Caution! One more case of synth oil burning

[KrisZ]

The car in question is a 2006 Mazda 3 with close to 120k miles on it. For the first 60k miles it had a diet of various dino and synthetic oils and for the second 60k I used dino exclusively. The oil level never changed during 5-7k OCIs until I poured in M1.

M1 was on sale so I got a jug. My wife was driving to Florida few weeks ago so I figured it was a good time to use it. She did about 3400 miles total and when she came back the oil level was about 3/4 down from the full line. I topped it off of course and will monitor the level throughout the OCI.

Nothing earth shattering, but I wanted to document my case as well, so that people pouring in a synthetic on a higher mileage car should monitor the oil level to avoid some nasty surprises.

 

[dernp]

Did you investigate the cause of the loss?

 

[OneEyeJack]

Have you talked to your wife about her driving habits?

 

[CharBaby]

Have you & your wife made similar trips using dino oils?

I do notice with any of the cars in my signature that, they do burn oil on looooog straight highway trips(family vacations/holiday) during the same miles driven(such as 3500-5000 miles)...compared to our normal around town/city/hiwy traveling(3500-5000 miles) OCI's, doing the same miles.

This has always happened to me with any of our cars. We may not burn a drop of oil(noticeable) over a 5K mile OCI with normal driving. But, will burn .5-1 qt(or more) of oil on the straight highway trip, during a 2000-3500 mile round tripper in a week or two.

IDK if this is normal but, it does happen regardless of the oil being dino or syn! This could be the Mobil 1(or any syn) or, could just be the distance traveled in a short period of time.

 

[tig1]

I use M1 0-20 in both of my engines in my Fords (same engine you have) and my engines use no oil in 10K OCIs. The Fusion is at 146K and the Focus at 130K.

 

[KCJeep]

What you experienced is not all that uncommon especially for M1. I don't know why but there have been numerous comments on it and my own experience was the same with M1. It will likely quit with continued use however. Keep an eye on it and I bet it eventually tapers off to near nothing.

 

[CharBaby]

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
What you experienced is not all that uncommon especially for M1. I don't know why but there have been numerous comments on it and my own experience was the same with M1. It will likely quit with continued use however. Keep an eye on it and I bet it eventually tapers off to near nothing.


Indeed!

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
What you experienced is not all that uncommon especially for M1. I don't know why but there have been numerous comments on it and my own experience was the same with M1. It will likely quit with continued use however. Keep an eye on it and I bet it eventually tapers off to near nothing.


Perhaps the reason None of my engines in the last 36 years have had abnormal oil use is I only use M1 oils. Since his engine had had a fairly long run with dino, some deposits have built up in the ring area(ring coking). M1 oils will begin the process of cleaning that out as Overk1ll as shown in Pics of his Expy when he first got it. Just sayin.

 

[donnyj08]

Most engines will "USE" more oil on a long trip where speeds stay high and are sustained. It would have done the same with dino on a long trip. Every car I've ever driven from Indiana to Florida has used about .5 qt for the 2000 mile round trip regardless of the miles. Even most low mileage engines will use a little when ran on and interstate all day for 12 hours straight.

In my experience engines that spin higher rpms at interstate speeds will also consume more than one that lopes along at 75-80 ( i.e c5 corvette with 6speed) .

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
What you experienced is not all that uncommon especially for M1. I don't know why but there have been numerous comments on it and my own experience was the same with M1. It will likely quit with continued use however. Keep an eye on it and I bet it eventually tapers off to near nothing.


This. And in general when changing between brands. It does tend to taper off and disappear for whatever reason as well.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: donnyj08
Most engines will "USE" more oil on a long trip where speeds stay high and are sustained. It would have done the same with dino on a long trip. Every car I've ever driven from Indiana to Florida has used about .5 qt for the 2000 mile round trip regardless of the miles. Even most low mileage engines will use a little when ran on and interstate all day for 12 hours straight.

In my experience engines that spin higher rpms at interstate speeds will also consume more than one that lopes along at 75-80 ( i.e c5 corvette with 6speed) .


I have the same engine in my Fusion as the OP. I have made 15 trips to Florida and one trip to Maine with 0-20 and no oil use at all with this car.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: donnyj08
Most engines will "USE" more oil on a long trip where speeds stay high and are sustained. It would have done the same with dino on a long trip. Every car I've ever driven from Indiana to Florida has used about .5 qt for the 2000 mile round trip regardless of the miles. Even most low mileage engines will use a little when ran on and interstate all day for 12 hours straight.

In my experience engines that spin higher rpms at interstate speeds will also consume more than one that lopes along at 75-80 ( i.e c5 corvette with 6speed) .


I have the same engine in my Fusion as the OP. I have made 15 trips to Florida and one trip to Maine with 0-20 and no oil use at all with this car.


