my daughter drove my mini van today. on her way home the oil light came on and about 2 min. later the car goes into low & she pulls over & turns off the car. she gets a ride to the store & puts 3 qu. of oil in it. it still wouldn't start. i had her check for codes & it didn't show any, just d o n e like normal. pulled it home. at first my husband thought it was the starter but then decided that the motor has locked up. previosly the oil light came on & when oil was checked showed that it was extremely low, almost empty, not much of a warning system. anyways, how can we tell if the motor is locked up?

 

If it won't allow the starter to spin the engine you can figure the engine is ruined.You can also use an appropriately sized socket and breaker bar to try to turn the engine by hand.The socket is placed on the harmonic balancer bolt.

I don't understand why,since you knew of an oil use problem,you didn't check the oil level at least once a week.