incredibly painful to watch.

[LN_]

I'm absolutely shocked about how so many drivers are completely clueless on how to properly maintain their car. Truly worrisome.

[blower]

Where's the standing right in front of the car.

[omardude]

It'd be nice if oil level came up as stong as my seatbelt warning....

[alexkalicharan]

You mentioned three things that oil does for your engine (cooling, cleaning, lubricant). In auto class I was also taught a fourth point; oil is used as a sealant for things like piston rings, it helps with cylinder compression and what not. Just curious to see if anyone else was taught this.

[MotoXRacer]

That is fucking terrifying that all these people NEVER check their oil or couldn't give two shits less about their car's engine. Makes me so wary about buying a used/pre owned vehicle now...

[Rakso-bqlb]

I check the oil (and other fluids) in my car at least once a week, and also before and after a longer drive as well. I am a little bit amazed how some people just continue to run without ever checking the oil level or even seems to be aware of how to control it.

[BigDogsDangler]

If there's no oil on the dipstick, buy a longer dipstick.

[Benjyman]

I work at the automotive department for a Walmart. Usually you will find cars low on oil, and people who don't know how to properly treat their cars, however, I encountered one of the stupidest people I could ever imagine meeting.

She said her car was making a weird knocking and sputtering sound. So i take a look at it, so i pull out the dipstick and i see no oil. typical. I also check the radiator resevoir and not only is it empty, its a bit cool. Which is odd because there was smoke coming out of the dipstick hole, indicating it was overheated. So not wanting to start the car with no oil and coolant, i tell her to buy some oil and coolant and fill it up. Then I noticed the oil cap was was melted onto the engine block. I had to use several kinds of pliers to finally get it loose. they top it off and I tell her to start it. It made the most god awful grinding and knocking you have ever heard. I told her to let it idle to see if it improves. Thats when i noticed this boiling lava like liquid leaking from the engine block behind the exhaust manifold. I tell her to kill it, and wait for the liquid to leak all the way out. I see a massive hole and cracks on the front of the engine block. The molten lava coming out was a mixture of reeeaaallly old oil, the new oil and coolant. So not only did she blow her head gasket, and not have any oil in the car, the friction, . heat and energy buildup made a massive freaking hole on the side of her engine block.

So I ask her how she treated the car and when it started acting up, she said it was making the grinding sound for a few months and never had time to get it looked at. I asked about her most recent oil change, and she said she hasn't had the oil changed since she bought it because she thought you only needed to change it during a tune-up every 100, 000 miles. I look at the service sticker on her window and it was from 4 years ago with over 60, 000 miles past due. yes 60, 000 miles. not only that but she has driven for months with that awful grinding sound. No coolant in the car so her temperature must have been maxed out for ages too.

But what i was baffled about was how that engine could have possibly lasted that long. 60k miles with no oil, blown head gasket, no coolant. And grinding and a huge ass hole on the block for at least 2 months. I was just amazed at how it could have possibly held up for so long, this guy maybe drove 2 hours in the video and this girl has gone just about 4 years with god awful conditions. It was a 2003 mitsubishi galant with the 2.4l engine. Like this had to be reinforced with a mixture of Hulk DNA and Captain America's shield to have held up for so long. Crazy things you see at walmart

[Tannerp]

Kinda sad he had to teach people how to check their oil

[ethownzbh]

The woman that tried tried putting the dipstick in the oil filler. I'm glad I have a fist for moments like that when a facepalm just isn't strong enough.

[NormanBatesIsMyMum]

This video saved me a fortune. I had forgotten to top up oil for ages and ages. Went to check after watching this and found it very low. Will keep an eye on that from now on!

[Austin-rizk]

They should teach this stuff to learner drivers. It's like how so many people never check Tyre pressure.

[brett]

I blame poor quality fathers for this debacle.

[SuperCar]

Its amazing how few people even know how an engine works. With a small amount of mechanical sympathy and a bit of know-how, a large amount of our finite resources can be saved.

[halflife]

I worked at a Tire and Lube Express at Walmart in Canada for 5 years
I would say.... 15% of cars i work on have no oil on the dipstick...

Most of these are Subaru for some reason.

On the other hand i had an old lady bring a vehicle in saying that she added oil in the parking lot and now her car wont start...
So i went to her car and asked her what she did becasue she said she filled it in the parking lot. It was a 2003 Cavalier. She showed me how she filled it with 10L or so of oil... SHE FILLED IT UNTIL IT OVERFLOWED FROM THE FILLER.

[TriggeredWorkz]

if u can't maintain a car, you shouldn't be allowed to drive it

[hannahkan]

2:10 *Oil overheating*     *Connecting Rod Bearings damaged*     *Engine dies* BeamNG drive sounds m8

[mattbates]

I topped up the oil level, before leaving home on a long journey once, without thinking of making sure the oil filler cap was fully screwed up. When I arrived near my destination, I got stuck in a very long slow moving traffic jam. I then noticed a strange smell coming from outside the car, the drivers window was wound down. Looking forward I could see a slight smokey haze coming from near the bonnet area. I shot out of the car and lifted up the bonnet with the engine still running. To my horror, there was hot oil splattering all over the engine bay, the filler cap had come off the engine cover. I found the filler cap, and took out the dipstick in a blind panic. The oil level had gone right off the minimum level. As luck would have it, I always carried some oil with me back then, when I went on long journeys. I managed to get the oil level back to somewhere between min/max. Thinking about it now, I wouldn't have noticed any smell or smoke had I been driving on the motorway for much longer. So it was just as well, I got stuck in that traffic jam, as it saved my engine from blowing up!