Can a regular 1.4L car "use" oil?

felim

I have a 2004 Mazda3 1.4 and for the last 8 months it seems to be using quite a bit of oil. Symptoms are that the oil pressure light will flash on and off again if breaking hard or turning at speed (e.g on a large roundabout). I check the oil and the engine needs around a 2 litre top up to get just below the max mark on the dipstick. I've kept an eye on it since this first happened and the engine has needed a litre 3 times, about every 3 thousand miles. There's no smell or smoke from the exhaust, no oil leaks on my driveway and nothing visible under the car.

I had it in the dealers last week and mentioned it and they topped up the oil and checked for leaks (none). They said drive it on for 1000 miles and come back and they'll check it (it'll be due for a service then anyway). They also mentioned that if it turns out to be anything major they might be able to wrangle a good will repair from Mazda. I bought it new from them and the warranty is out since the start of the year.

I drive the thing fairly hard I guess. I get the max out of it without abusing it (gear shift around 4500 rpms, where the max torque is). Some people have said that small 16 valve engines can simply "use" oil if you drive them on a bit. Is there a way an engine can "use" oil, it must be burned right?

Any other possibilities?

crosstownk

First of all, how many miles are on the clock?

The oil consumption you mention seems a bit high. Have you checked your coolant to see if oil is mixing with it? It could also be possible that you are burning the oil (dodgy piston ring or faulty head gasket) - an emissions check may be able to confirm this.

felim

There's 46K miles on the clock. How do I tell if there's oil in the coolant? It'll be thicker and off colour? If it does turn out to be a piston ring or head gasket..is that an expensive repair? Would that be considered normal wear and tear? Just wondering if this good will repair would apply. I love the car otherwise and would be very dissapointed given Mazda's rep for reliability.

Anan1

If (as sounds to be the case) the car has been run without oil pressure, then the engine could be toast. OP - has the car been serviced according to schedule?

JHMEG

Running till the oil light comes on is not a good habit. 2 litres is a huge amount as the capacity will likely only be about 3.3 litres from empty. Good chance of excessive engine wear at this stage.

felim

Anan1 wrote: »

If (as sounds to be the case) the car has been run without oil pressure, then the engine could be toast. OP - has the car been serviced according to schedule?

Yes, the car has been serviced regularly. The case of the light coming on has only happened once, I've kept an eye on the oil level since and it hasn't run low, I've just had to keep it topped up.

daedalus2097

The oil light isn't a warning of low oil - it's a warning of low oil pressure. If you see an oil light come on, you're already damaging the engine. That's why you check your dipstick every week. The max to min of a dipstick is usually only 1/2 to 1 litre, so for a car to take 2 litres means it was very dry indeed, and probably has a lot of wear to pistons, seals, camshaft etc. Is there any sign of leakage? try leaving newspaper under the car overnight, check around the sump plug at the lowest poing of the engine and the oil filter - it's possible last time it was serviced these weren't put on right are are slowly leaking.