Hi folks,
The car is a '99 SL1 with about 64,500 miles on it. I was sitting in line at a drive-thru the other day when noise started coming from the valve train. I went home and shut the car down. I let it sit for about an hour then I checked the oil level. There was no oil on the dipstick at all. I hitched a ride to buy some oil, came back, and added a quart. That only measured at the very bottom of the dipstick. I put yet another quart in and it was within normal range.
There doesn't seem to be any leaks under the car. A flat piece of cardboard showed no leaks. I had a friend drive behind me on the highway and I pushed the motor up to 5K, but no smoke. I checked the exhaust at idle, still no smoke. My last oil change was maybe 2-3 months ago (it was overdue by 1000 miles) and it was down by a quart then. Two quarts lost seems like a big thing on a car that only uses 4 quarts. I can only hope that there's no damage as a result of oil starvation.
Any suggestions as to where this oil is going? Could it be slowly burning away and not noticable? Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks.