Car Won't Start & No Oil Pressure Reading On Gauge

[NomisST]

It's been a while since I've been back to this forum. Good to be back. Anyway, I got a lot of worrying now with this car...2003 350Z

So I go to my car this morning and turn the key and my car just makes rapid clicking sounds. Car doesn't crank most of the time, but sometimes it attempts to crank and then just stops cranking and all you hear are the rapid clicking sounds.

Next thing I notice is that my oil pressure gauge needle moves about 1mm when I turn the key to on. This could mean a lot of things and I don't know if the oil pressure is actually low or the gauge went bad (which I highly doubt).

Next thing I did was opened the hood and saw that there was no oil cap...I didn't realize that I've been driving with the oil cap off since I changed the oil for about probably 3 weeks now...I was driving the car yesterday perfectly without any issues. Could this have done anything to my oil pressure? Could this have led to a vacuum "leak"? I don't know if Nissan has a ECU where if it is reading low oil pressure it won't allow the car to start. Also I'm sure oil escaped as I was driving over these 3 weeks.

What sucks is right when I started to work on the car it started to rain heavily...my life right...anyway, what I'm going to do this week is I'm going to do another oil change just to make sure I got the right amount of oil in my engine because the dipstick on the 350z is just horrible to read if I got the right oil level in my car. After that I'm going to hit the starter cause I heard that it could be something stuck within the starter and that hitting it would get it loose.

Does anyone know what else it could be? Also is there a way to increase the oil pressure? Please someone help...my life is just absolutely horrible right now and my car not working has just put the icing on the cake. Thanks for reading the post.

[PalmerWMD]

The first thing you need to do is check the oil.

Even if the dipstick is a hassle, since the car hasnt run it should be easy to tell if the oil isabove the minimum.

If you can see oil anywhere near the minium mark you still had enough oil.Even if the car is low by a quart or even 2 you wont see engine seizing and even oil pressure will stay good in these motors unless you lost over half your oil.

Everything else goes from there, after you checked the level.

Contrary to popular opinion you actually don't lose oil all that quickly at all with an open oil caps.BUT lots of driving.......

Worst case scenario: lack of oil, motor is seized. And the ECU doesnt prevent you from starting the car if there is no or too little oil.To your last question if you are too low on oil (which is easy to check) then the best way to incrase pressure is to add more oil

But part of me doenst think so, since you said the engine "drove fine" fust before.

So Best case secanio your battery is just dead and the open oil cover is incidental.clicking noise often means lack of battery power...So please check the oil and let us know then we'll take it form there:)

You may also check the voltage on your battery


Modified by PalmerWMD at 8:53 PM 12/5/2009

[NomisST]

Thanks for the info. I did the oil and everything...I always think it's the worst case scenario...I need to be more optimistic, it was the freaking battery...I couldn't tell it was dead because the voltage needle was still moving to the left in the volt gauge when I turned the key to on and also no lights were dim and windows still worked. However, it wasn't high enough to turn the car over. Thanks for the help, at least you replied!

[PalmerWMD]

I was worried for you when I read the beginning of your post.I am glad my hunch with the battery was right

[jb252f]

I am having the exact same problem with my 2006 350. But I have more than enough oil. Just yesterday I had to replace a radiator hose because the car was running extremely hot and my oil pressure was hitting 120 Psi. Was going for an oil filter change a minute ago and had temperature problems again. Let the car sit for a while and now temp is right where it should be but I have almost 0 coolant and absolutely no oil pressure. Car wont start so any help would be much appreciated. Its an auto with 29k on it.

[jb252f]

Ok I managed to get it started and back home by staying revved at lights. Is it possible that the oil is circulating with the coolant and causing this?

[jb252f]

Took it out again this morning after refilling the coolant.. Oil pressure read in a range anywhere from 25 psi at idle to 120 psi at 5k. Coolant temp started to redline after 20 mins of driving. That could be due to the fact that I was forced to use the wrong type of antifreeze temporarily and the lower radiator hose has a broken clamp.. Any hunches on the oil pressure problem would be appreciated. thanks