GC Oil consumption increasing

[ssj4]

1995 M3.

In my last Post, I had mentioned 1 quart in 1800 miles (which was great). Now after 400 miles after adding the makeup quart, it has gone through another 1/2 quart.

What is going on here????

If this keeps up, I'll have about 50-70 quarts of GC to sell, unless of course the UOA is stellar.

Notes:

Spec is 1 quart / 750 miles
two ARX cycles performed before starting GC
no drips or leaks on the ground

 

[JAG]

Gold GC got consumed at a high rate in our 2004 G35 Coupe. Not nearly as high as yours though. Used it for several 5k-7k OCIs. Consumption only seemed to get worse over time. I can only guess why these things happen. But if it does happen, it's time for another oil. It sucks that your stash is so huge if things don't improve.

 

[ssj4]

well, this is green (only have about 18 quarts left). Perhaps the gold will do better (about 90 of those)? Also, I can try various adds (BG MOA, or VSOT) to see if the little bit of thickening will help. The UOA's will tell the story.

I can always use it in my X5 which specs 30w oil, although it would take me ~8 years to go through it all just in that car.

May try it in the vette after warranty?

 

[JAG]

5 years is the industry agreed-upon shelf life of unopened motor oil. The clock is ticking!

You could try changing the oil (to GC again) to see if that cuts down on consumption. It just might considering I recall that you used dino oil in the engine before. Maybe I recall incorrectly. But if the GC is doing cleaning duties, that can increase consumption, so short OCIs would help with cleaning and consumption.

In our G35, it was a newish engine so cleaning was not going on. The engine just simply consumed Gold GC. There's only two ways into combustion chambers: past valves or past rings. I'm guessing it was past valve seals with GC. Each oil affects seal properties differently.

 

[ssj4]

Yeah, I used dino, then syn, back to dino, then to syn again. But mostly syn for the last 4 or so years. The 2 ARX treatments should have cleaned much more than GC in any event.

If this doesn't level off on the next OCI, I have one interval of Lubromoly 0w-40 that I will try next.

 

[BullyT]

Hard to say what's going on. I just checked the oil level in my BMW 740 today and it's right at the "full" mark. I've gone about 9,000 km (5800 miles) since last oil change and it hasn't used a drop. Gold GC.

I recently switched to GC in my high-mileage Ford Explorer (about 140,000 miles on it) and I also checked the oil level in it today--right at the "full" mark. Only about 1,000 miles since last oil change though, but so far consumption is nil.

 

[Lazerred1]

Quote:

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Gold GC got consumed at a high rate in our 2004 G35 Coupe. Not nearly as high as yours though. Used it for several 5k-7k OCIs. Consumption only seemed to get worse over time.

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It seems from the posts I've read here, GC doesn't wold well in the G35. I had Mobile 1 in mine for 5000 miles with no consumption and now have Amsoil. Probably use all my GC in something else.

 

[ccs v2.0]

The Ghosn Nissan/Infiniti offerings of late are oil burners across the board and I doubt this is GC issue. It's not isolated to VQ35s. The VK45s are burning as much oil as the "let's stop selling until we figure it out" QR25DE.

In the first GC OCI for my VQ30DE, it consumed about 1 qt for 4K-5K miles. It's now stabilized to 1 qt. every 8K miles.

 

[JAG]

Regarding our Infiniti G35 Coupe and the consumption it had with GC: M1 0W-40 has drastically cut back on the oil consumption; so far so good. I too have heard of Nissan's oil consumption woes of late.

 

[INDYMAC]

I've just jumped on the GC bandwagon, so my experience is limited. My 2003 G35 had it's first drink of GC gold at 61K. So far, no consumption after about 3K. This car doesn't have a history of any oil consumption though. Maybe something's wrong with it?

 

[JAG]

Lack of noticable consumption is a good sign, not a bad one. It will go that much longer before consumption becomes irritating later in the engine's life. I had to get rid of an old car because it became a smoke screen and replacing rings and valves seals was not worth it for me.

 

[Lazerred1]

Mine is also a 2003 and from what I've read, the consumption issues were for later models.

Now that I've said that mine will start drinking the stuff.

 

[INDYMAC]

As all G35 owners know, the oil dipstick was designed very poorly. One observation that I have noticed, in spite of having a difficult time reading the dipstick after an oil and filter change, is that 5 qts (specified oil amount for oil and filter change) settles out to around half way between the low and high marks on the dipstick. I wonder if some folks are confusing this phenomena with oil consumption...

 

[Lazerred1]

Nope. The guys with consumption issues are really going through the stuff. Has to be worse than 1 qt per 1000 before Nissan will replace the engine. It's so bad that some have to check the oil daily!

Some are now on their 2nd engine with the same problems. I can't believe someone hasn't filed a class action and at least get the warranty extended like they did on Lexus.

It isn't a burning issue since they don't smoke like they would if the oil was truely burning. It just goes somewhere. Kind of a big mystery, or so it seems.

 

[INDYMAC]

Quote:

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Nope. The guys with consumption issues are really going through the stuff. Has to be worse than 1 qt per 1000 before Nissan will replace the engine. It's so bad that some have to check the oil daily!

Some are now on their 2nd engine with the same problems. I can't believe someone hasn't filed a class action and at least get the warranty extended like they did on Lexus.

It isn't a burning issue since they don't smoke like they would if the oil was truely burning. It just goes somewhere. Kind of a big mystery, or so it seems.

---

Have any of them tried changing the PCV and installing Krank Vents to minimize the loss? Or is it just classic blowby (rings)?

 

[Lazerred1]

I don't think anyone, including Infiniti (Nissan) knows why. I'd think that they would have tried just about everything before changing engines, and they have replaced a bunch.

There has been some ideas that it has to do with the design of the crankcase venting system, but I wouldn't think it would be that simple or they would have done a re-design and recall.

 

[INDYMAC]

Sounds like Krank vents will do the trick. They aren't very expensive either. Lots of early S2000 owners are using them with great success. Minimal to no oil loss now.

 

[ssj4]

arrrrghhhh. My thread got hijacked by infinity/nissan.

So far the consumption in the BMW hasn't gotten "out of spec" (1 quart / 750), and I've heard that some people burn 2qts/1000 some almost none.

Question, are all of these infinity or nissan engines v8's? Mine is a high revving v6, which may have something to do with it?

Note: no smoke whatsoever

I used to run dino 20w-50 with BGMOA, and would have next to no consumption in 3000 miles, dino 10-40 a wee bit (maybe 1 quart)

 

[double vanos]

Your afterburner is gobbeling up all the smoke from your oil consumption.

Kinda sets a fellow to thinking....just how much smoke can a catalytic converter digest before it begins to f*ck with it?

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Still seeing more consumption with GC than other syn oils, in the Subaru Outbacks and the 1995 BMW 325iC.

I've run GC for a combined 65K of driving, and it is a great oil...but I like the low oil consumption of Redline oil.