Automotive Forums

Hello, I'm new to these forums and needed some advice from the community!

I just bought an 87' Honda Accord a couple days ago.  The engine was making some pinging sounds and was sounding a little weak.  I checked the oil with the dip stick and it was virtually dry, so I decided to immediately go purcahse some 10-40 oil (10-30 is recomended for the car, but it has 250,000 miles on it already so 10-40 was recomended instead).  I put 2 quarts in it thinking that it was fine and drove it back home.  It continued making the same sounds, and was told it needed more oil by some guy who checked it out for me.  So I drove back to the gas station, turned off my engine and put the car into park.  I needed to move my car a little more though, so I just tried turning on the car again, and to my shock there was no turnover whatsoever and the engine did not start at all, nor did anything else (radio, lights, etc.).  So my guess was that obviously the battery has died.  Oh, and both the battery/oil idiot lights came on spontaneously every now and then, so it obviously must be an issue with that.

I just need some reassurance though, if this is in fact what has probably happened, just the battery going out.  Not something like the engine blowing or something.  I also went to open the hood after this happened and it was pretty hot with some smoke (or steam?) coming out of the valve containing the coolant.  Anyway, I was told that I should probably get some jumper cables and start it up that way.  Probably need to take it to the shop to get it examined too...

Anyway, sorry for all the jibberish, this is just the first car I bought, I don't really knoe anything about them, and this all just happened tonight and my hands are still trembling in anxiousness.