KrayzieFox

So I'm starting to notice that I keep on getting low on oil, and I am filling up about a quart every two weeks. I'm pretty sure there's no leak that I can see, since there's never any trace of oil under my car when I leave school, work, or home. The engine is at 57K miles, and I use Mobil1 5W-30 synthetic motor oil & the larger 626 Mobil1 oil filter.

I've never had a problem with this up until about a month ago. I check my oil every time I fill up my gas tank, and lately I started noticing that at every fill-up it seems to drop a bit lower and I end up dumping an extra quart every 1000 miles (couple weeks for me) or so.

I'm starting to kinda worry but I dunno what to look for. I'm almost 100% positive it's not leaking aywhere, cuz I check for oil drainage every time I leave a parking spot. Also, it doesn't disappear all THAT fast whereas if I had a leak I'm sure it would be all gone in a matter of days.

Please help, thank you all!

JoshP5

Look around under the car. Maybe the leak, if there is one, is such that it only happens at higher oil pressures, like when you're on the highway. Not when the car's just sitting there. This could account for the lack of dripping when the car's parked.

No clouds of blue smoke behind you, right?

KrayzieFox

None that I can see while driving at least, and there's nothing I can see under the car either. I mean I looked all around the engine bay for oil that might be spraying out from somewhere and found nothing. I really don't think it's a leak but then again it doesn't make sense that I'm burning through oil that fast all of a sudden either.

D-rock240

Definitely not normal to be losing oil on our cars. I had that problem on my 240 (plus a burning oil smell) and traced it back to a tiny leak that was dripping oil on the exhuast.

kargoboy

This happened to me a few months ago. I started to lose oil but there was
nothing on the ground. But I could kind of smell it at times.

It was the oil filter. Either a defective one or it wasn't tight enough...anyway it was dripping onto the downpipe. Not a lot, but just enough to notice the level going down.

KrayzieFox

Now that you mention it Gary, it does seem to have some correlation with me "upgrading" to the V6 oil filter. Maybe those filters don't fit as good, so I definitely need to take a closer look back there. I'll check later today and report back with any results.

aMaff

the filters fit fine. It just may not have been installed as tightly as it should have been...

KrayzieFox

That's definitely a possibilty. After wrestling with my last filter for over an hour, I decided not to put as much torque on it this time so that might be backfiring on me right now. I'll jack it up when I get home later today and take a peak back there.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll let ya know what I find.

Da P-Funk!

So? Was it loose?

I have had great fit from the V6 filters (no leaks except for the one time i was too loose....)

KrayzieFox

No it wasn't loose. I forgot to report my findings. I looked all around the engine looking for any traces of a leak and I found nothing. 100% dry on the sides, front, back, by the filter, there are no signs of oil leakage anywhere in the engine bay, underneath the car, on the exhaust, etc.

So I still have no idea where it's going. I guess it's just burning up, so I'm gonna try to change my driving habits a little and see if that makes a difference. I just topped it off last week and I've put on about 300 miles or so since then with no oil loss whatsoever. I've also been driving a bit slower on the highway than I usually do (70 mph vs. 80-85 mph) so maybe the slower driving is gonna make a difference here.

Omron

I only had that happen once with a quick burn, way back when i was doing engine flushes. since that stuff is not oil, and it is designed to break things down.

If you did a flush, and some of that stuff is still in there and its mixed with your oil, then it could make for the oil to burn off during the combusion process.

I burned thru my very first Synthetic oil change in a month. I checked the stick, below low. I was like WTF.

ever since, my 20,000 km oil changes have been fine, I generally consume about half my oil at the 10,000km point. I top up my oil for the next 10,000km and thats it.

The only thing i can conclude that was different, was A) a change to synthetic first time, B) doing a flush for that change

_Kansei_

Do you get black specs all over the back of your car between washes?

TheDirtyGoatee

The only time I had oil loss was in my 92 Camry. It billowed a HUGE cloud of smoke every time I started from a stop or got on it hard. It was great leaving school back then or have someone behind you that's annoying the **** out of you. Thank God for MSP's.

KrayzieFox

Nope. There's no black specs and soot on the car, no unusual smoke coming from my exhaust, no funny smell, nothing out of the ordinary at all .. except for the fact that oil just magically disappears. I did just check it again yesterday after about a week or so and I didn't see any decrease. I'll keep checking on this and let you guys know if it persists but the problem seems to be gone for now.

KrayzieFox

Well .. after about another 700-800 miles it seems that everything is alright after all. I have no idea where that first quart of oil after the oil change disappeared to but it's all good now. I checked the oil level last Tuesday, and just checked this morning as well when I filled up at the gas pump and it's all still there.

Thank you all who offered your input, your help is greatly appreciated