I have an 05 Tuscon GLS with 56K mls. 4 months ago I had the serpentine belt replaced. Fast forward to a week ago...I was driving to work when the oil light came on and heard a knocking sound coming from engine. I immediately pulled over and saw oil spewing everywhere. I had the car towed to the dealership. They said the oil filter was on too loose and I need a new engine - $5700 + labor. I've been driving this car for approx 2k miles with that oil filter. If it was too loose, wouldn't oil have been leaking??? Could there be a correlation between the serpentine belt and the gasket? Engine still starts. Just need more info before I get totally screwed. Thanks for your input.

 

I call BS. If the problem is the oil filter, the engine will be fine if you pulled over right away. Stick on a new filter, replace the missing oil and start it up. If there are no noises or oil leaks you should be fine.

 

Thank you for responding. According to the diagnosis:

"Customer states oil light came on heard tapping pulled over. Upon inspection found veh to have oil light on and veh knocking from bottom and top end. Found veh to have no oil and oil all over engine bay. Installed 3 qts of oil, started and found oil to be coming from oil filter area. Upon further inspection, found oil to be leaking from oil filter gasket. Found metal shavings in oil. Recommend new engine."

 

The first question I would have is why was the gasket leaking? What engine is this? How did the oil filter come to be loose????

I have had two engines in other cars that had oiling problems. One was a bad oil pressure sensor and the other was a clogged pick-up screen. When those matters were attended to, and I replaced the oil, i drove both vehicles until I eventually traded them in. If you didn't have extensive damage to the bearings, you MAY be OK. I too, had some bearing material in the one with the bad sensor. And the other one went to zero oil pressure but I had it flat bedded home where I removed the oil pan and fixed the problem which was a disintegrated oil pan gasket. Both were Fords.

It just depends on the extent of the damage to engine. Your service adviser may or may not be correct. An engine can run for a short time with almost no oil pressure but not for an extended time. It just depends.

 

Had similar experience with my new 2004 Santa Fe on it's very first oil change at the dealer .The next day my wife was driving and the oil pressure light came on she thinks she stopped the car within a minute of the light coming on I'm not so sure. Had the car towed to another Hyundai dealership and I was there when it was put on the hoist it was obvious that previous mechanic had not noticed that original oil filter gasket had remained stuck to engine. Two gaskets cannot hold oil pressure and it let go, when the drain plug was removed only a small amount of oil came out a new filter and oil were put in.It ran perfectly for 4 years and 60000 miles I then returned it at the end of the lease.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. It's a 05 Tucson GLS V-6. The mechanic said there was no damage to the part that the filter screws into so he assumes that the filter was not tight enough. Like I said, I drove the car for 2K miles with this oil filter; I would have noticed oil leaking. I stopped immediately when the oil light came on and had it towed to the dealership. They said it's not the engine and wouldn't be covered under warranty. Let me know if there's any more details I can provide. Thanks for your replies.

 

I was wondering if the original gasket was left in place. This will definitely cause an oil leak and the filter will not be properly tightened. I put on many an oil filter and have never had one come loose. But I have taken some off that were barely finger tight. I tighten them down to where they contact the surface of the metal housing, tighten the filter as tight as I can by hand and then for good measure just a little extra with a proper oil filter wrench to a 3/8" socket wrench. I've yet to take one off that was loose.

The oil plug is a little problematical in that it is hard to get a torque wrench on it where it can be read. I usually use a short handled wrench and snug it up with a new crush gasket. I do worry a little about those backing out. I did on one occasion use some loc-tight but probably not a real good idea as it is necessary to clean out the threads when removing it.

What I would do is to put on a new oil filter and the proper amount of oil and measure the oil pressure. You might get lucky if you didn't run it much after the oil light came on. A trace amount of bearing material does not mean than the engine is trashed.

 

Like I said earlier. Install a new filter (and like was mentioned above, make sure the old filter gasket is not stuck to the engine), add new oil and drive.

Back in the mid 90's I had a 1993 Pontiac Sunbird that I ran over a truck tire retread in the middle of the road. It happened to hit and crush the oil filter which caused all the oil to spray out and the oil pressure to drop to zero. The oil light came on and I quickly shut off the engine and coasted to the side of the road. I replaced the filter and oil and that car is still on the road today. My father-in-law still owns it and it's never had a engine oil-related problem.

 

I had the car towed from the dealership to mechanic that I have used many times. He said the engine does need replaced. There was damage to the rods, crank shaft, etc...My question now is could the filter have been defective? There was not a gasket stuck to the engine and he checked the oil sensor...he doesn't know what caused it, but said it was definitely something with the filter.

 

Was it a Hyundai filter? If there is damage to the rods and crank then the engine was didn't have oil for a very long time. Maybe the filter was clogged or too restrictive and starved the engine for oil over the 2,000 miles.