My Nissan truck (3.0, auto, 4wd) has 110k miles on it and has never used any oil at all. I changed to Havoline 5w-30 (sm/gf-4)about 2500 miles ago due to the response it recieves on here. Well I drove to Charlotte and back like a wild Indian going to crap (80 mph/2800 rpm)and Saturday the oil was down slightly on the dipstick, about 1/16th of an inch on the bulb. I wonder if the pcv valve could cause this since it has never ever used any even when I ran Mobil DC gf-4 through the fall and winter. Any thoughts? I am thinking of going back to the good ol' 10w-30 in something (Maxlife syn probably) but am curious as to the cause.
PCV valve?
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Do you do a lot of short trip driving? If so, you can have fuel dilution and when that burns off, the oil level will drop. Just an idea.
ben that makes sense. It has been in through the winter and has done a many a short trip (5 miles one way) to work and back. I have heard that the Havoline 5w-30 thins out quick too. It is getting hot and the common wisdom is to put in a 10w for the summer so I guess I will do that very soon.
ALL conventional 5W-30s tend to shear back to a moderate-to-high 20 weight. (Stands to reason - conventional 5W-30s depend more on shear and oxidation-prone VIIs to support that 30 weight viscosity when hot - and any organics that oxidize set the stage for varnish and sludge formation, too.) Besides that, fuel and water condensation dilution, and a lead foot on a good, hot run would act in concert to lower the apparent oil level as Ben brought up. Unless you have an overriding reason for the 5W viscosity category in a conventional, you'd probably have less of an oil consumption issue with a good 10W-30 conventional. (Havoline or its sister product, Chevron Supreme, would definitely qualify.) Frankly, I question the importance of the claimed CAFE fuel mileage advantage of 5W-20 over 10W-30 in real-world driving conditions, too.
Sidebar - synthetic motor oils depend MUCH less on VIIs.
Sidebar - synthetic motor oils depend MUCH less on VIIs.
Triple_Se7en
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The few ounces of Havoline you used may be due to a different package of additives it has vs the Mobil. That slight loss may be only temporary now that a good engine run has filled all gaps with Havoline's richness in moly & boron. I wouldn't sweat it... another trip to Charlotte might not produce a 1/16ths loss now. If it does, your engine may have a use-preference for Mobil over Havoline.
Alot of folks get turned off by Mobil-1 synthetic too -- using it for the first time in a used dino engine. They become alarmed when all of-a-sudden, a half-quart is missing from the crankcase after 1500 miles. All that loss is generally just a new coating & burnoff from cleaning inside the engine. Mobil-1 even recommends a shorter OCI with your first use because of it's cleaning & coating effect. The next OCI usually will see oil use that's back to normal for the vehicle owner.
[ May 09, 2005, 01:24 PM: Message edited by: Triple_Se7en ]
Alot of folks get turned off by Mobil-1 synthetic too -- using it for the first time in a used dino engine. They become alarmed when all of-a-sudden, a half-quart is missing from the crankcase after 1500 miles. All that loss is generally just a new coating & burnoff from cleaning inside the engine. Mobil-1 even recommends a shorter OCI with your first use because of it's cleaning & coating effect. The next OCI usually will see oil use that's back to normal for the vehicle owner.
[ May 09, 2005, 01:24 PM: Message edited by: Triple_Se7en ]
i got the same engine as you and even with a brand new PCV (less than 300 miles on it) im catching a suprising amount of oil in my PCV oil catch. If i were you id replace it anyway, its $10 from the dealer and i would only use OEM
Ditto to the response by triple_se7en!! He said it much better than I ever could. If you are going to use a dino Havoline is as good as any and better than some. 10W30 in our Summer temps might not be a bad idea. It rarely cools off enough in the late Spring/Summer enough to make a difference between 5W and 10W30.
I wouldn't sweat that kind of consupmtion over 2,500 miles.
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