My 2001 Corolla's "Low Oil Pressure Warning Light" came on intermittently yesterday evening and finally remained on most of the time so I searched through these forums and learned that I should add engine oil. This car also had a grinding sound coming from the engine in the past few weeks. It's usually my Mother's car, but I swapped with her for a while. Before we swapped, we took it to our regular, trusted mechanic for an oil change a month ago.
This morning I had to add 1.5 quarts of oil (picked Pennzoil 10W30 from reading these forums) before the dipstick would even show any oil at the bottom, using fishexpo's recommendation of wiping off the stick first, sticking it back in, doing this twice, running the car, and waiting afterwards for the oil to settle in the pan. How much oil must be in the pan before any oil shows up on the dipstick?
In the end, I added 3.2 quarts this morning total for the oil level to reach midway between the "low" and "full" dots on the dipstick. I'll check again in the late afternoon and add it to the "full" dot. Today was my first time working on anything inside the Corolla hood so this is all pretty new to me. The other two Corollas we have were taken to the mechanic for an oil change every 3000-4000 miles as normal and have never had oil consumption problems.
Based on your past experience, how many quarts of oil remaining will cause the "Low Oil Pressure Warning Light" to start appearing? According to many threads on this forum, driving with low engine oil will cause a seized engine eventually. How much damage could've been done to this Corolla from driving around with a dry dipstick? The grinding sound from the engine and the "Low Oil Pressure Warning Light" disappeared after I added 2 quarts of oil this morning and the car seems to run like it used to after adding oil. I still had to add another 1.2 quarts to get closer to the correct level on the dipstick.
Also, the engine oil cap showed 5W30 oil, but I saw some people here used 10W30 and the oil change reminder sticker our mechanic pastes on the window says 10W30 as well. I couldn't take the car to our mechanic today because it's Sunday.
I still plan to take this 2001 Corolla in to be checked out by our mechanic the next time I'm in town. Also, I'll have to check the oil levels at least once a week now; the car does not seem to leak oil onto the driveway.
Thanks!