Mazda 3 2004 excessive oil consumption

Mr.Fantastic

Hey guys, I am currently driving a 2004 Mazda 3 1.4 petrol with around 55 thousand on the clock?
I noticed recently that I am having excessive oil consumption with me only driving about 500 or 600 miles for every Quartz of oil?

I wouldn't be that knowledgeable about cars and took it to a mechanic he said it was the age of the engine and to keep and eye on it and top up the oil as nothing was actually wrong with it ? Read a few things online about a pcv valve , but it surely wouldn't be causing that much oil loss?

It recently passed the NCT no hassle anyway? Just wondering is there a fix for this or would it be something drastic with the engine ?
Thanks in advance

Special Circumstances

If it passed petrol emissions test it may not be burning too much, it may be leaking it instead.

Do you always park in the same spot - any oily stains under car? Although if there is a plastic belly pan that can hide some leakage.

Do you know what oil is in it and what have you been topping up with.
Any blue smoke on a cold start?

Mr.Fantastic

Special Circumstances wrote: »

If it passed petrol emissions test it may not be burning too much, it may be leaking it instead.

Do you always park in the same spot - any oily stains under car? Although if there is a plastic belly pan that can hide some leakage.

Do you know what oil is in it and what have you been topping up with.
Any blue smoke on a cold start?

No smoke on a start up anyway, and no leakage under the car anyway. Have gravel outside my house so hopefully would be able to spot any oil leak.
I don't know what oil was in it originally? But I was advised to switch it to a 5w-30 synthetic blend if that sounds right ?

Yeah I was really confused when I wasn't told it wasn't burning it ? If it is leaking it would that be a simple fix ?

Special Circumstances

What is a quartz by the way? Approx 1 Litre?

Could be as simple as somebody went a bit gorilla on the sump plug when changing the oil and it's dripping some out there.

I notice that it has pretty low mileage - what kind of driving do you do? 10 or 15 very short hops in a week, or very little use apart from a good long spin the odd weekend, or somewhere in between?

Mr.Fantastic

Special Circumstances wrote: »

What is a quartz by the way? Approx 1 Litre?

Could be as simple as somebody went a bit gorilla on the sump plug when changing the oil and it's dripping some out there.

I notice that it has pretty low mileage - what kind of driving do you do? 10 or 15 very short hops in a week, or very little use apart from a good long spin the odd weekend, or somewhere in between?

Yeah around a litre or so every 5-6 weeks? But at this point the engine would be dry not a drop in it.

I would say the short hops would be more accurate less than 100 miles I say?

In few weeks this prob increase to around 400 or so as I am committing to a new commute. It's half the reason I was wondering if I could fix this as I was worried that the oil consumption with the car would make it not worth the bother.

gavman1

Yeah around a litre or so every 5-6 weeks? But at this point the engine would be dry not a drop in it.

OK I'm confused.how much oil are ye putting in from empty.that engine should hold about 4 litres me thinks.

Mr.Fantastic

gavman1 wrote: »

Yeah around a litre or so every 5-6 weeks? But at this point the engine would be dry not a drop in it.

OK I'm confused.how much oil are ye putting in from empty.that engine should hold about 4 litres me thinks.

Sorry I phrased that wrong after 6 weeks the dipstick would show it below minimum or so usually fill
It up to the max from there ! Yeah you're right it does hold about that. So around 3-4 litres

Mr.Fantastic

Just an update took it to my mechanic and a compression test was fine, nothing wrong with the pistons. He reckons it's the valve seals might have hardened when it was stored and being cause the oil loss ? Said for the age of the car , it be too much to be worth fixing ?

Sam Kade

Mr.Fantastic wrote: »

Just an update took it to my mechanic and a compression test was fine, nothing wrong with the pistons. He reckons it's the valve seals might have hardened when it was stored and being cause the oil loss ? Said for the age of the car , it be too much to be worth fixing ?

It's a problem with mazdas that age, I've a Mazda 6 with the same problem the oil comes up through the valves, just keep topping it up. I've 250,000 up on my 07 even though the oil problem started at around 80,000. You'll se a lot of Mazda 6's for sale without the engine because the owner never checked the engine oil.