300.000 miles: How to prevent excessive oil consumption?

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Jun 14, 2011
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Denmark, Europe
Hi,

It is generally considered that a car engine over time will have an increasing oil consumption. And for many cars I learned that once they pass the 300000 mi mark, a "normal" oil consumption is something like 2 gallons for every 6000 miles meaning people are driving around with oil jugs in the trunk all the time. I cannot accept that.

Is there a way to reduce the oil consumption to a minimum if the car is to pass the 300000 miles mark?

Let's assume:

I buy a car with zero miles on the clock. I want to drive it past 300000 miles. The manufacturer suggests an oil change every 6000 miles or every year depending on which comes first. In between every oil change I don't want to replenish at all. This means something like having a max oil consumption of 0,05 liter pr 1000 km ... in US i guess this is close to 2 ounces pr 600 miles. And I want this all the way up to 300000 miles in total.

What should be done to achieve this?

Special oil
Special additives
More frequent oil changes than every 6000 miles
Anything else

... or it cannot be achieved - any engine WILL wear and result in excessive oil consumption no matter how well it was treated.


Thanks, Lucas
 
If you want to reduce oil consumption, then you have to keep the ring lands clean. Dirty ring lands cause ring sticking, which isn't the only source of oil burning, but it is one of the major sources. If you are serious about running an engine for 300,000+ miles and don't want it to burn oil, then you have to use an oil that has the ability to keep the internals clean.
 
Hi,

It is generally considered that a car engine over time will have an increasing oil consumption. And for many cars I learned that once they pass the 300000 mi mark, a "normal" oil consumption is something like 2 gallons for every 6000 miles meaning people are driving around with oil jugs in the trunk all the time. I cannot accept that.

Is there a way to reduce the oil consumption to a minimum if the car is to pass the 300000 miles mark?

Let's assume:

I buy a car with zero miles on the clock. I want to drive it past 300000 miles. The manufacturer suggests an oil change every 6000 miles or every year depending on which comes first. In between every oil change I don't want to replenish at all. This means something like having a max oil consumption of 0,05 liter pr 1000 km ... in US i guess this is close to 2 ounces pr 600 miles. And I want this all the way up to 300000 miles in total.

What should be done to achieve this?

Special oil
Special additives
More frequent oil changes than every 6000 miles
Anything else

... or it cannot be achieved - any engine WILL wear and result in excessive oil consumption no matter how well it was treated.


Thanks, Lucas
I'm guessing the question is more theoretical than anything... Well, here is what my point of view is:
Any engine will wear over time. BUT you CAN slow down the wearing by good oils and short intervals.
- Good oils, in my opinion, are those that meet the following certifications: Porsche A40/MB 229.5/VW 502.00 & 505.00. Around here Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 comes to mind.
- Too short of an interval is a waste of money, but 5000-miles is what I consider a great medium to where I got my money's worth out of the oil, without overstressing the oil with deposits or oxidation.
- And of course the usage will play a huge role. Cars that spend 300,000+ miles on the highway tend to wear slower. Cars that spend 300,000+ miles doing city miles tend to wear slightly faster. Cars that are short-tripped tend to wear out the fastest: thousands of cold-hot-cold-hot cycles kill the oil, which promotes accelerated engine wear.


P.S. I had a 2010 Volvo XC70, 3.2L inline 6, with over 270,000 miles and zero oil consumption. But I also had a 2008 Pontiac Vibe 1.8L, with 90,000 miles that drank oil at 1qt per 500 miles. Bought it this way, thought low miles meant car was good... In my ownership I decreased that consumption number to 1qt per 3,000 miles. Mileage doesn't always tell the story...
 
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I think your units are off converting to American. Maybe two quarts per 6000 miles but not two gallons. When you go through that much oil, it's the rings that leak. The engine starts to wear out. I don't know that there is a lot that you can do about that. The outlier engines that have a ton of miles and don't consume any oil didn't use any special oil or change interval.
 
A good oil filter and in my opinion the more important quality Air filter along with oil changes on the severe service schedule. You might not be getting all you can from the oil but if you want minimum wear keeping it clean becomes more important than when the additive package wears out.
 
My 1989 Volvo 740 used .25 qt every 3,000 at 286,000 miles. 3,000 mile conventional oil changes with a Mann W917 filter.

I purchased a 1991 Volvo 240 in November and drove it 1,080 miles from Texas to Connecticut. The engine burned 200 ml of oil in the first 3,000 miles. The two previous owners changed the oil every 3,000 miles with a conventional 10W30 and a Mann W917 filter.

This routine seems to work well with the Volvo 4 cylinder Redblock engine.

That said, I’m switching to HPL so I can extend the drain interval. I’m tired of changing the oil so frequently. I hope this new regime works as well.
 
