so i'm having a little problem, and i am by no means an automotive person, so maybe someone here can help...

i was driving my car today, and it all of a sudden just started jerking and studdering when i was hitting the accelerator. at first, it seemed like it was slipping into neutral, where when i would press the accelerator, the rpms would go up, but no power was actually pushing the car. then it would slam into gear and studder really hard. not 2 minutes after this started happening, the check engine light came on.

i pulled over and immediately checked the oil. it was pretty much bone dry.

i got a ride to a local o'reillys and picked up some oil and put it in. i drove it home from there (about a mile and a half), and it was studdering, and seeming to slip in and out of gear the whole time. i came home and peaked underneath, and didn't see anything. the oil filter was still there, and the oil plug was still there. i will check the oil plug tomorrow to see how tight it is, but even if it was loose, the damage has been done.

the car is a '99 honda accord ex
3.0 liter v6
140 thousand miles

does anyone have any suggestions to what damage has occurred? i am going to assume it was from the lack of oil. the thing is, the car is 10 years old, so if the bill is going to be more than a thousand or so, then im just going to go out and buy a new truck. i've been needing/wanting one anyway.

any insight would be great. i will try to check and post the answers to any questions you guys ask me in order to help me.

Sounds like you have 2 problems here...
How much oil did you add?

The stuttering/slipping/slamming into gear,check engine light on concern sounds transmission related.
Did you check the transmission fluid?..if not do so...

The engine being low on oil won't cause the slipping concern of the transmission.
Is the engine making noise now?

i put 5 quarts of 5W30 into the car last night.

this morning, before leaving for work (drove my wife's car...), i looked under the car and didn't see any oil on the ground.

if something went wrong with the transmission, i still dont understand where the oil went. i changed the oil myself about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but there has been no oil on my garage floor since then. if it was leaking out the plug or filter, i would have seen it.

i guess i am going to just take it to a dealer and get an estimate. we are planning on just buying a new truck, so we are preparing ourselves for that.

if anyone still has any guesses on maybe what happened, im open to any clues. would running out of oil cause a car to do that? it wasn't overheating or anything. no smoke, no smells.

Whoa baby! Does this even hold 5 full quarts with a new/empty oil filter? Filter wouldn't be empty with a total leak down. Did you check the level again after adding that much? Did you add any oil at all when you changed it?

Left that car with wife and took her car! Bet it's safe to say there's going to be more than the thousand bucks in damage with this which was your limit so start looking.... hopefully for just a car,

T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
http://www.acsource.com/

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http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

just checking, you did check the engine oil dipstick and put motor oil in the engine? looking at the symptoms not being a wise ass. but im thinking your transmission was low on tranny fluid and you just put 5 qts of motor oil into your transmission.

the oil capacity w/o filter is 4 qts. and if you needed 5 your motor would have seized up.
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