2012 Chevy Silverado Z-71 no oil, no leak

Asked by GuruZ2J21 Nov 26, 2017 at 09:43 PM about the 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LT 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Tonight I drove an hour and all the sudden the
screen under the speedo said "low oil turn engine
off". I looked over to the pressure gauge and it was
at around 9. I got lucky and was near an exit on the
highway. Checked the oil and there was zero! I am
about 6k over on my oil change. No leak under my
truck and no oil on the ground. Never had an issue
until now with anything dealing with the oil. I added
oil and watched the gauge at idol hover around 34
on pressure. I drove a quarter mile to test and the
pressure never got above 36 or so. I was 3 hours
from work or 1 hour from home. I decided to go
home in just in case and was watching the pressure
Ike a hawk. It was really slowly going down and
then t would go back up a little but never reach 40
where it usually sets going down the road.  Well,
glad I made the choice to go home because 20
minutes from my house the check engine light
came on and then 2 minutes later the message
under the speedo again said "los oil then engine
off". So I pulled over and called a wrecker. Waited
for a while to check the oil again and when I did i
had plenty of oil in the truck. Where did all the oil
go? Will never buy chevy ever again. Bought this
truck new and have had nothing but problems from
5k miles on. This puzzles me. No warnings before at
all. My fault for not checking the oil before I left. I
guess I rely on the truck telling me there is a
problem. Have to get away from that! I have seen
similar issues on forums. Any possible answers?
Thanks

5 Answers

5,555

This is a hard one to diagnose, but have you considered that you may have a large oil leak that is dripping onto a heated engine component and cooking off, thus not leaving a leak under the truck or on the motor itself? Did you happen to look and see if there was any smoke coming from behind your truck? In your picture, it's night so it may have been impossible to really see but that would be my guess. Oil has to go somewhere, and if it is not leaking on the ground and not visible on the motor, there's really only two options: it's either burning off, or it's going places it is not supposed to go inside the engine. I think your best bet here is to get it to a mechanic as you'll really want to have the system pressure tested to see if it's holding oil or if the PSI is falling under load/at idle. Another option would be to put oil in it, let it idle, and crawl around under it to see if you see any oil dripping on the pipes, manifold, or see any smoke.

1 people found this helpful.

Just got it back from mechanic. Flushed the system and put new dextos synthetic in. There was no smoke and no oil in tail pipe. Mechanic said the oil was really black, now that's even after I added the 4 quarts last night after I saw there was none. So driving it an hour last night until it died again and the oil looked that bad this morning. The truck used to hold pressure at or right below 40. After the flush now it's around 48 when I drove it to my house. That oil had to go some where. Called Chevy dealer and they have never heard of this happening which surprises me from the post I have seen. Also, just so happen a guy pulled up this morning at the shop and he has a 2017 gmc with 30k miles on it and he said his did the exact same thing as mine. He got his oil changed and noticed the next day the same message that I got about low oil level and shut off engine. He said there was no oil in his truck and he blamed it on the place who changed his oil but now he said he was wrong if mine just did the same thing. Where does 6 quarts of oil go that fast? Slow burn off etc...

5,555

I wouldn't trust a GM dealer any further than I can throw their entire dealership, and that's coming from an ex-GM employee who worked for them for over a decade. Losing oil that fast is definitely, and obviously, not normal. The fact that the oil is darkening so quick means it is likely getting exposed to a.) contaminants or b.) high heat. Have you noticed any change in the operating temperature before the truck cuts out? Is it running hotter than around 180 degrees? Something else that crossed my mind, and it's a long shot I admit, is that it could be something to do with the detergents in the tank of gas IF you are still running the same tank. As for why the oil is being burnt off, that I am not sure. Sorry to hear you are still having these issues despite taking correct steps to remedy the problem.

1 people found this helpful.

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