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Don't run without oil
I gave my newly rebuilt 91 Jetta to my sister who needed a vehicle. She had the oil changed, but the filter was insufficiently tightened, which resulted in a completely drained sump. She got a continuous oil light. She pulled over and shutdown the engine (as I advised her strongly to do in such a situation). My mother insisted she drive the 1 mile home to save the tow charge. With no idea of what was wrong, I assumed the worst and got a new oil pump for it since I hadn't replaced it when I overhauled the engine. The old pump was ok, but since I had the new one, I replaced it to be on the safe side. When I dropped the pan I discovered the sump was empty. Since I didn't find any metal, I thought she lucked out. She called me a couple days after I had changed the pump and told me it was making horrible noises and that the oil light was flashing. I towed it to my house (128 miles) and after a couple weeks, finally started tearing into it. With the new pump and a full sump, the oil was flowing again. There were bearings that were wiped and the material got washed down into the sump and had partially clogged the filter screen on the pump suction. This weekend I will begin a second overhaul of the engine.
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04-28-2006, 04:11 PM
