Oil mysteriously disappeared.

[shortylickens]

2009 Nissan Murano. SL.

No spots or stains on the driveway, at all. Ever.
State safety inspection is only 6 months old, and I asked them to check all fluids at that time even if not required.
Mechanic said oil all gone, dipstick completely dry.
Absolutely no noises or funny smells or smoke coming from the engine compartment in all the years I've owned.
No stains or weird marks in the engine compartment.
No unusual operating problems in all the years I've owned it.


Conspiracy theories?

 

[herm0016]

you should check your own oil once in a while, that's the only conspiracy.

its either being burned or leaking. only 2 options. fill it back up and see how much it takes, then keep an eye on it.

 

[pauldun170]

2009 Nissan Murano. SL.

No spots or stains on the driveway, at all. Ever.
State safety inspection is only 6 months old, and I asked them to check all fluids at that time even if not required.
Mechanic said oil all gone, dipstick completely dry.
Absolutely no noises or funny smells or smoke coming from the engine compartment in all the years I've owned.
No stains or weird marks in the engine compartment.
No unusual operating problems in all the years I've owned it.


Conspiracy theories?

Easy question.
When was the last time you checked the oil and how often do you check it?
What schedule are you following for oil changes?

Are you following Premium, Schedule 1 or Schedule 2?

https://nissanrogue.org/download/2009_Nissan_Service_Maintenance_Guide.pdf

 

[shortylickens]

I check it about every six months, via dipstick. I haven't been going by mileage.
NEVER had an issue until today. Have been driving less thanks to coronavirus. cant see why slightly lower mileage would make a difference. If its burning it must be happening so slowly that I can't smell it, and I have an annoyingly sensitive nose.
My car spends most of the day in my home drive, and there are no spots.

 

[Torn Mind]

Prankster drained it at night?

 

[pauldun170]

I check it about every six months, via dipstick. I haven't been going by mileage.
NEVER had an issue until today. Have been driving less thanks to coronavirus. cant see why slightly lower mileage would make a difference. If its burning it must be happening so slowly that I can't smell it, and I have an annoyingly sensitive nose.
My car spends most of the day in my home drive, and there are no spots.

Did you check after your last oil change? (Note: Always check your oil level after an oil change. Even dealers screw up from time to time)

Top it off and start keeping track of miles.
Check at the 500 mile mark, and if stable. Again at the 1500. If stably check again at the 3000 mark.

Could be from the typical PCV valve needing a replacement to rings. If you can, let the car sit for a couple of days and then check the exhaust at start up for signs of burning oil. Could be some oil leaking past the valve seals.

 

[ondma]

As others have said, the oil had to be either leaking or burning. That is of course unless something weird happened at the last oil change like they forgot to fill the oil, added the wrong amount, or forgot to tighten the drain plug. You can be slowly burning oil without seeing smoke or smelling it, and you can also have a leak that evaporates (from engine heat) away as you drive so that you wont see fluid on the driveway.

I am not clear on you post though. Did they find the oil empty at the state inspection, or did they find it full then and you recently found it empty? If the oil was in fact so low that it did no show on the dipstick, you also should have gotten a low oil pressure reading or warning light.

Note: as pauldun said, always be sure to check the oil immediately after an oil change and watch for leaks in case the drain plug was not tightened correctly. I am not a fan of rapid oil change franchises, but the one I go to occasionally shows you the dipstick after the fresh oil is added to verify that the level is correct.

 

[shortylickens]

No the state inspection 6 months ago went fine, including the oil.
And without oil for 6 whole months I suspect I would heard a noise or had some other trouble.

 

[pcgeek11]

No the state inspection 6 months ago went fine, including the oil.
And without oil for 6 whole months I suspect I would heard a noise or had some other trouble.

When your mechanic said this " Mechanic said oil all gone, dipstick completely dry. "

He is full of poop. If all the oil was gone it wouldn't have ran 5 minutes. Just because it isn't touching the dipstick doesn't mean it is empty.

As many have said leaking or burning, its gotta be going somewhere. It can get burned a little at a time over the course of 6 months and be low and off the dipstick without any obvious signs.

If it were leaking you would have oil on the engine somewhere telling as much.

 

[RLGL]

Very well could be going past the piston rings, GM has had this issue on and off over the years. As stated the oil should be checked. I check oil monthly when I check tire pressure. Another possibility is a bad PVC valve.

 

[Motostu]

...
If the oil was in fact so low that it did no show on the dipstick, you also should have gotten a low oil pressure reading or warning light.
...

This. Did the oil light at least come on?

 

[shortylickens]

This. Did the oil light at least come on?

Nope, just the Engine Alert.

 

[ondma]

Just another though on oil burning. With the catalytic converters on modern cars, I would think it might burn the blue smoke that was seen in the old days from a severely oil burning engine. I would think a compression test might be warranted to see if oil is slipping past the rings.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I'm with others that I'm incredibly surprised you didn't have an oil light on. It often comes on at a high threshold. My Oldsmobile Intrigue specifically would throw on the light if oil was a quart low. The whole purpose is to give you quite a bit of margin for getting the problem addressed, since unless the leak was hyper aggressive, you still have plenty of time 1 quart down to buy new oil and top up, or get an appointment with your mechanic to find the leak. Even if you're burning it, leaking it, whatever, you should be getting an oil light on if you're even a little bit low.

