No Oil Consumption
- Thread starter Yuk
- Start date
Patman
Staff member
Owner's manual of most old cars will typically say something to the effect of:
"If you prefer oil consumption, start using 0W-X especially 0W-20."
It's a fine print somewhere if you look for it.
And yet interestingly enough my Civic only consumed a half quart of 0w20 on my last OCI (9566 miles)
Still half a quart more than I would see
Up until January in the Ford and April in the Mazda, 5/0W-20 has been the only oil used.
17 year old Mazda - 244,000 km
13 year old Ford - 108,000 km
8000-10,000 km OCIs
Zero visible consumption between changes.
Up until January in the Ford and April in the Mazda, 5/0W-20 has been the only oil used.
17 year old Mazda - 244,000 km
13 year old Ford - 108,000 km
8000-10,000 km OCIs
35 year old Ford van - 153,000 km
Last 15 years, whatever oil is around (always synthetic), once every year or two, maybe 1000-4000 km/OCI.
19 year old Jaguar - 82000 km
5W-30 Castrol synthetic, something like once a year and 5000km average OCI.
Patman
Staff member
For an engine with 240,000 km this is a very acceptable amount. I’m not complaining.
It's very acceptable, but mine had 0 visible use at 192,000 km when the car was totalled. I'm complaining it got totalled.....
My wifes '11 Chevy Equinox has used oil since she got it. It had 35k miles on it when she got it, it now has 89k on it. It would use 1 qt in 750 miles on 5w30 wt. Now that I use 10w40 in it, it has really slowed down the consumption. Maybe 1 qt in 2200 miles which is tolerable.,,
My '86 Volvo used a small amount of oil from day 1. Never increased in the 285,000 Km I owned it. I changed the oil every 3 months and hardly ever added oil (as I consider anything between the 2 marks on the dipstick as being an acceptable amount of oil).
I chalked up the oil use to a bit of looseness in a (for the time) higher performance engine. Didn't seem to hurt anything.
For a pretty low mileage engine, using a qt in 750 miles is alot. You pretty much do a full oil change, during one oil use cycle. GM knows there was a problem with those engines, but chose to do nothing about it on their dime. But if you wanted to pay them, they would gladly rebuild it for you.,,,
I have the same experience with 2 old cars both burning oil with 5W-30 Synthetic or "Syn-blend".
One car doesn't burn much maybe 1/2 to 3/4 qt per 5K miles OCI.
However, they burn none with M1 EP 10W-30. And it was not a one time event i.e. I have switched back & forth a few times to confirm. My next experimentation is with M1 EP 5W-30.
Maybe it has to do with the base oil, the spread (5 v 10), Noack, add-packs, brand of oil, etc. Some old engines do better with certain types of oil. Thicker maybe!?
A little bit of kidding in my post #21 but based on my experience, I don't even want to try a 0W-40 in my old cars. lol Maybe 10W-40!
Owner's manual of most old cars will typically say something to the effect of:
"If you prefer oil consumption, start using 0W-X especially 0W-20."
It's a fine print somewhere if you look for it.
I also have a weird phenomenon where my AMG with the M139 running 0w20 burns no oil, and my K20C1 also burns no oil on a 0w20.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
- Messages
- 2,886
I just don’t like it when engines start consuming oil, I know it’s “normal” to a point but it still bothers me. To me it means something is worn or wrong…something is leaking, or the PCV system isn’t working properly, or just can’t keep up due to excessive blow by…or it means my oil rings are stuck or clogged (and I have a poorly designed engine or a poorly maintained engine).
My car right now doesn’t really consume any noticeable oil in 5,000 mile intervals, and will usually consume only a half quart in 10,000 mile intervals. I’m at 145,000 miles on the thing now and I’m real curious how long this type of lack of oil consumption will hold up (especially where I am extending intervals out to 10,000 miles most times). We shall see.
My car right now doesn’t really consume any noticeable oil in 5,000 mile intervals, and will usually consume only a half quart in 10,000 mile intervals. I’m at 145,000 miles on the thing now and I’m real curious how long this type of lack of oil consumption will hold up (especially where I am extending intervals out to 10,000 miles most times). We shall see.
All of my vehicles use no oil between changes. If any of them did I would probably get rid of the vehicle.
Patman
Staff member
Your Corvette doesn’t even use oil? All of mine have consumed a little bit. My C7 uses roughly half a quart every 7k. It’s perfectly normal for a high performance engine that’s driven hard from time to time.
Similar threads
