Hey guys,
I recently bought an 07 Mazda 6 with 117000 miles on it. Only paid 2k so was glad to get something to drive for cheap as i had no car before this. I understood id have to end up doing some maintenance tasks on the vehicle eventually.
Fast Forward to now.

It has been really cold here in NY. When i start up the car and turn on the heat, the oil light would flicker, sometimes stay on for about 3 or 4 seconds. I would turn the heat off, and wait for the car to warm up a little and than use the heat, and usually the oil light would stop coming on. Now all of the sudden my CEL is on, and im getting a rattling sound under the hood. Not sure if the two are related but im going to guess they are. After some research ive heard about possible broken heat shield, oil pumps and others, but im not very car savvy so i have no idea.

What do you guys think????

 

I would have it looked at professionally; assuming you have a 4-cylinder engine, I'm thinking there is a good possibility of yet another 2.3 liter engine failure.

If that ends up being the case, find a low mileage Ford Duratec 2.5 liter engine and swap out your motor; the 2.3s have a nasty reputation for early failure, the Ford motor is basically the same engine but with some very important internal upgrades to make it far more robust than the 2.3.

 

Thanks, just took it to my mechanic and based on what he heard and what i told him, he says im screwed. start looking for a new car. apparently the oil was bad and damaged the engine. 5 mins last the car just shut off on me. i was able to turn it back on but i dont want to drive it too far. Should I get a second opinion or take his word for it, i do trust his judgement

 

I rather doubt it was the quality of the oil, like I said, the 2.3 liter engine is well known for failing. If I was in your shoes and the rest of the car is in good shape, then I'd fix it with a Ford 2.5. Think about it this way, the money you'd spend to fix your current car will be far less than what you would spend to buy something else as nice. The side benefit of putting the 2.5 in is this engine is both more reliable and has more power, but still gets the same fuel economy.