I started driving my Neon daily again back in October when I changed positions that took away a company car. (used to do field work, now in office) I'm currently putting a quart every 1000-1500 miles, which I think is generally "in spec" but it is quite excessive in my opinion.
Feb 2004 - Jan 2008, drove daily to work, college, etc. Battled a little bit of oil consumption early, but I can't really remember how much but I don't remember adding a significant amount. Put about 87000-90000 miles on it during this period. Always synthetic oil, generally Pennzoil Platinum or QSUD.
Jan 2008 - Oct 2015, periodic use, would only start it if I could get it warmed up nicely, even if it meant I had to drive it extra to get it hot. Put probably 12000-15000 miles on it during this period. Still PP or QSUD.
Oct 2015 - present, as mentioned daily use, already put 15000 miles on it since then. Used M1 0w40 (was an experiment to see if the engine would be "happier") with high consumption. Currently using PUP 5w20 (went with 5w20 because the 2005 was spec'd for 5w20 with no engine differences) with the same consumption. I do need to try 5w30 just to rule out it being an oil weight issue, although I don't suspect it is.
Currently has 118,000 miles
Current drive is 4% neighborhood/local, 7% rural hwy and 89% interstate and is 55 miles each way.
Couple questions:
1. Any tricks to try to reduce this consumption? I'm not pulling the engine apart.
2. Assuming I have to keep putting this quantity of oil, I will be switching to SuperTech Conventional, but then the question is, how often to change the oil? Assuming that I am replenishing the oil with a fresh quart every 1000-1500 miles, the sump is quasi changed every 5000-7500 miles. Is it reasonable to change the filter every 7500-10000 miles and maybe dump the sump at that interval as well?
Additional thoughts?
Feb 2004 - Jan 2008, drove daily to work, college, etc. Battled a little bit of oil consumption early, but I can't really remember how much but I don't remember adding a significant amount. Put about 87000-90000 miles on it during this period. Always synthetic oil, generally Pennzoil Platinum or QSUD.
Jan 2008 - Oct 2015, periodic use, would only start it if I could get it warmed up nicely, even if it meant I had to drive it extra to get it hot. Put probably 12000-15000 miles on it during this period. Still PP or QSUD.
Oct 2015 - present, as mentioned daily use, already put 15000 miles on it since then. Used M1 0w40 (was an experiment to see if the engine would be "happier") with high consumption. Currently using PUP 5w20 (went with 5w20 because the 2005 was spec'd for 5w20 with no engine differences) with the same consumption. I do need to try 5w30 just to rule out it being an oil weight issue, although I don't suspect it is.
Currently has 118,000 miles
Current drive is 4% neighborhood/local, 7% rural hwy and 89% interstate and is 55 miles each way.
Couple questions:
1. Any tricks to try to reduce this consumption? I'm not pulling the engine apart.
2. Assuming I have to keep putting this quantity of oil, I will be switching to SuperTech Conventional, but then the question is, how often to change the oil? Assuming that I am replenishing the oil with a fresh quart every 1000-1500 miles, the sump is quasi changed every 5000-7500 miles. Is it reasonable to change the filter every 7500-10000 miles and maybe dump the sump at that interval as well?
Additional thoughts?