OIl leak , engine in trouble?

[sitopons]

HI I have a question regarding an oil leak on my Toyota Celica 1990 with 160000 mi. When I bought the car I drove it home and made around 6 miles. Once home I checked the engine and found no oil traces on the dipstick. I filled up the engine to the full mark, right a way I realized the engine was liking with drops every few seconds, 2 hours later there was a nice stain of oil on the newspaper I placed underneath. For the last 2 days I have been driving the vehicle with no problems , no noises, no noticeable engine lack of performance , it seems that it runs great, surprisingly I do not see big changes on the dipstick level. My question is let's assume that the car had been driven before me without oil for a while plus the 6 miles I put in, does that indicate that sooner or later the engine will break down when least expected or in the other hand will it survive many years if the car is serviced correctly. Thank you for listening.

[Brian R.]

You may have no problems in the future related to oil level. However, it is a fact that, eventually, engines leak oil. As long as the engine is running well, don't worry about it.

Find out what your maintenance schedule says and adhere to it. Keep an eye out for oil leaks and monitor your engine and transmission dipstick levels every week or more often if you feel like it. It sort of depends on how often and how far you drive so there is no hard and fast rule.

Remember that you should check your engine oil dipstick with the engine off and on level ground.

Check your transmission oil level on level ground with the engine running after having run the transmission through all the gears and at operating temperature. Check your coolant and power steering fluid levels periodically also.