burning 1/3 quart over 6000 miles

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I realize this is not too bad. But where did the oil go?

It's a vq3000 engine in a 98 Nissan Maxima. Much of this mileage is highways from TX to GA and back. The oil is ASL 5w30
 
It was burned.
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A bit of oil needs to coat the cylinder walls and is exposed to combustion.

In reality you would not want an engine which burned ZERO oil, as that would mean no lubrication of the combustion chamber.

A little also gets past the valve stems and into the fuel-air mixture.

1/3 quart in 6,000 miles is very low consumption.

John
 
What I'd be more interested in is when it happens. Does it use NO OIL and then at around 6000 miles ..use the 1/3 quart ....or do you actually see the level on the dipstick go down during the 6000 miles (which I assume that you change it then)??

If it suddenly occurs near the end of the OCI..it's oil fatigue.
 
Mathematically this consumption rate computes out to a tad over 1 3/4 oz. every 1,000 miles. You definitely wanna get that engine replaced. (Don't settle for a rebuild, either.) The unmitigated arrogance of Nissan thinking they can shove their poorly designed junk off on hard working Americans when we have an informative site like BITOG available!
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quote:

Originally posted by Ray H:
Mathematically this consumption rate computes out to a tad over 1 3/4 oz. every 1,000 miles. You definitely wanna get that engine replaced. (Don't settle for a rebuild, either.) The unmitigated arrogance of Nissan thinking they can shove their poorly designed junk off on hard working Americans when we have an informative site like BITOG available!
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I guess I haven't been that meticulous about checking. I don't know if it dropped at the end or if it's been consistently dropping. I plan on doing a uoa at about 12000 miles and draining.


I probably won't be changing the engine soon. The oil is for the engine, and the engine is not for the oil. I'll keep running it as long as it's healthy and these engines are known for long life. I expect to get 300k out of it if possible. Maybe 500k if it's willing. Who knows. It's a great vehicle.
 
I believe Amsoil used to say that a mechanically sound engine should burn less than 2 oz. per 1K miles. Usually an engine will use more oil at highway speeds.

Yours seems to be just about right. I have had vehicles over the years that used 1 quart every 1500 miles and still went over 100K miles. My 2L Nissan Sentra uses so little that I really can't see any change over 5K miles-but that doesn't mean it will last any longer than any other engine I would suspect.
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Most folks are happier when an engine uses very little oil-and I suppose that I am one of them
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That makes sense. I have never noticed oil consumption before, but the car did several trips b/w GA and TX lately and is about to see another one.
 
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