RWDlifer

Too much? cause for alarm? normal?
Car was pretty loaded down too...trunk, back seat both holding stuff. Cold engine oil readout before trip was 4.8l, cold reading after the drive was 4.3l. I did not get any oil messages during or after the drive.
On the upside, avg mpg was 30.5 (using miles driven / refuel amount)...

tommy

Yes. Yes. No. Congrats on the mileage.

RWDlifer

Crap...

Jhartmann3

How many miles do you have?
Any leaks you can see? <--- Dumb question, but have to ask.

Is the car used for short trips? Maybe it was just water in the sump burning off.

I'm not to familiar with the m271 engine, But maybe cam sensors,Vacuum pump gasket. It's weird the the consumption is all the sudden.

RWDlifer

130k miles...I've never had to add oil between changes, and my normal daily drives are a mix of highway and streets. Cam magnets, vacuum pump were previously leaking but fixed. No other leaks I'm aware of, my usual parking spot has no oil stamps.
This is my second road trip in the car...the first one was when I purchased it out of state. I drove it ~700 miles home and promptly changed the oil, so I have no idea if it used any at that time. I did some research and it seems long periods at highway speed tend to result in more oil burning...I've topped off for now, guess I'll wait and see. I'm using M1 5w40 formula M
Weird thing is, the car didn't give me an oil low message...I checked it myself on the dash.

VVF

I add about 1qt of oil every 6k miles. No noticeable leaks. It's just burning it, or maybe valve stems are worn.

tommy

But at his rate, that would be 3 3/4 quarts in 6k. And that's in what I presume would be highway miles, too.

I'm not really concerned about the no indicator thing, these things aren't as spot on as you would like to think.

VVF

Well, it's uneven... Sometimes it stays at certain level for a couple months then drops 1/3-1/2 after a long-ish 400mi trip. Sometimes not. Maybe it's indeed water.
Also I found that the slightly inclined pavement may throw off the indication by as much as 0.2l.

RWD, have you been checking the level before, between oil changes?
Could it be that it always consumes some, but you didn't check it?
I don't think it will tell you to add oil if it has more than ~4l in there though.
Never had this warning pop out on me.

Alswag

RWD, I wouldn't be alarmed just yet. I don't trust the in-dash oil level sensor. It's been off by as much as 0.5L for me before. However, add the oil which you believe you lost. Monitor oil level closely for the next 1k-2k miles and see if there's a drop in the level. Better yet, buy a dipstick. I think there are aftermarket ones for these cars, but I'm not too sure.

RWDlifer

In the 5 months I've owned it, I check the oil level on dyno mode at least every week, it's always been good....I've topped off for now, it's all city driving for the foreseeable future, so I'm gonna see where it's at after ~800 miles. Thx fellas for the replies...

RWDlifer

Some good news....it appears my oil level sensor is lazy. I had previously added precisely 1/2 qt to bring the cold level back to ~4.8l so I could monitor the oil burning. Well, this morning I checked the level again and it's at 5.2l.
I'm guessing the 4.3l reading I got after the trip was erroneous, it was most likely ~4.7l...which means it burned 0.1l on the 800mi drive Waaay better than 0.5 qt

LILBENZ230

Are you checking it cold? Checking it in dyno mode, you need to give it a bit to get an accurate reading. The car will prompt you if it is a quart low, by the way.

Carsy

After a lot of short trips it is also fuel that accumulates in the sump oil.

With a long motorway trips this evaporates off lowering the level.

Engine revs are usually higher on motorway trips which can increase consumption.

JC

RWDlifer

Yes, cold reading....it appears consistent now, I'm just glad it's not eating oil...