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I have a slight problem in my car....hopefully its nothing more than slight. Somewhere along the line my car loses about 1 quart of oil about every 3000 miles or so. Its not dripping anywhere, and I don't appear to be burning any.
When my oil starts getting low, my HVLA's start tapping louder and more often then usual and when oil is brought back to normal levels, it goes away almost completely.
The part that really irks me is that after I realize that the oil is low, it usually has a really watery viscosity to it, even when cold. It doesn't have the normal 5w30 oily feel to it. It also takes on a grayish color instead of the normal gold or brown.
I was thinking that maybe I was having some blowby because for a while my dipstick tube has just been kinda sitting in its hole swiveling around. Perhaps atomized oil was making its way out of there? I have recently (last week) JB welded it back into place. Oh, and also my compression is within spec, at 173 in all cylinders. Mods are in the sig.
Some input would be nice, thanks!
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Chris '91 VVL-powered SE-RSOLD
VE! Koni/GC's, Apexi, Progress, Crown, Carbotech, ACT, GSpec, Fidanza, VDO, Nismo, and other goodies '04 G35 6MT '99 CBR600 F4
Yea, seems like mpg9999 understands the problem. I'm not having problems putting 3 5/8's quarts in. I do that after an oil change, and it reads perfectly full. Its just that after about 3k miles, I'm low by a quart and the oil thins to a milky gray watery viscosity. Again, I don't burn any, and I don't leak any.
I do, however, under full throttle above 5,000rpm spew some black smoke from my tailpipe. But AKAIK, black smoke is just a rich mixture, while blue is oil (accompanied by the familiar burning oil smell).
I have a slight problem in my car....hopefully its nothing more than slight. Somewhere along the line my car loses about 1 quart of oil about every 3000 miles or so. Its not dripping anywhere, and I don't appear to be burning any.
When my oil starts getting low, my HVLA's start tapping louder and more often then usual and when oil is brought back to normal levels, it goes away almost completely.
The part that really irks me is that after I realize that the oil is low, it usually has a really watery viscosity to it, even when cold. It doesn't have the normal 5w30 oily feel to it. It also takes on a grayish color instead of the normal gold or brown.
I was thinking that maybe I was having some blowby because for a while my dipstick tube has just been kinda sitting in its hole swiveling around. Perhaps atomized oil was making its way out of there? I have recently (last week) JB welded it back into place. Oh, and also my compression is within spec, at 173 in all cylinders. Mods are in the sig.
Some input would be nice, thanks!
the grayish color oil would concern me, maybe do a comp test?
i have the same problem in my B14 200sx se-r. i was using organic 5w30, i have 116,000 miles and i kept noticing my oil levels were low, i'm not burning it, and i'm not leaking it. i thought that i was actually thinning it or breaking it down at high rpms.. so i switched to synthetic, the problem is gone.. my oil level isn't going down anymore.. i'm using mobile1 5w30
the grayish color oil would concern me, maybe do a comp test?
I did a compression test, as stated earlier in the post. 173psi across the board.
IXLR8se-r: switching to synthetic is the last thing I would have thought to do, but if you've had good results with it....I may as well give it a shot. I have only used dino 5w30 since I've had the car....coincidentally since 116,000 miles.
I did a compression test, as stated earlier in the post. 173psi across the board.
IXLR8se-r: switching to synthetic is the last thing I would have thought to do, but if you've had good results with it....I may as well give it a shot. I have only used dino 5w30 since I've had the car....coincidentally since 116,000 miles.
well i thought the same thing.. for weeks i would have someone follow me..i would experiment with different driving styles and have them watch for any signs of smoking.. and there were none. i park my car in the exact same place every night no dripping oil marks, i checked the engine bay for wet spots around maybe the lower oil pan.. nothing dry. it had me stumped for the better part of 2 months. well my oil change time came up and i saw that walmart had the 5 quart jugs of mobile1 for $18 so i figured i'd try it and maybe the slow leak i have will get worse and i'll find it. well i used it.. i've been checking my oil every other day now since then and my oil has not dropped at all.. valve noise is quiet as hell, stays quiet too. i was able to tell when my oil was low before because my cam's were loud. oh well it worked for me man.. thats why my theory is my oil was actually breaking down during high rpms.. synthetics resists breakdown.. i dunno it worked though
Out of curiosity, have you checked/replaced your PCV valve lately?
Yes. I replaced my PCV valve about 5 months ago when I installed my polished valve cover.
IXLR8se-r: once again, you describe exactly the symptoms my car has. I am going to try full synthetic on the next oil change. I'll post my results back here once I have some.
The 'Missing Oil Syndrome' link was posted so you'd have an idea that our oil passages can sometimes gunk up, causing oil to turn nasty colors. Might have something to do with your situation, might not.
Running the engine oil flush stuff through the engine (the cure for the missing oil) might be a remedy for you.
That was my plan, actually. First I was going to run some of the motor flush through. After that, I'll let it run for 3,000 miles more on dino and see what happens. Should that fail, I'll spend the dough on synthetic.
