2009 Camry real low on oil....would I know if I messed the engine up?

-My oil light never came on. what concerned me is when I hit the brake real hard the oil light would blink. I checked it today and it was below the "low" line. I went to the auto part store and it took 3 quarts to put it alittle above the "full" line. When I checked it before I put the oil in, there was oil all over the oil stick which leads me to believe there was still enough at the time to not cause any serious damage. Am I right? would there be obvious signs if i messed something up? It is not making any funny noises or anything. It shakes alittle at a light every now and then but I think it has done that before all this...Should I be worried???If it's still running now, no not really. The obvious sign would be your engine would have stopped working completely. Just make sure you keep it lubed in the future.
This doesn't speak well of Toyota's oil pressure "idiot" light system or your motor has a heck of an oil leak. I hate to be rude but there is no way in heck any engine could live with less than one quart of oil in the crankcase. The entire engine and oil filter holds less than 4 quarts of oil.



My question to you is: What was the mileage on the motor when you last had the oil changed? If your engine uses more than one quart of oil per 1,000 miles the company had better be giving you a new motor.



My 04 Camry doesn't use a drop of oil between the factory recommended 5,000 mile Mobil1 oil changes.