Burning Oil

[Dave]

a friend of mine is driving a GS tip and it's burning oil, he put in about 2-3litres and that has now been burnt off!
anyone got any ideas?

[Storm]

Get the head gastket checked out as thats really the most obvious way of oil getting into the combustion chamber, following that rings.

Also check he isn't filling it too much, I did that and thought I had a leak as the pressure pushed the oil out past the seals

[Dave]

no there's no leak, it's burning it up! so it must be getting in there somewhere!!
either way it sounds nasty!

[kevinod]

Sounds like getting a compression check done on the head would be a good idea, maybe getting it skimmed too would be worthwhile.

[ronbyrne]

2 - 3 litres over what period/mileage ? is he checking the oil after the engine has been stoped for at least 20 min ? if its serious there would be an obvious blue cloud out the back when he revs it ! make sure its on level ground and the oil has drained back into the sump before checking oil level. many a person has got an inacurate reading then overfilled the engine with oil, blowing seals, then having a problem and they never know that they caused it

[Dave]

he did a trip to galway from dublin, checked the oil level before he left, checked when he got home and it was dry again!!
he has no leaks!

mechanic reckons the engine is knackered!! 1100 for a replacement!!

[soc]

Is the car smoking excessively? If it's burning oil then there'd be excessive smoke (as mentioned above). If it's getting in the coolant then you'd have that gooey mayo substance in the resevoir and it would smell of oil....

Has he had a compression test done? I'd definitely get one done before shelling out 1100 on a new engine.

[CJ]

Sounds like either worn piston rings or bad valve seals, as the others say, a compression test should reveal the problem. Where did you get the quote for €1100 for a GS engine? I reckon you should be able to pick on up a lot cheaper...

CJ

[Dave]

1100 fitted for the engine!

any ideas where you'd get a compression test done?

[CJ]

any ideas where you'd get a compression test done?

Any decent mechanic should have the facility to do a compression test.

CJ

[steelroe]

Check the expansion tank for oil and bubbling

[ronbyrne]

1100 fitted for the engine!

?

Shure you wouldnt get 4 new wheels fitted for that

[Muad_dib77]

1100 fitted for the engine!

?

Shure you wouldnt get 4 new wheels fitted for that

I second that - that's a good price I think...I wonder how much the same crowd would charge to fit a vr4 in a gpx shell... hmm....

[Kace]

Guys - opening up this thread as I seem to have gone from one problem to the next over the past couple of months and now seem to have this one.

Dave - did your mate get this sorted and if so what happened. Did it result in the requirement for a new engine ?

My symptoms are as follows :
- I was driving to work today and noticed that when I stopped at lights smoke was coming out of my exhaust and wafting right up to the front of the car.
- Got to work and checked oil dipstick - completely dry !!! Nothing at all on the dipstick !!!!
- Bought some 10W/40 locally and put in almost 3 litres to get back to a comfortable level.
- Drove car again and after 4 or 5 miles got more smoke again from the exhaust
- Drove car again later (engine cold) and noticed idling point had moved to 2k for about 10 mins, instead of less than 1k normally. Car oil temp gauge also took a much longer time to rise to normal level.

Sounds ominous to me Anyone any other thoughts / experiences ?

Check the expansion tank for oil and bubbling

Steelroe - I think I may have been getting bubbling in the coolant expansion tank (as in bubbling hot), but no oil in there that I can see. I thought that this may have been related to a problem I was having with the heater matrix

[Kace]

Update on this - does not sound good for me. Looks like I may have actually completely screwed my engine because of taking wrong course of action with the Heater Matrix issue.

Basically, I think when I bypassed the heater matrix in the engine bay, I created an airlock in the system and wound up running the car with no water.

I am guessing the engine overheated and I probably screwed up a piston which cause me to burn off all my oil.

Now when I fill the car with water it just pisses out on to the ground from the driver's side of the engine. Mechanic has told me to get a towtruck to bring it up to him for the final diagnosis.

If I have cocked up my engine because of that stoopid matrix I will be royally pi55ed

[Muad_dib77]

Jeebus - that doesn't sound nice at all!

Fingers crossed it'll be something simpler that that.. :-\

[Dave]

ah crap Kace....sounds bad though.

[steelroe]

Water probably coming from screwed water pump.

[Daz]

Water probably coming from screwed water pump.

Good shout that steelroe, I had a puddle under my black FTO about 6 years ago and i was kacking myself thinking new engine, but it turned out to be the water pump, and strangely enough it was about 2 months after i had by-passed my heater matrix in the engine bay, but i was fortunate to catch it straight away, as it was in the middle of a hot summer it looks really weird coming out to your car only to see a puddle of water and everywhere else like a dessert so i didn't really drive it in that state, only to the nearest garage to get it fixed. (only for it to fail 3 months later with a cracked housing ) worst thing was i'd just gotten a heater matrix, if only i'd gotten one sooner it might of saved the pump. i guess bypassing the matrix must put the system under a lot more pressure

Daz...