Yup. This car sees long trips on regular basis and the oil level never dropped even after I started using dino exclusively.

I do wonder if tig would experience something similar if he switched to another brand of oil. There seems to be a pattern. When I was switching oils for the first 60k miles, I never had this happen. When I used dino exclusively, PYB for the most part, I never had this happen either. So it's either switch often or stick with one forever it seems.

 

[ag_ghost]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: KCJeep
What you experienced is not all that uncommon especially for M1. I don't know why but there have been numerous comments on it and my own experience was the same with M1. It will likely quit with continued use however. Keep an eye on it and I bet it eventually tapers off to near nothing.


This. And in general when changing between brands. It does tend to taper off and disappear for whatever reason as well.

+2. The Accord in my sig consumed a half-quart in 3,000 miles when I shifted from Kendall syn "blend" to Chevron 5W-30; two OCIs later, consumption is negligible.

 

[Finz]

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
What you experienced is not all that uncommon especially for M1. I don't know why but there have been numerous comments on it and my own experience was the same with M1. It will likely quit with continued use however. Keep an eye on it and I bet it eventually tapers off to near nothing.


I agree with this but would love to know WHY it happens

 

[wtd]

Back in 2000, I started using Mobil 1 in my 1998 K1500 with the 5.7L when it had 15,000 miles on the truck. I ran this oil for three years and until about 41,000 miles on the truck and during that time the truck would use about a qrt every 3,000 miles. During this time period I also had many oil analysis done. After the three years of use, I was not happy with the oil analysis results I was getting, the oil usage, and the noisy engine. I didn't feel I was getting my money's worth with this oil.

I started using Chevron conventional oil and my oil usage dropped in half, my oil analysis results became better, and my engine quit being noisy.

Obviously the engine in my truck did not like Mobil 1 very much. Other people have had great luck with it so I think it's engine dependent.

I have not used it since and don't have the desire to give it another chance in some of my other vehicles even though they may be perfectly fine running it. There are plenty of other oils out there that work just as well.

Wayne

 

[CharBaby]

I do notice that I burn more of the synthetic oil than dino oil on runs e.g., from Rochester to Chicago and back.

Driving from Rochester to Tampa on dino oil ONLY and back, I only lost 1 qt total(.5 qts down/.5 qts back). With syn, this may have been 1 qt. in each direction.

 

[filb14]

First time post, long time on & off lurker here.

I'd like to chime in on my experience as well. On normal OCI, 7500miles, about 90% highway, my 2008 Odyssey doesn't burn oil... at least not measurable. However, this summer we went to Florida. Total of 2800 miles round trip... After the trip, the van was almost 1/3 quart low.

I doubt it's the long 18 hours continuous drive(each direction) that causes oil burning. I believe it's more of the load of the van. 6 people plus stuff in cargo and roof rack.

It's been on a steady diet of PP 5w-20 since after factory fill. However, the oil that's in the van is the new PP 5w-20 GTL. I wonder if that has any factor in the burning of oil during my summer trip.

 

[toyoman28]

My 2001 Honda Accord 2.2L Vtec (which is Honda's infamous oil burner) was relatively fine until I changed over to M1. It began burning oil at a frightening 1 qt/500mi. Did a piston soak with an Engine Tuner product and then switched to Valvoline Maxlife, now hardly burns any. Oiler rings are a problem area on these engines and M1 just made it worse.

 

[meborder]

I find threads like this interesting.

i had (still have, but haven't driven in 3 years) a vehicle that used oil with M1 as well.

it's a 1994 ford escort with 220k miles on it (now). at the time i was driving 160+ miles round trip to work every day. when i started that job the car had about 140k miles on it.

i quickly learned how fast 5,000 miles came as that was my standard OCI. getting tired of changing the oil every month or so, i decided i would just use a synthetic and change it every 3 months, regardless of miles (usually between 10-12k miles).

up to this time, the car never used any oil in a 5k oci.

i started with castrol syntec, just because i was happy with their syn blend in the past.

I checked oil EVERY time i filled with gas. that car was my livelihood and i didn't mess around with it, so i checked it EVERY fill up, without fail. During those 3 month intervals, i never had to add any make up oil.... never ever.

I had heard how good mobil 1 was so i decided to try it. with M1 in the sump i continually had to add oil. I don't remember the rate, but i remember not being happy about having to add where i never had to in the past. after adding a couple of quarts, i got tired of it and worrying about it so i changed it early and when back to the castrol syntec.

for the next year of driving between 160 and 120 miles a day to work and back ( i ended up moving a bit closer after about a year) i never had to add oil again, even with 10-12k OCI's.

after switching jobs i went back to motorcraft oil and 5k OCI's and again, even with 220k on the clock, when i parked it i never had to add oil between changes again.

not sure why, and don't really care. i just know that vehicle consumed oil with M1, but didnt with castrol ....