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Burning oil - terminal problem

  • 08-09-2005 10:59am
    #1
    chickey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 162 ✭✭


    Hi

    Have a '92 micra with 146,000 on clock - in recent times it seems to be guzzling oil - doesnt seem to be a leak and stongly suspect its burning oil. Given car's age etc. is this pretty terminal? - is it likely that engine will simply pack it in at some point. Obviously not interested in spending a whole lot to sort problem!


Comments

  • #2
    murphaph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,050 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    Have you got blueish smoke coming from your exhaust when you give it a rev? Can you take out the spark pugs and check for oiliness around the electrodes? If neither of these are presnent there could be a leak. The leak might be internal though-can you check your coolant system for signs of oil? (this would indicate a blown cylinder head gasket? Is the car using any more coolant than normal?

    If it is burning oil, you have 2 choices. Fix it, or run it into the ground. It should give you some warning though. It will become harder to start as you lose compression in the dodgy cylinder(s). It may eventually start misfiring as oil fouls the spark plug(s). Does the car have a catalytic converter? If so, and you want to fix it, you should do so sooner rather than later as the oil burning could destroy the cat.

    If it were me-I'd drive it into the ground. 150k on a motor that's 13 years old isn't too bad in fairness, unless you just bought it recently!

    If it is burning oil then repairing it would involve fitting bigger piston rings and honing out the cylinder(s) to take them. It would not be a quick job and you'd not get it done cheaply IMO. The car is also at an age where you can expect other things to be going wrong too.


  • #3
    Silvera
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,033 ✭✭✭Silvera


    When you say "guzzling", how much oil do you mean ?
    1 litre a week, 1 litre a month ....... ?

    If the car is driving well otherwise, i.e. reasonable acceleration, etc. then I would just keep on driving until the engine starts loosing a lot of power.... or blows up !

    Alternatively you could always purchase a used low-mileage Jap engine from IVI (or whatever they call themselves nowadays) - which, I suspect, would prove much cheaper than repairing you own engine.

    This is of course presuming that the car's bodywork is in good condition, if not....'drive it into the ground', as they say ! ;)


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