How long can a 3.5L go w/o much oil?

[kjwzoom]

2006 Morano 48k miles. Terrible question to ask but the #$(%^* down at the Big-O by where my wife works checked her oil before she drove home (hour commute), said "oh, looks good".... So she gets home, I think it smells hot and sounds a bit off - not clunking of running bad, just off. So I let it sit for a few hours w/ hood open to cool off. I then check the dipstick. Nothing. I know the Mo has a hard dipstick to check, so I try again. Nothing. I take of the oil cap and I'm looking at engine. How much engine should show through the cap? Should I see oil and engine, or just engine? I see just engine.

How much possible damage are we talking if she had some but it leaked/burned off by the time she got home?

[Q451990]

Hard to say... it'll be helpful to know how much oil you added to bring it back to the normal range. There's no doubt some damage was done - but if the oil pressure light didn't come on there's hope that it'll survive for a while. Do you have any drivetrain warranty left?

Heath

[comatoseculture]

You will only see the engine. Possible damage if it was ok and ran that low in one trip? Its hard to believe it was in the ok, then one trip later wasn't ok. For that to happen it would be leaking out fairly rapidly, or burning right past the rings. More probable in my mind that the kid either didn't check, or didn't know. Best of luck to you and yours.