oil consumption

[guest855]

I own a 30 month old Jazz(1400) which has been regularly serviced - last service august 2008. Yesterday the oil warning light came on and the AA had to put in 3 and a quater litres of oil and could find no obvious leak or fault. Is this level of consumption normal or is there an underlying problem.
TIA

[guest255]

3 and 1/4 litres???

Thats almost the refill capacity! which is 3.6 litres

This is definitely not normal as Honda engines that are looked after don't use oil in my experience

Definitely needs to be looked at to see where all that oil has gone as that's virtually the whole sump

[RichardA]

How many miles have you covered since the last service?

[guest809]

I agree this is very suspicious. Our Jazz uses no oil at all after 21000 miles

[guest855]

I only do maximum 5000 miles a year and since the last inspection it is about 3500 miles - perhaps that is why I am using so much oil? Checked the water today and no oil is getting into this. No oil on garage floor and no black exhaust. It has definately gone down since the AA put such a huge amount in. I am now checking in on a daily basis.

[guest855]

forgot to mention too that last annual inspection they changed the sparkplugs and oil on a car with circa 10,000 miles. Could this be relevant?

[bill888]

If there is no evidence of physical oil loss, then the engine must be burning the oil.  One likely explanation could be with the valve stem oil seals given your car isn't high mileage.   Unlikely to be a problem with crankcase ventilation system, but not impossible.

It's unlikely the garage would have put the wrong grade of oil in the car.

Unfortunately, all car makers assume that up to 1 litre consumption of oil per 1000 miles is regarded as 'normal'.   

Have you owned the car since New?

Did  you ever monitor the oil level prior to the last service?

[culzean]

If the oil is getting past the valve stem seals and being burnt you will see a fair bit of blue smoke out of the exhaust when you start the car, but it is unusual to lose a lot of oil by this route.  A black coating inside the end of exhaust pipe will show a rich mixture of petrol to air and this sometimes happens on cars only used for short runs,  burning oil does not normally result in a black coating inside the exhaust pipe but may leave an oily film. The main reason engines use a lot of oil (apart from leaks) is when the bore or rings are badly worn and oil is left on the cylinder bore, again you will see this as blue exhaust smoke.  When you rev the engine black smoke is petrol, blue smoke is oil.

[guest809]

Boatman, I have only just noticed how old the car is. If still under three years get it back to Honda garage NOW before warranty expires and tell them something is seriously wrong here.

All the above answers are possibilities but bottom line is no modern petrol car should be using this amount of oil. You sometimes get it on high mileage engines when one or more of the above have happened but get it investigated NOW before it becomes your problem post-warranty!!

Good luck.

[guest855]

many thanks - I will check the warranty to see if still covered

[guest907]

I'm very happy with oil consumption. On my third Jazz now, 07 plate with 38,000 miles on and never had to top up the oil between 12,500 services.

Unlike some other (non Honda) models whose oil consumption nearly matches petrol consumption!

[RichardA]

My Civic diesel consumed a fair amount of oil in the first 4,000 miles. This was the only car I've had to top-up the oil between servces.

[guest882]

the local honda dealer said that consuming 1 litre/5000 km is normal

[guest882]

i checked the oil level today and i was surprised.the last oil change was 1500 km ago and now the oil level is half  a centimeter above the lower dot on the dipstick,so some of the oil is missing.i looked under the car and at the oil filter and i saw no obvious leaks.mainly the car being a taxi ,is used for short trips around town and extensive idleing.could this be the cause for the oil consumption?i also looked at the smoked coming out of the exhaust while someone was reving the engine and it was neither black nor blue.tommorrow i'l go to the garage where i last changed the oil to have them look under the car for leaks

[guest806]

I've heard from several different sources that modern cars 'use' oil and its not uncommon, if not expected that you should need top top up between services. I always doubted this as i have never had to top up any of my cars.