more oil consumption with thicker oil?

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I got a 03 saturn ion for my son used with 135000 miles and changed oil due to unknown history (unknown oil looked clean).
i followed the oil change light since.
the first OCI was 5,500 miles, mostly city driving, with consumption of about 1-1.5qt (5W30 synthetic G-oil). seeing oil consumption, i decided to switch to mineral oil (5W30 Halvoline).
next OCI was almost 7000 miles, mixed city/hwy, with consumption of about 2 qts (regularly topped). seeing that oil consumption, i switched to 15W40, but there is already a consumption of about 4 qts in about 6000 miles (no oil change light yet). Looks much worse, but he drives mostly on hwy now.

clearly 15W40 is not helping. I guess i can try kreen piston soak/flush next. Anything else to try? Should I go back to thinner oils?
 
The oil issues with these are well known and I am going to assume you must have run across that with internet searches.

I would use a high-quality synthetic at a modest OCI. This is advice I received in the same situation (different vehicle but same root cause - oil control rings/drains). Given your location, going to a 10w-30 before a 15w-40 would have been my move (in fact, was). Once these get to the point they use oil, if you manage to get it tamed, it will return quickly if you go back to standard habits ((dino oil, longer (standard) drain intervals)). Especially since you say it's urban miles, keep the OCIs modest. If you don't take some pro-active course, it will get can get much worse pretty fast.

Saturn and some Toyota and Isuzu/Honda/Acura owners have a lot of experience with this and you can get advice there. There was a spate of this engineering idiocy across multiple manufacturers from like '97 to '04.Mine would be to flush the engine, soak the pistons to try to clear the oil rings and drains, run a sturdy synthetic 10w-30 HM like m1. Top up frequently. This should get you back to the modest level of consumption you were originally seeing.
 
My Saturn also chuggs oil at highway speeds - regardless of weight/conv/syn.// interval/ or MMO soaks. It dont care.
sips in the city.

at 30+ mpg, I'll feed her all the (cheap) oil she wants . . .
 
I respectfully yield the balance of my time to BrocL and clinebarger on this one ...
 
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
seeing oil consumption, i decided to switch to mineral oil


This is where you have failed

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Should I go back to thinner oils?


Thinner oils are usually synthetic......but since your car is already an oil guzzler....resolve that problem first...
 
Originally Posted By: Oro_O
The oil issues with these are well known and I am going to assume you must have run across that with internet searches.


oil burning that saturns were famous for was in the S series prior to 2002. 03+ ions were supposedly not effected by it.

the other things you said sound good and I'll do that. i do have that 10W30 castrol magnatec in my oil stash and will try that next.
 
Take the plastic pipe between the throttle body and the air filter off. Is the throttle plate covered in oil? Make sure the air filter is not extra dirty. This is the 2.2 ecotec engine which is not known to have oil consumption problems.
 
Some "Low Tension" ring designs can cause greater oil consumption with higher viscosity oils. I have seen this first hand on brand new engines & higher mileage engines....The latest was a ZZ4 GM crate engine with 25,000 miles on it....Been drinking 2 qts of 20w50 every 3,000 miles for over 10 years according to the owner. Smoked the crankcase-No "under intake" leaks, Pulled 8 of the rocker studs that intersect the insect the Intake runners & applied thread sealant, Checked Blow-by(normal), Valve Cover baffles in-place, PCV valve is good, Great Leak-Down numbers, No smoke upon start-up so the valve guide seals are doing their job. Changed the plugs as all of them showed signs of oil burning.

We switched over to a 5w30 synthetic & monitored oil consumption, It slowed the consumption to 1/2 a quart in 5,000 miles.

Certain engine can also burn a quart of oil & the consumption will STOP dead in it tracks IF you leave it a quart low, I know of 2 HARD cases of this.....Our 1997 S10 4.3L/NV3500 shop truck is 1 of them.

If your oil consumption is lower with Xw30....Run Xw30, Which is what a 2.2L Ecotech calls for anyway!


The L92 in my Camaro has low tension rings, But....I run 5w40 HDEO because my high valve spring rates & I haven't had a noticeable amount of oil consumption. This is a Case By Case situation.
 
Fill the cylinders with Berryman B-12 Chemtool and let it soak overnight. Turn the engine over by hand to force it out of the spark plug holes and then change the oil. Change it again in 500 miles and you should see a significant reduction in oil use if the rings were the problem, which they typically are in Saturn engines.
 
Maybe just check the pcv is ok and the intake is not full of oil. Simple oil consumption fix for many cars. Start with the simple things first.
 
Originally Posted By: 2015_PSD
Fill the cylinders with Berryman B-12 Chemtool and let it soak overnight. Turn the engine over by hand to force it out of the spark plug holes and then change the oil. Change it again in 500 miles and you should see a significant reduction in oil use if the rings were the problem, which they typically are in Saturn engines.


