What a mess!

I pulled my radiator last night after work to have it pressure checked in the morning and the wife new this and saw me working on the burb. A few hours later I took the boys to the movies and came home late to find the biggest oil slick mess I ever saw! She started the vehicle to get my daughter not realizing the car was unfit to drive! She drove it about 150 ft before pulling over. Now there it engine oil, tranny oil and coolant everywhere. But what I fear is if the motor and tranny are toast. Any thoughts pros?

I pulled my radiator last night after work to have it pressure checked in the morning and the wife new this and saw me working on the burb. A few hours later I took the boys to the movies and came home late to find the biggest oil slick mess I ever saw! She started the vehicle to get my daughter not realizing the car was unfit to drive! She drove it about 500 ft before pulling over. Now there it engine oil, tranny oil and coolant everywhere. But what I fear is if the motor and tranny are toast. Any thoughts pros?


If the engine was not ran very long you may be OK.

Put it back together and fill every thing back up and see how it goes.

Parts places have oil dry to help clean up the mess.


Go easy on the wife not really all her faut.
Always remove the battery cabel or disable starter when you have one torn down or apart to keep thing like that from happing.

Let us know how it goes.
Good Luck

Why would all the engine oil have flowed out if you just took out the radiator? Did you have an engine oil cooler or remote filter disconnected?

Your transmission should be just fine. When they run out of fluid, the clutch packs and bands release so the transmission essentially goes into neutral. If they are run 'dry' for too long, the trans pump is the first to go. But it sounds as if it was shut down before this happened.

As for the engine, likely the only thing that might be damaged are the engine bearings.

Put oil in it, run the engine and listen for any funny noises, (knocking, grinding etc.) At worst, the engine will need new connector rod and main bearings, and a polishing job on the crank. At best, it will run as if nothing happened.

BTW the pistons and valve gear should be fine. Also, running an engine (when cold) with no coolant for a couple of minutes will do no harm.

I have come across quite a few people over the years who have run engines without oil. It's surprising how long engines can run before they are really ruined.

Why would all the engine oil have flowed out if you just took out the radiator? Did you have an engine oil cooler or remote filter disconnected?


This vehicle has six lines; two coolant, two tranny, and the oil cooler lines all connected to the radiator. The wife said the burb was running when she shut it off. She started it up and right away went backwards about 25 feet, went straight to the stop sign about 30 feet and then took a right and went another 50 feet before shutting off the engine. I pulled the oil pan plug and as suspected no oil came out but I did see some very fine metal shavings on the plug's magnetic tip. It has been 3000 miles since my last oil change. Not sure if this latest incident contributed to the shavings though. I hope not!

I will post soon when the shop finishes with the pressure check. I'm crossing my fingers on this one.

a fine coating of gray metal on the magnet of drain plug is normal ,,,shavings not....

when ever you have a job this large ,,always remove the neg battery terminal...if you short out the battery the surge can damage the computer/pcm...as well as the situation you just encountered.....

a fine coating of gray metal on the magnet of drain plug is normal ,,,shavings not....

when ever you have a job this large ,,always remove the neg battery terminal...if you short out the battery the surge can damage the computer/pcm...as well as the situation you just encountered.....

I guess you could call it fine stuff and not shavings. But now I have a big problem. Just got the radiator back and due to warranty issues I got a new one. Put it in, filled all the fluids and now the temp gauge is going to max temperature. I put on the heater but no heat! Any idea what it could be this time?

I guess you could call it fine stuff and not shavings. But now I have a big problem. Just got the radiator back and due to warranty issues I got a new one. Put it in, filled all the fluids and now the temp gauge is going to max temperature. I put on the heater but no heat! Any idea what it could be this time?

Air locked.
You Need to burp it.

Pull coolant hose on upper engine aree like heater hose ans see it it bleeds.

Air locked.
You Need to burp it.

Pull coolant hose on upper engine aree like heater hose ans see it it bleeds.

Stupid me. Should have known that one. Anyways, everything turned out fine. I took the burb out for a spin and slammed the pedal down to hear and feel anything funny. Rapped out just fine. I was lucky this time...or should I say the wife was.