Causes of why Oil burns in your car?

[The Stigenator]

Last night I happened to catch my Oil light come on for a second and go off when I went into a turn. Today I checked oil.. I am way below the "L" level. I cant get the damn oil filler cap off or I can top it back. Its got about 3K miles on the clock now. The car is at 136500 right now. Oil change due at 136863.

Anyway what causes oil burn, what are the things to look for? I dont want to give it for service cause its going to be expensive as hell to fix it. If its easy to fix i will do the work myself but at this point I rather drive it till it dies and get a new car.

Any idea what causes "oil burning". I took a sniff of the "dip stick" and i can smell gas in there. Does this mean I got bad piston rings? I just had a new cat. conv and clutch put in..

oh well if i get a new car this becomes my "rally car"..

 

[ViperXX]

Your a dumbass, just add a quart of 10W-40

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy

Any idea what causes "oil burning". I took a sniff of the "dip stick" and i can smell gas in there. Does this mean I got bad piston rings? I just had a new cat. conv and clutch put in..

oh well if i get a new car this becomes my "rally car"..

Bad piston rings would cause oil to get in the combustion chamber. As far as the gas smell, I have no clue. Is there blue smoke on startup or accelleration coming out?

-PAB

 

[The Stigenator]

Originally posted by: ViperXX
Your a dumbass, just add a quart of 10W-40

hello.. if I could get the damn "oil filler cap" off I would fill it up .. dont you think....

I was contemplating filling it thru the dip stick hole.. but my brother is taking to tommorow to the lube place to get it changed..

 

[The Stigenator]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: The_good_guy

Any idea what causes "oil burning". I took a sniff of the "dip stick" and i can smell gas in there. Does this mean I got bad piston rings? I just had a new cat. conv and clutch put in..

oh well if i get a new car this becomes my "rally car"..

Bad piston rings would cause oil to get in the combustion chamber. As far as the gas smell, I have no clue. Is there blue smoke on startup or accelleration coming out?

-PAB

I am positive I saw blue smoke one day when I started her up.. but that was the only time...it hasnt smoked since. I made a note to check the oil that day but since then i forgot cause i never saw any more smoke.. until the oil light came on yesterday night.

 

[ViperXX]

Get a pair of channel locks and take it off.

 

[The Stigenator]

Originally posted by: ViperXX
Get a pair of channel locks and take it off.

I tried the Grip Wrench (you can get it from Sears) .. it didnt come off with that..

 

[ViperXX]

Well if you have too, get a funnel with the transmissions filler hose attached and fill it up using the oil dipstick hole. But keep trying to get that cap off.

 

[Linux23]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy

Originally posted by: ViperXX
Get a pair of channel locks and take it off.

I tried the Grip Wrench (you can get it from Sears) .. it didnt come off with that..

so how is the service guy going to get it off?

 

[zephyrprime]

You just need some sort of big wrench to get the cap off. After you do that, you should probably look into buying a new oil cap (no big deal). Not sure what's causing you oil to burn but I'll give you the advice I usually hear on car talk shows when people say they have oil burning.

Try a thicker grade of motor oil.
Try a synthetic oil. They don't burn as easily.

 

[Evadman]

Your car is running too rich probably. It can cause that whole thing to happen.

When your car runs rich, extra gas gets by your worn rings and dilutes your oil. your now thinnner oil can get by the oil control ring and into the chamber and be fired off with the gas.

A plugged PCV valve could also be a culpret in not evacuating any gas that does get by the rings.

Throw in a qt of oil though the dipstick tube. Just go slow, no biggie. @ 100k miles, everything will burn oil. With the possable exception of a Cummins. ( don't say what I know you are going to say )

Ask some people about "engine restore". I have heard it talked about in high regards, but I don't trust it. Ask someone who has used it, and if they give the green lioght, go ahead.

 

[The Stigenator]

You know evadman.. I had turned up teh idle cause my cylinder 2 isnt firing right (bad injector i believe). So i turned it up to prevent it from stalling.. after that only did I see the blue smoke that one time.

I will declock it back (I went up by 1 turn I will de clock it back by 1 turn). I will check the pcv valve too. As for oil I will try synth oils. I had sent my sister Engine Restore for our car in India. Appparently it made that car really really smooth. Its not too expensive (5 bucks) i might as well try some of it.

 

[GRIFFIN1]

Here are some ways that oil can leave your car.

1. It leaks out. There are lots of places for the oil to leak from.
2. Your rings can be worn.
3. The valve guides can be worn. The oil will leak down around the valves.
4. Bad head gasket could cause it to leak.
5. Maybe someone stole your oil.

I know this guy that works at a garage. A female driver had her car towed there after it stoped running. There was no oil in the car, and she blew the engine. Aparantly, she bought the car used not too long before the engine blew. When she was told that there was no oil in the engine and that it blew up, her response was, "it had oil when I bought it."

 

[The Stigenator]

Here are some ways that oil can leave your car.