Sounds like a good plan....and if it should fail, but some cheap oil and let it burn. To me it's pretty cheap to throw in a quart every 1000 miles or so.
 
Kind of odd to hear that an Ecotec is using so much oil. I had a Saturn Ion and it never used a drop, till I put in G-oil. The first week of having that stuff in there, it used about a quart. Even smoked and left a blue cloud when pulling away in the morning. After about 2 weeks it was fine and didn't use any more for the rest of the oil change (7.5k). That car never used a drop of oil again, even on another run of G-oil about 30k later. Never had issues with G-oil in any vehicle except that one. Was very interesting to come across your post and see something similar. I would try soaking with Berrymans or Seafoam and see if that makes a difference. Not going into details about the soak, because I know, you know what you are doing. Or maybe do another run of G-oil if you still have some? Maybe mine fixed itself by keeping it in there? I remember everyone saying that oil would loosen stuff up.
 
Originally Posted By: 71Chevyguy
Kind of odd to hear that an Ecotec is using so much oil. I had a Saturn Ion and it never used a drop, till I put in G-oil. The first week of having that stuff in there, it used about a quart. Even smoked and left a blue cloud when pulling away in the morning. After about 2 weeks it was fine and didn't use any more for the rest of the oil change (7.5k). That car never used a drop of oil again, even on another run of G-oil about 30k later. Never had issues with G-oil in any vehicle except that one. Was very interesting to come across your post and see something similar. I would try soaking with Berrymans or Seafoam and see if that makes a difference. Not going into details about the soak, because I know, you know what you are doing. Or maybe do another run of G-oil if you still have some? Maybe mine fixed itself by keeping it in there? I remember everyone saying that oil would loosen stuff up.


this is a very interesting and G-oil/Ion-specific post. there might be some truth in it, because the first 2 OCIs with G-oil in another car (toyota yaris) resulted in minor oil consumption (like 0.5 qt in 8000 miles) that disappeared for good by the 3rd OCI.

the thing that was very different in Ion was there was initially only minimal consumption with G-oil, and I was initially relieved that it wasn't an oil burner, and suddenly later toward the end of OCI it accelerated and surprised me (drained 4qts out of initial 5qts + some minor top ups). it does sound like some piston deposits developed toward the end of OCI. Furthermore, I noticed a small amount of sludge on a dipstick by the end of that OCI when it got cold and my son did some short trips at that time.

However, i forgot to mention that I actually did a single kreen piston soak/flush cycle before the first oil change and there was nothing really in the filter, so I was sure the engine was clean. Furthermore, I inspected under the valve cover a year later, when I replaced chain tensioner, and the engine was clean indeed.

I checked and I have a bottle of B12 on a shelf. So, i'll do another piston soak/flush with that, change oil back to G-oil and see what happens. BTW, this is a car with the highest mileage I ever head (currently over 158000, so I'm thinking it could be also just wear and tear of the old age.
 
Originally Posted By: clinebarger
Some "Low Tension" ring designs can cause greater oil consumption with higher viscosity oils. I have seen this first hand on brand new engines & higher mileage engines....The latest was a ZZ4 GM crate engine with 25,000 miles on it....Been drinking 2 qts of 20w50 every 3,000 miles for over 10 years according to the owner. Smoked the crankcase-No "under intake" leaks, Pulled 8 of the rocker studs that intersect the insect the Intake runners & applied thread sealant, Checked Blow-by(normal), Valve Cover baffles in-place, PCV valve is good, Great Leak-Down numbers, No smoke upon start-up so the valve guide seals are doing their job. Changed the plugs as all of them showed signs of oil burning.

We switched over to a 5w30 synthetic & monitored oil consumption, It slowed the consumption to 1/2 a quart in 5,000 miles.

Certain engine can also burn a quart of oil & the consumption will STOP dead in it tracks IF you leave it a quart low, I know of 2 HARD cases of this.....Our 1997 S10 4.3L/NV3500 shop truck is 1 of them.

If your oil consumption is lower with Xw30....Run Xw30, Which is what a 2.2L Ecotech calls for anyway!


The L92 in my Camaro has low tension rings, But....I run 5w40 HDEO because my high valve spring rates & I haven't had a noticeable amount of oil consumption. This is a Case By Case situation.


very good points, thanks!
 
I wanted to update that i skipped piston soak and switched directly to G-oil during winter oil change (oil change illuminated at over 7,000 miles). Since that, the car burned only 0.5qt in 2,500 miles with 5W30 G-oil. This will be the last batch G-oil as I only have enough left to top off.
So, it does look like 15W40 is poor choice in this engine indeed, even in hot climate and fast hwy driving.
 
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