burning oil?
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From: Sacramento
Car Info: 2006 Subaru WRX STI
burning oil?
I justnoticed that my car (2002 wrx) has been burning oil. I just changed it a month ago (1000 miles) and notice today that a quart is gone. I have been using shell rotella the past few oil changes. Does anyone know what might be wrong? Thanks.
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Thanks
-- Ed
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Car Info: 2006 Subaru WRX STI
How many miles do you have on the car? Missing oil could be caused by a leak, turbo seals going out, cracked ringlads, or bad valve seals. I'd recommend inspecting for leaks first, then doing a compression/leakdown test to rule out internal engine damage. If that yields no new clues, you'd want to try swapping the turbo.
Thanks
-- Ed
Thanks
-- Ed
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Car Info: 02 Subaru WRX w/ JDM Spec C
Well, I had a 2002 and recently blew my motor, I noticed I was burning a lot of oil. I turned out to my my heads were bad. Had a tiny crack on one of the valve areas, and caused cylinder 4 to go dead. No compression. Hopefully this isn't the case for you, but just something to expect.
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Supposedly depending on where it is, you can have the crack welded, not the case for me. So I opted for a motor swap. No my car finally bogged down, and I took into Lic and they told me number 4 was going bad.
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How many miles do you have on the car? Missing oil could be caused by a leak, turbo seals going out, cracked ringlads, or bad valve seals. I'd recommend inspecting for leaks first, then doing a compression/leakdown test to rule out internal engine damage. If that yields no new clues, you'd want to try swapping the turbo.
Thanks
-- Ed
Thanks
-- Ed
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KingJeff: if you actually see smoke coming from the muffler, its most likely the Turbo.
If you're losing oil and there are no leaks, its the engine.
Try this: after driving around, let your car sit for 5-10 minutes. Have an assistant start the car while you observe the muffler.
If you see smoke at start up that clears up as you drive, tubing is suspect.
Try switching to a different brand of oil.
Oil consumption test, which costs nothing, is a far better test than leak down/compression test; stop by the shop and ill show you damaged pistons that passed leakdown/compression.
If you're losing oil and there are no leaks, its the engine.
Try this: after driving around, let your car sit for 5-10 minutes. Have an assistant start the car while you observe the muffler.
If you see smoke at start up that clears up as you drive, tubing is suspect.
Try switching to a different brand of oil.
Oil consumption test, which costs nothing, is a far better test than leak down/compression test; stop by the shop and ill show you damaged pistons that passed leakdown/compression.
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KingJeff: if you actually see smoke coming from the muffler, its most likely the Turbo.
If you're losing oil and there are no leaks, its the engine.
Try this: after driving around, let your car sit for 5-10 minutes. Have an assistant start the car while you observe the muffler.
If you see smoke at start up that clears up as you drive, tubing is suspect.
Try switching to a different brand of oil.
Oil consumption test, which costs nothing, is a far better test than leak down/compression test; stop by the shop and ill show you damaged pistons that passed leakdown/compression.
If you're losing oil and there are no leaks, its the engine.
Try this: after driving around, let your car sit for 5-10 minutes. Have an assistant start the car while you observe the muffler.
If you see smoke at start up that clears up as you drive, tubing is suspect.
Try switching to a different brand of oil.
Oil consumption test, which costs nothing, is a far better test than leak down/compression test; stop by the shop and ill show you damaged pistons that passed leakdown/compression.
.Cracked ringlands will usually pass compression tests until they get really bad, but a proper leakdown test will usually show even a slightly damaged ringland to some degree.
Thanks
-- Ed
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KingJeff:
Attached are links to (large) pictures of pistons that have cracked/missing ring lands.
LH piston passed both leakdown & compression tests.
RH piston passed SOAs arcane compression test, but just slightly failed leakdown.
As indicated by the rounded/slightly polished areas, the RH piston continued on for many miles, with the only complaint being high oil consumption.
Piston #1
CLose up
Attached are links to (large) pictures of pistons that have cracked/missing ring lands.
LH piston passed both leakdown & compression tests.
RH piston passed SOAs arcane compression test, but just slightly failed leakdown.
As indicated by the rounded/slightly polished areas, the RH piston continued on for many miles, with the only complaint being high oil consumption.
Piston #1
CLose up
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KingJeff:
Attached are links to (large) pictures of pistons that have cracked/missing ring lands.
LH piston passed both leakdown & compression tests.
RH piston passed SOAs arcane compression test, but just slightly failed leakdown.
As indicated by the rounded/slightly polished areas, the RH piston continued on for many miles, with the only complaint being high oil consumption.
Piston #1
CLose up
Attached are links to (large) pictures of pistons that have cracked/missing ring lands.
LH piston passed both leakdown & compression tests.
RH piston passed SOAs arcane compression test, but just slightly failed leakdown.
As indicated by the rounded/slightly polished areas, the RH piston continued on for many miles, with the only complaint being high oil consumption.
Piston #1
CLose up
I would imagine with the state of those pistons, the car was at least blowing a decent amount of smoke out of the oil filler neck, which is generally a very good indicator of ringland problems.
My own car had slightly cracked ringlands since the day I bought it but passed compression just fine. Leakdown did show enough variance to signal an issue, but I ran the motor anyway for another ~20k miles to see how long it would last
. It was still running decently when we pulled it out and it ended up having 3 pistons with cracked ringlands. By that point the leakdown test showed a clear problem as well.Thanks
-- Ed
Last edited by EQ Tuning; May 17, 2010 at 12:24 PM.
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-- Ed