YACT - Where my oil go?!

[LuckyTaxi]

Changed my oil in February and yes I put in enough oil. So I'm going to change it again tomorrow and I happened to check the dipstick today. I'm near the low zone. So, where the heck did all the oil go? I know I dont have a leak because the dealer fixed that problem back in November of 2003.

My neighbor said oil eventually evaporates. WTF? If i put in 4 quarts and change the oil three months later, I expect close to 4 quarts to drain out, no?

I have about 87700 now. I change it every 3000 miles.

 

[Pepsi90919]

you burned it. all engines do to some extent.

 

[Carbo]

Absolutely! You've got a leak or a problem. Donate it to charity and pick yourself up a new set of wheels. Put in on your Mastercard.

 

[thedarkwolf]

No matter how good your engine is it will burn a little oil. Depending on how many miles you drove and how many are on your car that may or may not be a lot.

 

[StageLeft]

Your neighbor is a crack head. You didn't say how many miles you went through, or the engine, which would help in diagnosing the issue to an extent. For instance a civic that cranks throuth 4 quarts in 500 miles has a problem, but a V12 that goes through 4 quarts in 10,000 miles, not a big deal

4 quarts is a lot, but when you say it went from high to low I presume you mean on the dipstick and a dipstick range is normally around a quart or so, so if you did a good bit of miles I wouldn't worry.

 

[bmacd]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Your neighbor is a crack head. You didn't say how many miles you went through, or the engine, which would help in diagnosing the issue to an extent. For instance a civic that cranks throuth 4 quarts in 500 miles has a problem, but a V12 that goes through 4 quarts in 10,000 miles, not a big deal

4 quarts is a lot, but when you say it went from high to low I presume you mean on the dipstick and a dipstick range is normally around a quart or so, so if you did a good bit of miles I wouldn't worry.

:thumbsup:

-=bmacd=-

 

[Squisher]

Yup, you burned it.

The piston walls and valves are lubricated by oil. As the piston travels down, even though there are rings around the piston to wipe the oil off the cylinder walls some residue is left in the combustion chamber as the your gas is burned. Also, some oil will leak down past valve stems and drip onto the part of the valve that is contacting the combustion chamber.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Burning up to 1 quart of oil every 1,000 miles is the "acceptable" limit. Now, a car that is burning oil at close to that limit probably has something wrong with it, but not something seriously wrong enough to warrant tearing down the engine to fix it. On my old Accord though I would lose perhaps a half of a pint of oil in 3,000 miles in an engine that had 217,000 miles on it.

ZV

 

[Eli]

Oil does burn off, but not all 4 quarts.

1) Be sure to check your oil on a level surface.

2) Be sure to let the car sit for at least 10 minutes before checking the oil if it has been run

3) When you change your oil, make sure you fill it, start it, let it sit and then re-check.. to fill your filter up.

If all of these check out, look in your oil filler cap. Any foamy substance?

Look in your radiator. Any oil residue?

Next step would be to check all your plugs for oil fouling.

If all of these check out OK... run it through another oil change and observe the results.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Originally posted by: Eli
Oil does burn off, but not all 4 quarts.

1) Be sure to check your oil on a level surface.

2) Be sure to let the car sit for at least 10 minutes before checking the oil if it has been run

I'm going to check the ground for any leaks tomorrow morning. I initially checked it about an hour after i got home. It was very low according to the dipstick. I figure an hour wasnt enough for the oil to settle. So i ran some errands and came back home. Let the car sit for 2 hours this time and checked the dipstick again. A little better, the level was much higher than my initial check, but not even close to half level.