 

[Jimminy]

2009 Nissan Murano. SL.

No spots or stains on the driveway, at all. Ever.
State safety inspection is only 6 months old, and I asked them to check all fluids at that time even if not required.
Mechanic said oil all gone, dipstick completely dry.
Absolutely no noises or funny smells or smoke coming from the engine compartment in all the years I've owned.
No stains or weird marks in the engine compartment.
No unusual operating problems in all the years I've owned it.


Conspiracy theories?

Check your coolant. Sometimes a head gasket leak will allow oil to leak into the cooling system. Usually, the coolant will be a foamy brownish color, but I'm not sure what it looks like with the modern weird colored antifreezes.

But, even a shade tree mechanic should have noticed signs of a blown head gasket (hopefully).

I ain't got no conspiracy theories. That's trumps domain

 

[RLGL]

I would think a compression test might be warranted to see if oil is slipping past the rings.

No guarantee compression test will detect it. A leak down has a better chance and also may not detect it.

 

[NutBucket]

I'm with others that I'm incredibly surprised you didn't have an oil light on. It often comes on at a high threshold. My Oldsmobile Intrigue specifically would throw on the light if oil was a quart low. The whole purpose is to give you quite a bit of margin for getting the problem addressed, since unless the leak was hyper aggressive, you still have plenty of time 1 quart down to buy new oil and top up, or get an appointment with your mechanic to find the leak. Even if you're burning it, leaking it, whatever, you should be getting an oil light on if you're even a little bit low.

Most dummy lights are pressure based. Being a quart low (dry dipstick) won't cause the pump to suck air. Where you might see the oil light come on is if you take a sharp turn or something which could cause the pickup to suck some air as the oil sloshes around. Even then it may only flicker.

 

[ondma]

Most dummy lights are pressure based. Being a quart low (dry dipstick) won't cause the pump to suck air. Where you might see the oil light come on is if you take a sharp turn or something which could cause the pickup to suck some air as the oil sloshes around. Even then it may only flicker.

Probably, but the OP said the dipstick was completely dry. That would indicate that the oil was certainly more than a quart low, probably approaching 2 quarts.

 

[pauldun170]

Probably, but the OP said the dipstick was completely dry. That would indicate that the oil was certainly more than a quart low, probably approaching 2 quarts.

Poking around it looks like that nissan dipstick is on the longer side with measurement area far up the stick and some complaining it's hard to read.
In a lot of cars, a dry stick can indicate 2 to 2.5 quarts low. Giving his car benefit of the doubt and his oil pressure light works, he was able to just maintain oil pressure on half oil capacity and he drives the car gently.

If he checks it twice a year, the mileage between checks is going to be very important info.
If he's travelled 6k since the last check then the consumption isn't that bad considering the age of the car and the nissan 3.5 engine which can burn oil. If he only travelled 1k then my guess is that it was never filled properly in the first place or he has a big surprise in the coolant reservoir or the rear main seal leaked it all into the transmission case.

 

[NutBucket]

If it leaked out the rear main it would definitely be on the ground. It's pretty unlikely the bell housing is mated tightly enough to the block to hold that much oil.

 

[killster1]

No the state inspection 6 months ago went fine, including the oil.
And without oil for 6 whole months I suspect I would heard a noise or had some other trouble.

no oil on the dipstick doesnt mean no oil is in the engine. my car (2016 honda accord) seems to burn a quart of oil in the summer (80,000 miles) i suspected pcv valve as well, but winter oil changes have not been burning oil. (i do drive 120-130mph often)

 

[BudAshes]

No the state inspection 6 months ago went fine, including the oil.
And without oil for 6 whole months I suspect I would heard a noise or had some other trouble.

Uhhh no oil for a couple minutes means the car is done for.

Either you or your mechanic is trolling here.

 

[BudAshes]

no oil on the dipstick doesnt mean no oil is in the engine. my car (2016 honda accord) seems to burn a quart of oil in the summer (80,000 miles) i suspected pcv valve as well, but winter oil changes have not been burning oil. (i do drive 120-130mph often)

This is correct. Oil can easily be below the dipstick level if the engine is slowly leaking and burning off oil.

As for a state inspection, I highly doubt they bothered to check your fluids for you.

 

[BudAshes]

The real mystery here was my double post.

 

[Paperdoc]

Your post from "Friday at 1:55" says you DID get a Check Engine light. So, did the mechanic or anyone read the ODBII codes and tell you what that shows?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I live comfortably so far with minor oil leakage, from the engine rear mainseal and the auto-trans mainseal. I keep a drop pan in a precisely measured spot under my Trooper (which is 26 years old), and I check it weekly to see how much is leaking. It isn't burning oil -- that's for sure.

I can go all year and these minor leaks don't seem to have an impact on the dip-stick oil level that I can see. But I use a paper towel to soak up the engine oil and Dexron III respectively. Mostly, the engine oil on the drop pan is barely enough to make a smudge showing my fingers where they were applied to the pan. After a week or so, I may collect Dexron III from the pan which I squeeze out of the towel and measure to be about a half an ml or cc.

As for the tranny main-seal leak, I've noticed that I can drive the car and heat it up, return home to a clean drop pan, and the leaks don't occur for several hours after the car has been sitting in the garage. If the ambient temperature is chilly, the tranny leaks more Dexron than it does on warm days.

I'm waiting to see a cumulative Dexron loss that's big enough to allow replacement with maybe half the recommended treatment with Blue Devil Transmission Sealer -- which I know seems to work.

But I'm going to have a long wait.

You can overfill either your engine oil or your auto-trans. With the engine, I've found that adding an extra 20 fluid ounces will stifle noisy valve-lifter clatter completely. With the transmission, there are really no benefits to adding more than the spec.