road trip consumption

[Greg]

hi all. today i drove from fort erie to kingston and noticed my car had used a bit of oil. the trip was 450 km, and it was about 200 km before that that i had topped it up, so say about 650 km since it was up at full. now it's at 1/4 on the dipstick (mobil 1 5w30) ... most of my driving was above 120 km/h (sometimes hitting 140 km/h - 88 mph and staying there for a good 15 minutes at a time)... could this have attributed to the low level?

 

[BOBISTHEOILGUY]

Greg, I'd say if you don't normally have any consumption under normal driving then yes, that most likely was the cause. I too have taken my car and pushed it limits during my trip to texas.. ie,, 90-95mph for 1/2-1 hour at a time. Pushing that little 4cyl at high speeds with a load for any period of time caused it to be 1qt low by the time I got back from texas to florida. Before and since this trip this car has never used a drop of any measurable difference on the stick.

 

[Greg]

my car uses a bit of oil, but not a lot. at about 4000 km in i had to top up about 300-400 mL. that's about how much i'll have to top up now, or a bit less. it's a 1.5L 4 cylinder honda.

 

[Roger]

I don't think that's unique to small block engines. I've noticed the same thing in my Club Wagon, with a monster 5.8L V8. Sustained highway driving above 70 mph and its suddenly needs a little oil added.

 

[eldawg4100]

ive read sometimes that during these trips, all the contaminants get burnt outta the oil, moisture, fuel, etc. etc. very thorougly... thats just what i have read though.

 

[Greg]

cripes, just got back a while ago. went to go back out to the car and noticed oil dripping from the headlight! i opened the hood and there was oil EVERYWHERE, and no oil cap to be found . i checked the level and i got so lucky that it was only at the bottom level and not beyond. i quickly went to get a new oil cap and topped it up with mobil 1, now i have to live with the burning oil smell eminating from the exhaust manifold for weeks there's a downside of synthetic oil for you, it can't be killed easily! i remember when i spilled dino on the manifold it would burn off the same day. i think i forgot to put on the cap again in kingston when i checked the oil there. so if anyone sees a honda oil cap on the 401, 407 or QEW, please send it back to... [ March 11, 2003, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: Greg ]

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Greg: cripes, just got back a while ago. went to go back out to the car and noticed oil dripping from the headlight! i opened the hood and there was oil EVERYWHERE, and no oil cap to be found . i checked the level and i got so lucky that it was only at the bottom level and not beyond. i quickly went to get a new oil cap and topped it up with mobil 1, now i have to live with the burning oil smell eminating from the exhaust manifold for weeks there's a downside of synthetic oil for you, it can't be killed easily! i remember when i spilled dino on the manifold it would burn off the same day. i think i forgot to put on the cap again in kingston when i checked the oil there. so if anyone sees a honda oil cap on the 401, 407 or QEW, please send it back to...

---

So that's what I ran over on the way to work!