Recently purchased this 2014 scion xB and it’s been running great have been real happy with but one day there was an oil light flashing but not like flashing consistently more so it’d come on sometimes and other times stay off. But because the car was purchased previously with a maintenance check previously performed it was under the understanding that there wasn’t yk a standard oil change or other things needs ect therefore I was under the assumption it may be a sensor issue. So i drove long distance for the first time with this car (abt 127 miles or so 90% on freeway) and was abt to go somewhere else that’s when the eng light came on as orange and then with that trac off came on and then the oil symbol stayed. And as I drove the car literally started quivering and then completely stalled with the battery light coming on along with the power steering light. Then the car completely lost ignition and wouldn’t start. So I thought it may be the engine oil and I checked it and it was bone dry (to my surprise as I was again under the assumption that if maintenance and oil was “changed” a month prior it shouldn’t be bone dry) so I topped it off with engine oil. And it sounded better but then it stalled while I was driving again and then when I’d turn the ignition it squealed but then completely lost the ability to turn on ignition. Power stayed on so it’s not anything with the battery but idk what it could be and would appreciate any help.

 

I'm pretty sure I can tell you why it died...and it's likely not going to be an inexpensive fix but you should always ignore those pesky lights on the dash.

I am also pretty confident that wherever you purchased it from is going to tell you they appreciate your letting them know you 'assumed' the car was perfectly serviced before delivery and decided to not take the 2 minutes to pull over to see why that oil light may have been blinking at you. Your other 'assumption', that of it being a faulty sensor, is on you too.

120 seconds of your life would have likely saved you a very large repair bill.

And I've moved your post to the 2G forum for you.

 

Hopefully you will have learned several (probably expensive) lessons here. First, never assume anything. You assumed that maintenance had been done, and the oil was changed correctly. Bad assumption on your part as finally checking the dipstick showed that there was no oil in the engine.

Second, never ignore warnings on your dashboard. Manufacturers have spent quite a bit of time and money on designing vehicles and building warning systems into them to inform drivers that there is a problem. You ignored all of the warnings and drove until your car died. If your car could speak, it was probably calling you all sorts of bad names as you continued on and destroyed the engine.

Speaking of damaging the engine, let me take a crack at what happened. It sounds like whomever changed the oil either never filled it with fresh oil or failed to tighten something that allowed the fresh oil to drain out as you drove. When an engine has no oil to lubricate moving parts, metal on metal friction creates heat which expands the metal(s) causing things to rapidly get even worse. I'd be willing to bet that you have seriously scored cylinder walls and seriously scored main bearings. Both of these are the kiss of death for an engine. Only a compression and / or leakdown test and a borescope down the cylinders will tell for sure. In short, your engine is probably completely wiped out and will need either a complete rebuild or replacement. Hopefully you learned and expensive lesson here.

Your only option is to go back to whomever changed the oil and see what they say. Once they find out you ignored all warnings and continued to drive though, you're probably SOL.