Audister

Well folks, I was driving last night and I started to hear an engine chatter. This morning I was driving and there was no chatter at all. This afternoon the chatter came back. So I came home after class and found that I was completely dry on oil!!! AND I JUST GOT MY OIL CHANGE SEPT. 2nd!!! Also, my coolant was completely empty!! What would cause this? So I filled my oil up with 10W30 Castrol GTX Sludge Prevention oil and my coolant as well. Now my chatter is still there. Did I mess something up with the engine? Im scared now!!

ScottRB

20W50 year round. 10W30 is better than no oil at all, but change it to 20W50 ASAP.
As far as the chatter, it could be lifters. The fact the engine hasn't seized yet is a semi good sign.
Did you check for ANY sign of leakage? Cross-threaded drain plugs/oil filters are the main culprit.
Who changed your oil?

AudiSport4000

After running the car wait at least 5-10 minutes for the oil to make its way back into the pan. Thats normally what I do.
My old 4cyl would go through oil quickly as well.
Oil leaks, leaky headgasket, worn components in the head, rings, would all cause loss of oil.

How does the car run? Run well?

vwfreak

I agree. 20w50 year round.

the lifters on mine start clicking when it gets about a quart down- it tells me it needs oil!

Audister

Car runs quiet as a brand new car, no sputters or anything, just smokes at startup from the exhaust and when stopped at a red light and at acceleration.

AudiSport4000

Yeah, sounds like its burning oil

squidix9

however to lose all your oil in just two weeks is a but much. How many miles since the change?

Also to go through that much coolant in a similar time frame is just plain crazy.

I'd expect you'd have smelled coolant if it were leaking that badly. Chances are it would have found it's way onto a hot part somewhere and caused dome odor.

I would indeed look seriously at whoever did it and ask some very hard questions.

Define "chatter", is it valve tick or is it chatter. There's a big difference and the source is completeyl different. Valve tick might go away once enough oil has re-filled the lifters. Actually I forgot what year you said it was, I might have missed that in your post. Chatter can be a precursor to a bad bearing or a scalled bearing. I can also be a broken ring which could occur running without oil for even a short while.

Sorry for the gloom and doom, but running without oil is not good. Whenever you hear any odd engine noises, check it ASAP. Don't know if you have an oil pressure guage in that car, but along with your other guages, keep an eye on it always. At minimum you should have an oil pressure light which I would have expected to have gone off.

Audister

well thing my oil pressure buzzer ALWAYS goes off...theres something wrong with it...at least i think so...

ScottRB

If it goes away after idle, it may be valves.

squidix9

If it always goes off either it's busted or it's working correctly and you have little or no oil pressure.

If it's working the chatter may be from excessively worn bearings which is causing your low oil pressure.

At this point all I can say is good luck.