my motor oil gets low about every 2 weeks. I check for leeks and there are none. My temp stays normal... any other other ways that might cause me to lose oil? and how would I check for it?

thanks-

 

If there's no leaks, you may be burning oil. Check for exhaust smoke. Perhaps have a friend rev the engine from idle and watch from behind.

The only other place for the oil to go is into the coolant from a bad head gasket/warped head, and you can check your coolant for oil naturally.

Are you sure there's no leaks? Because there can be a leak in the timing belt side of the engine that won't be easy to spot. There's also the tranny seal (i.e. rear main seal), oil pan and a few others. But you're probably right, any leak as severe as that would probably be seen, or at least leave spots on the driveway.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by StimpyBoy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If there's no leaks, you may be burning oil. Check for exhaust smoke. Perhaps have a friend rev the engine from idle and watch from behind.

The only other place for the oil to go is into the coolant from a bad head gasket/warped head, and you can check your coolant for oil naturally.

Are you sure there's no leaks? Because there can be a leak in the timing belt side of the engine that won't be easy to spot. There's also the tranny seal (i.e. rear main seal), oil pan and a few others. But you're probably right, any leak as severe as that would probably be seen, or at least leave spots on the driveway.</TD></TR></TABLE>

it doesnt have to be a leak for it to be disappearing


your piston rings could be worn and you might be burning it

do you have blue exhaust smoke at all?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Nick M &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

it doesnt have to be a leak for it to be disappearing
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well yeah, which is why I also said to check for smoke

Like Nick M said, if there's smoke then likely there's burning oil. I'm a bit noobish myself, but from my understanding burning oil can only come from bad piston rings and bad valve guide seals. In some freaky situation, maybe leaking oil into the spark tubes and then around the plug, but that should never happen.

Others can verify this, but if you're burning oil I'm pretty sure the procedure to determine whether it's the rings or the valve seals is to do a compression test first and check the numbers. If one or two cylinders are very different from the others, or all of them are below what they should be, it's likely the rings. If you drop some oil into the cylinder from the spark plug holes, do the compression test again, and the compression improves, then it's the rings. Otherwise I guess by default it's the valve seals.

Valve seals == not too bad from what I understand to replace
Piston rings == engine rebuild time pretty much, ooer

I'll let someone more knowledgable point out my mistakes

Oh, and again, check the coolant for oil.

Edit: Duh, you could also pull the plugs and check for oil fouling on the contacts to see if oil is being burnt. Forgot that.


Modified by StimpyBoy at 9:34 PM 8/13/2003

 

Stimpyboy is correct.

 

thanks alot for the info... if it is the worst case scenario and it is the piston rings ie. time to rebuild the engine are there any other symptoms to look for? and how much would this type of work cost?

thanks,

 

ACCORDing to cost.. it all depends on where u go.. but if u know ppl that are handy that way.. maybe you can get some deals down the road..!

 

carbon deposits on the inside of your tailpipe would be from burning oil too. plus if your plugs are wet, then you have a problem. they should be dry!!!

 

carbon deposits in an exhaust is just from the nature of gasoline burning engines....or do you mean actual build up? A layer of soot isn't really anything to be alarmed about...

 

look for signs of oil buildup and burned on oil markings on the oil dip stick. thats one of the easiest ways to spot an oil burner.

 

what do oil burn marks look like on the dipstick? I checked the muffler and it looks like there is some black soot build up in the pipes - is this burnt oil?

thanks,
Fabian

 

anybody???

 

A couple of people already mentioned things to look for. Here's a couple more...

Check your PCV valve. Is it clogged? That's your first clue. Pull off the valve cover. Is there sludge builup? A little doesn't tell you much but if it looks like icing, that's not good. Did you pull your spark plugs? Do the tips have a white crusty buildup? If they do, that's what oil looks like when it is burnt. All three of these symptoms will aid you in diagnosing oil consumption.

If you are loosing as much oil as you say (with NO leaks), your emmision test wouldn't look very good. Take the test and see how bad you fail. If you pass with flying colors, you need to find that leak...

Oh yeah...do a compression test. It won't directly tell you the condition of the oil rings, but if compression is low and you isolate the cause to the compression rings, the oil rings probably aren't far behind.

 

you guys mention wet plugs &gt;&gt; couldnt that just be from bad spark plug seals? because mine burns a little oil also and i just bought a valve cover gasket kit assuming thats the reason why my plugs 2 and 3 have oil on them

 

rings

 

you telling me my rings are bad??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i get not blue smoke or anything like that

 

t

 

no blue smoke for me too.

 

a little bit of soot is normal, but if the inside of your tailpipe is coated black then ya got a problem. oil covered plugs would be piston rings for sure!