So I'm in a hurry to get Lisa downtown for a business thing she had to do. She doesn't like driving in downtown since she tends to get lost and hit things.
So, I'm mildly frustrated that I have to take time from my day off to go drive her around. I'm accellerating up the ramp at Mc Knight and Hwy 36 when I glance down to see a light on the dash that I've never seen before. It is telling me to "Check Gauges!". I think to myself "Oh Crap, now what" as I look at the oil pressure and see it at 0! I look in the rear view mirror to see a film of oil on my rear window, and a grey cloud behind me.
I remember saying to lisa, "well, the engine is toast" as I take the off ramp thinking I have about 1000 yards to drive before the engine seizes up.
I pull over in the shade on a side street and get out to find the entire undercarrige covered in oil, and it's pouring onto the ground from the front half of the engine. After about 3 minutes of frustrated diagnostics, I find that most of the oil appears to be coming from the oil filter area. I grab onto the filter, and it's wobbling back and forth. I give it a 1/4 turn, and it falls off into my hand.
So, I (literally) run to the parts store that is 3 blocks away (because Lisa reminded me that I had 30 minutes to get her downtown.) I bought a new oil filter, and 5 quarts of oil. I put the filter on, filled up the lost oil, and started it up... A little clicking from the valves at first, but the oil pressure jumped right up and it's been fine for the rest of the day.
Funny thing that the oil filter came off. I just changed the oil a week ago, so I know that it was installed properly. I'm wondering if the threads weren't faulty on this filter. Gave me quite a scare though.