No Oil on Dipstick prior to 3,000 mile mark

I got my oil changed this weekend and for the second time in a row, there was
no oil on the dipstick. The car has always gone for it's usual oil change
every 3,000 miles, so I'm not sure why there's no oil. There is no
noticeable leakage anywhere. It was suggested that I get an engine flush.
Before spending money on that, are there any explanations to the oil issue?
Thanks.

 

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Your pcv is probably stuck open, sucking all the vapor out of the
crankcase. Your owner's manual will tell you how often you should have
beenchecking the oil. When asking for help, it's important to mention
the year, make, model, and mileage of the vehicle.

'Curly'

 

You should be checking the oil every time you put gas in it and adding oil
as needed. Letting it go that low will blow the engine if it hasn't already.
Take it to a qualified mechanic as someone recommending expensive flushes
without determining the problem is just trying to pad his wallet....

 

The other posters made some great suggestions. I only wanted to add that
you should look under your car every morning to see if there is a pool of
oil under the engine. It's possible that oil is leaking from the oil pan
as a result of defective oil pan gasket. I also advise you to have a
complete tune-up. Prior to the tune-up, tell the mechanic or the service
advisor about the oil problem. Perhaps the mechanic can figure out the
problem. I should note that you should follow the suggestion from the
other poster related to the PCV valve before you spend the money for the
tune-up.
Jason

 

How many miles on the car? What model?

How long (months) does it take you to get to 3,000 miles?

 

Get to your dealer right away. This happened to my daughter some years ago;
no oil on the dip stick after only 250 miles. she had a Civic with 55,000
miles and out of warranty. The dealer didn't believe her so they filled it
to the full mark. 250 miles later there was no oil on the dip stick--back to
the dealer, consulted with Honda who authorized an engine tear down, as
required, to determine the cause. They found some worn valve seals and
replaced them. 250 miles later the same problem--back to Honda who again
said "tear the engine down again". This time they found piston rings worn,
rebuilt the engine and this solved the oil loss problem. Her cost was
minimum---just parts the for the first tear down and nothing for the second
tear down.
55,000 miles is nothing for one of Honda's engines so they went after the
problem . Obviously, there was the worry-- "how many more like this are
there out there? is the cause--design/production problem or a one time
incident?".
She ended up with a zero time engine and when she got rid of the car it had
about 200,000 miles on it.
MLD

 

I once heard about an Odyssey that had a 'porous' engine block that allowed
the oil to leak out of the engine. It was my uncles, and he worked at a
honda dealership at the time so they fixed it...

Probably not your problem, i just thought it was weird.

 

There have been sporadic reports here of sudden increases in oil consumption
in fairly low-mileage Honda engines. The few that were resolved turned out
to be broken piston rings, IIRC.

Forget the engine flush - it will only obscure some indications of what is
really happening. With 3K mile oil changes it is a pointless exercise
anyway.

Mike

 

I forgot to mention the model and miles. It's a 99 Honda Civic Si. It has
117,000 miles on it. It takes about a 2 months for me to get to 3,000 miles.
I just had the oil changed on sunday. I'll check the oil level today to make
sure there's still oil in it. Again, there are no noticeable leakage.

 

Lots of good advice from other posters but let's simplify this problem. As I
understand you, there is no oil on the stick when you go for your oil
change. Only two possibilities exist: 1) There is no oil in the sump or 2)
the sump has oil in it and the reading on the stick is wrong. Which? When
the oil is changed at 3k miles, how much do they drain out? I would have the
place that changes your oil measure the amount of oil drained out. This will
tell you for sure which possibility it is. If there is no oil in the sump,
follow the advice given by other posters. If there is a sufficiency of oil
in the sump, then the first thing I would check would be the dipstick. Is it
the correct one or did it get switched at a previous oil change? Just a
thought.

Dave D