Pontiac Grand Am oil consumption, ideas?

[Black_Thunder]

Well first off the car is not mine, i've never owned a Pontiac for obvious reasons. I've worked on a large amount and will never ever purchase one.


Anyways, my younger brother's fiance has one, has the 3.4 liter and uses an abnormal amount of oil.

Recently had some hesitating issues, her father took it to a reputable shop, it had codes for the 02 sensors and the convertors were plugged.


Before they found out what was wrong with it I told my brother the convertors were probably plugged because of its ungodly oil usage....well what a coincidence it turned out to be that problem.

So anyways the car is fixed for the most part.


What can I do to help with the oil consumption?


Would auto-rx help out? any other kind of additive etc? or more specific kind of oil to use?

I believe they've been using Mobil 5000 in it, but as far as i know it eats whatever oil is in it, i may suggest max-life next around though or some other kind of high mileage oil.

Thanks for your time.

 

[mechanicx]

What year is the Grand Am? Do you know how many miles it has?I'm guessing it's an around an '02. Some cats around that time had a factory defect and would fail and clog up around 80K or so.

How much oil does it use? Does it leak oil? Maybe it's not burning all of it. Anyway, assuming it is consuming then check/replace PCV with an OEM and hoses and grommets. Next step would be a compression test and if low squirt oil in the cylinder to see if it's the ring seal, but that would be a pain an the butt to do on all cylinders.

A 5W30 or 10W30 HM oil like Pennzoil or MaxLife would be good to try.

 

[gathermewool]

How good is your brother's fiance' with checking the oil? It may have used only a little oil, but over the years either carboned up or damaged the rings from running the oil low over many changes.

I have a friend who didn't know you could add oil BETWEEN changes. She explained that when the dipstick got low she knew it was ready to be changed, usually every 3k miles. At least she was checking it. Luckily, she's a very bright girl, but was never told.

 

[Gary Allan]

Without a smoking or puddle display, it's definitely going out the PCV. Service it as suggested. Auto-Rx would be my first agent of choice to see if ring seal could be improved. Unless this has been seriously neglected/abused, true wear would be rare, imo. I wouldn't play with viscosity until Spring.

Has this ever had an overheat?

 

[SteveSRT8]

Wow. So only Pontiacs have issues. Now I know which brand to avoid!

X2 on the Auto RX suggestion. Pretty cheap way to find out if it can benefit. And it can't hurt anything.

 

[coffee]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
What year is the Grand Am? Do you know how many miles it has?I'm guessing it's an around an '02. Some cats around that time had a factory defect and would fail and clog up around 80K or so.

How much oil does it use? Does it leak oil? Maybe it's not burning all of it. Anyway, assuming it is consuming then check/replace PCV with an OEM and hoses and grommets. Next step would be a compression test and if low squirt oil in the cylinder to see if it's the ring seal, but that would be a pain an the butt to do on all cylinders.

A 5W30 or 10W30 HM oil like Pennzoil or MaxLife would be good to try.


+1

 

[ThirdeYe]

My girlfriend's Grand Am burns a lot of oil, but it's a 4-cylinder, not the 3.4 V6 (guessing it's a GT?). Hers burns about 1 quart per 1,000-1,500 miles and she drives it gently and almost exclusively on longer trips, so I know it gets up to temp regularly. I'm going to try a High Mileage oil to see if that helps curb some of the consumption. I've heard of the 4-cylinders to be notorious for burning oil, but I haven't heard that about the 3.4

 

[caravanmike]

Originally Posted By: Black_Thunder
i've never owned a Pontiac for obvious reasons.

don't be down about it! some day i'll be able to afford one also!

 

[Black_Thunder]

Well i don't know what year probably an 02 or whatever like someone suggested, i think around 80 thousand miles.

I'm not sure what the shop all checked out, i service all my own vehicles, i've maybe worked on hers once or twice when my brother needed help with the brakes and wheel bearing.


The reason i won't own a pontiac is not because of affordability

I hate Pontiac with a passion

She's had the car only a couple years and i remember checking the oil periodically and found it always low, i told my brother that he and she needs to keep an eye on that, and he told he is always adding oil here and there.

I have several vehicles that leak oil that i don't have add to constantly.

My Thunderbird uses a very minmal amount of oil and my explorer doesn't seem to use any oil at all.


but i will look into the PCV and suggest adifferent oil and perhaps Auto-RX is in order.


Thanks for the Input.


Happy New year to all.

 

[mechanicx]

OK I don't think the 3.4 are typically oil burners. I happen to like Pontiac. I can't say I'm always crazy about the styling, but I've always found them to be a better finished and tuned then the Chevy versions. I hated to see Pontiac go.

 

[JohnBrowning]

The problem with most GM engines is a combo of losey piston design and valve stem seals. Short of buying a Toyota (minus the old no longer used 1.8) nothing you do will stop the problem. ARX might help a little but will not elimanate the problem. Same things goes for different oils! You can reduce it a little but never fix it as it is a design issue. Even the COrvette and Cadalics the FLag Ships of their company have been plaged with excessive oil consumption!

 

[mechanicx]

Well I have 97 3.1 and it does have some slight cold piston slap like many of the GM 60 degree V6s. But it has 12 years/127k miles and has never used more than a half quart of oil over 3k miles. Piston slap and coolant leaks these engines are known for, but not for burning oil.