I disagree with some stuff here. First though, it is a very common problem for those oil pressure sending units to go bad in such a way that the oil light will come on when the engine is idling.
I've owned many of these cars over the last couple years, and every single one of them needed a new sending unit. You didn't lose enough oil through that leaking sending unit to make any noticeable difference though. The dealer did not mess with you on this repair. Finding that there is no oil showing on the dipstick is a very very bad thing if the engine was run that way. The dipstick does not go all the way to the bottom of the pan, so even though nothing was showing on the stick, there WAS still some oil in there, but that is WAY too low and will ruin the engine in a short amount of time. Do note that because of their design, these 2.7L engines are not very resilient to being run low on oil. Trust me on that one. The reasons are technical. They are better off slightly overfull. If I was in your shoes, I'd check the oil about every 600 miles (every other tank of gas) no matter what kind of car you have and make sure you are checking it with the car parked on level ground. I am guilty for not doing it, but for ME, even major auto repairs are no big deal to me, and I always have another car to drive. Its a thing I do for fun. Check the coolant perodically also to make sure you are not losing any of that. Did this oil light come on before or after the oil change? If it was shortly after the oil change and there was no oil showing on the dipstick, it is either leaking out quite rapidly or they forgot to pour all 5 quarts of oil into the thing. But the car is 5 years old, and it is just about at the point where it starts to consume oil, which is typical for any automotive engine some worse than others and how much depends on a million factors. Right now, my words of advice are "Oil is cheap. Engines are expensive." I've had various cars over the years that would consume 1 quart of oil every 1500 miles. Under the right conditions, I could drive 2500 miles of of short trips and the oil level would not budge. Then I'd go on a 300 mile road trip and by the time I'm done, the engine consumed enough for the oil to barely show on the stick. The reasons for this phenomenon are technical, but it happens so you just have to be on top of things. Amazing how the world runs on credit. I'm thankful my score is excellent. Now several insurance companies are going to be giving substancial discounts based on your credit score. Yikes! I'm single, too and finally down to 1 job if I don't count the side work I do out of my garage. The only debt I owe is the mortgage... and it is enough to where I cannot get approved for any kind of extra loan. So, I buy, fix and sell cars to make a couple hundred bucks a crack. Driving $500 cars 100 miles a day gets old very quickly. But hey, its still cheaper than $250/month plus the extra cost of full coverage insurance and warranty deductables are more than the cost of 90% of the repairs I do myself. If I wasn't automotively inclined, I'd be in a world of hurt. Web: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid> Subscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Moderator: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