1. It leaks out. There are lots of places for the oil to leak from.

I dont think so.. I havent seen any oil leaks (from what I saw underneath and otherwise).

2. Your rings can be worn.

Quite possible.. this is an old car that has been beaten the heck out of by me.

3. The valve guides can be worn. The oil will leak down around the valves.

I had the valves adjusted about 6000K or so back. They were so out of whack that the guy somehow got it back into spec. It hadnt been done from the time the car was bought. Anyway that i doubt is the problem. They put some new valve gaskets's on it.

4. Bad head gasket could cause it to leak.

Quite possible. If i blown a headgasket I can only tell if I can open the "oil filler". But I doubt it cause if I blew a head gasket coolant will leak in. My coolant is perfectly full.

5. Maybe someone stole your oil.

Yeah maybe roxanne did it.

 

[The Stigenator]

By the way the car is a 1994 Toyota Tercel .. with 136500 Miles.. Its got a 4 speed manual shift.

 

[Lola]

to find out if its a head gasket, take off the radiator cap and look inside. It there is a white milky substance in it, its the HG.

 

[The Stigenator]

Originally posted by: ActPrincess
to find out if its a head gasket, take off the radiator cap and look inside. It there is a white milky substance in it, its the HG.

Not the radiator cap hon .. its the oil filler cap that has teh white stuff.. But I cant get it off to check that.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy

Originally posted by: ViperXX
Your a dumbass, just add a quart of 10W-40

hello.. if I could get the damn "oil filler cap" off I would fill it up .. dont you think....

I was contemplating filling it thru the dip stick hole.. but my brother is taking to tommorow to the lube place to get it changed..

contemplating?
What's there to contemplate? Just do it....why the heck can't you gt the cap off btw?
Go lift some weights.

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy

Originally posted by: ActPrincess
to find out if its a head gasket, take off the radiator cap and look inside. It there is a white milky substance in it, its the HG.

Not the radiator cap hon .. its the oil filler cap that has teh white stuff.. But I cant get it off to check that.

yes, the radiator cap.

 

[idNut]

Your car will treat you like how you treat it. You can tell I've grown up in a family that is told to love cars and material things, not people.

 

[zephyrprime]

Maybe the one cylinder that is firing bad is also what's causing your oil consumption. Maybe the piston ring seal is screwed an the piston is loosing compression causing it to fire badly. If this were occurring, there would be blowby which would explain the smell of gasoline on you dipstick! If the seal is bad, oil may be able to leak into the combustion chamber causing oil to be burned.

But keep in mind that I know a lot more about computers than I do about cars!

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
Maybe the one cylinder that is firing bad is also what's causing your oil consumption. Maybe the piston ring seal is screwed an the piston is loosing compressiong causing it to fire badly. If the seal is bad, oil may be able to leak into the combustion chamber causing oil to be burned.

But keep in mind that I know a lot more about computers than I do about cars!

Do a compression test on each cyl. Go to the nearest Pep Boys where they rent tools, and toss it on. See if one cyl is drasticly lower than the other. It is possable detonation blew off part of a ring or something equaly as diasterous.

 

[MajesticMoose]

Originally posted by: Pepsi90919

Originally posted by: The_good_guy

Originally posted by: ActPrincess
to find out if its a head gasket, take off the radiator cap and look inside. It there is a white milky substance in it, its the HG.

Not the radiator cap hon .. its the oil filler cap that has teh white stuff.. But I cant get it off to check that.

yes, the radiator cap.

no he was right, it's the oil filler cap.

 

[SuperSix]

DO NOT use synthetic oil. It's not recommended for high-mileage cars that haven't been using them all along. It is much thinner, and it will seep pasts the worn gasket surfaces. I've seen cars with similar mileage change to synthetic, and they developed a ton of seepage. Use 20w50, you'll be fine. I have a tired V8 that has a little bearing rap, and I use a little Lucas oil stabilizer in it.

My guess on the gas smell is that the cylinder you say isn't firing because of a bad fuel injector is not firing for some other reason than the fuel injector. It is injecting fuel fine, but not firing for some toher reason, and the gas is running down the cylinder walls diluting your oil like said above. Find out whyit's not firing right. (plug/wire/coil pack (if it has one))

With that many miles, if you plan on keeping it, it's time to replace all the small things, whether they're bad or not, as budget allows. PCV, check ALL vacuum lines, breather filters, plugs, plug wires, belts, hoses, flush/fill/change coolant etc...

 

[notfred]

You have a fuel injected car with an idle that's adjusted by a screw?

anyway: 136000 miles, burning oil, oil cap doesn't come off. Solution to "cylinder 2 doesn't fire" was "turn up the idle". Meanwhile, cylinder 2 (w/ no fuel in it, per your description) has been running solely on air for who knows how long, and the piston rings are probably burnt. Thus, oil is going out your tailpipes, cylinder 2 has no compression, and generally, it's time for a new damn car.