I've had cars to near 200k miles and the oil consumption hasn't been too bad, about 1L per 10k km at the end, but I've never had an engine wear out. I don't know how much worse it would've got with more miles? Adding a half litre twice per 10k km isn't really a problem IMO.
 
My 2008 Xterra - VQ40 - with now 385,000 miles - leaks from the valve covers quite a bit and only "uses" less than 1 quart between changes, which I keep around 3500 miles. Not sure how much its burning but I would guess less than half based on how dirty my bell housing is. I have the parts and need to fix my leaky gaskets, which I will do soon then I will know.

I have taken several other vehicles to 200K+ and they didn't use any oil either. A Jeep 4.7. A GM 3.1. A Ford 4.9. My 2011 VQ40 with 150K +/- miles uses or leaks zero.

2 gallons every 6000 miles, so 1 quart every 800 miles? I guess some engines do use 1 quart every 1000 miles when brand new - so I think engine design has a whole lot to do with it also.
 
Hi,

It is generally considered that a car engine over time will have an increasing oil consumption. And for many cars I learned that once they pass the 300000 mi mark, a "normal" oil consumption is something like 2 gallons for every 6000 miles meaning people are driving around with oil jugs in the trunk all the time. I cannot accept that.

Is there a way to reduce the oil consumption to a minimum if the car is to pass the 300000 miles mark?

Let's assume:

I buy a car with zero miles on the clock. I want to drive it past 300000 miles. The manufacturer suggests an oil change every 6000 miles or every year depending on which comes first. In between every oil change I don't want to replenish at all. This means something like having a max oil consumption of 0,05 liter pr 1000 km ... in US i guess this is close to 2 ounces pr 600 miles. And I want this all the way up to 300000 miles in total.

What should be done to achieve this?

Special oil
Special additives
More frequent oil changes than every 6000 miles
Anything else

... or it cannot be achieved - any engine WILL wear and result in excessive oil consumption no matter how well it was treated.


Thanks, Lucas
Buy an engine with a proven history. Never a first-year or first-gen anything. Then, since you want to drive it literally forever in car years, don’t cheap out on oils or filters (air and oil) and perform periodic OAs to assess that your filters are filtering and that your oil is within grade and serviceable. Rinse, lather, and repeat about 30-40 times over the next 20-23 years if you’re just Joe Average. Voila! 300k has arrived 😂
 
... I buy a car with zero miles on the clock. I want to drive it past 300000 miles. The manufacturer suggests an oil change every 6000 miles or every year depending on which comes first. In between every oil change I don't want to replenish at all. This means something like having a max oil consumption of 0,05 liter pr 1000 km ... in US i guess this is close to 2 ounces pr 600 miles. And I want this all the way up to 300000 miles in total.

What should be done to achieve this?

Special oil
Special additives
More frequent oil changes than every 6000 miles
Anything else ...
You could lose more than 2 ounces per 600 miles (=20 ounces per 6000 miles) without dropping the level from the full mark to the low mark on most dipsticks.
You won't need "special" oil or additives, but any appropriate oil.
More frequent changes may or may not be needed, depending on other circumstances.
The most important items you didn't list are treating the engine with respect (as to both maintenance and driving habits), and choosing the car with care---or luck.
 
If you want to reduce oil consumption, then you have to keep the ring lands clean. Dirty ring lands cause ring sticking, which isn't the only source of oil burning, but it is one of the major sources. If you are serious about running an engine for 300,000+ miles and don't want it to burn oil, then you have to use an oil that has the ability to keep the internals clean.
You are the only one to bring this up, so far. At 110,00 miles my car has just started to use some oil, maybe about 6 ounces per 6K OCI. I use mostly Pennzoil Platinum and recently Ultra Platinum when I can mail order for the same price as PP. I'm thinking about moving down to a 5K OCI because I can hear an engine noise level improvement after a 6K OCI .

Can I assume my ring lands are clean? Or should I/we consider using something like the HPL engine cleaner when consumption first starts? PCV has been changed with OEM.
 
I think your units are off converting to American. Maybe two quarts per 6000 miles but not two gallons. When you go through that much oil, it's the rings that leak. The engine starts to wear out. I don't know that there is a lot that you can do about that. The outlier engines that have a ton of miles and don't consume any oil didn't use any special oil or change interval.
At least in the 80s and 90s many European car manufacturers stated that burning 1 liter pr 1000km is still OK. I don't know what they state for modern cars except they allow something like 30000 km oil change intervals - which sounds crazy to me. Anyhow, there are 4 quarts to a gallon and 1 gallon is 3,78 liter: So after 3780 km the car is allowed to consume 1 gallon and after 2x3780km=7560km it is allowed to consume 2 gallons. 7560 km is "only" 4725 miles. So I was optimistic with my previous post :-D.

In European car forums I read about frustrated people going to the workshop with excessive oil consumption and the workshop will do nothing since it's still within spec (1 liter/1000km).
 
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