Motor oil

[Jellybean22]

Just curious how fast does a car use motor oil and how often does everyone here have to top it up?

[priceyclause]

I've had my car for 2 years. Ive had the oil changed once (during its service) but ive never had to top it up! Just checked it this morning (first time in months) and its still up to the top line on the dipstick!

[dannywells]

if your car is old, it will probably use oil, how much depends on the bore wear, just keep your eye on the level and top up as nessesary

if its excessive you will probably have a smoky exchaust and its time to get it looked at.

However oil and filter should be changed every 6 - 12 months -depending on usage and how much you value your engine however saying that newer cars tend to have higher service intervals due to the type of oil they contain

[dannywells]

could be other causes for oil usage as well as bore wear, just giving that as an example

[Birt]

Manufacturers state the maximum oil consumption for a new vehicle is 1 litre per 1000km. New engines can consume a lot of oil in their initial few thousand miles and then settle down to a bit less. If the service interval is 10,000 miles you could use up to around 15 litres of oil between services.

[dannywells]

what a load of nonsense, if your cars using that much oil in 10,000 miles id be worried

[derekpara]

Birt is right about oil consumptiuon in new engines, although 15 ltrs for 10,000 miles seems a bit steep. My new VW Golf consumed about 5 ltrs for that distance then quickly settled down and now doesn't use any. I change my engine oil every 3 months irrespective of mileage.

[Jellybean22]

I asked becuase I have had my car 1 year and 3 months, it is a 1993/94 L reg and I have used 1 and half big bottles of motor oil. I just thought it was it bit excessive. My brother and dad never even check their oil but my oil light is always lighting up! I just topped it up today as it was completely empty!

[derekpara]

Two possible caises of your problem, Jelly.

1. Excessive engine wear.

2. Oil leakage.

The first will be obvious by a smoking exhaust, especially when revved up after a minute or two ticking over.

The second by oil stains on the ground under the engine. Much cheaper to fix than No.1 !! Good luck.

[dusty1]

Another answer check your water it could be that a head gasket has gone between an oilway and the water jacket, in which case, you may either have oil in your water or water in your oil, when you dip the oil assuming you have some in there, if its milky then will be head gasket.

[originalang]

dusty1 is spot on, We were recently worrying about a similar problem with oil usage, we then had a breakdown due to a stone putting a hole in the radiator problem. When the coating of oil on the oil cap looked milky our mechanic said 'head gasket' straight away however we were lucky and it actually had something to do with condensation caused by the radiator overheating. Our oil usage was due to a broken cable. The head gasket is a pricey job, hope its not that.

[tom hopkins]

another possibility what oil are you using could be to thin .
most modern petrol cars run on 10/30 some older especially high milage may require 15/50