I burnt a quart of oil on my last roadtrip which was almost exactly 1000 miles. It'* never burnt even a drop before this and now it'* back to not using any. I run 5w-30 Mobil 1. Any ideas why it burnt that oil? I didn't run it very hard either....just long stints with the cruise at 80 plus........one good hill.....some traffic ( L.A ) etc.

If you hadn't changed the oil for a while and if most of your driving is not road driving but is short trips, condensates and other contaminants may have built up in the oil raising the volume on the dip stick above where it would be if only oil were in there. When you drive on an extended trip, the contaminants are partly burned away and evaporated, so you have a lower dip stick volume and believe you burned more oil than you probably did.

If recent oil change and most of your driving is 15-20 minutes so the oil gets purged-forget what I said.

I would find it hard to believe that comtaminants would cause the dipstick level to rise by one quart. Just my .02

Hmm....Did you check it before you left, and when you returned? Maybe it just comsumed it between oil changes :? Maybe you didn't get the dipstick in all the way when you checked it. I dunno...just coming up with some ideas. Sorry I can't be of more help.

hvactech,

High consumption is common with Mobil 1. If you switch over to GC, your problems will disappear and you will have a smoother, quieter running engine.

Let'* step back here and look at this differently.

Before he changes his brand of oil or anything.

Crawl around your engine bay. Did one of your valve coves spring a leak? Did your oil pan gasket decide to leak? Oil pressure sender?

I've seen pressure sender seals break down and actually spurt oil out of the sender at highway rpms. Gaskets can leak/seep w/o actually leaving any oil on the floor of the garage. Let'* do some old fashioned diagnosis and see if we can find that issue.

Lastly.. who changed the oil last, you or a shop? If it was a shop, I would top it off and keep an eye on it.

Sometimes a dirty PCV valve will stick open and cause more than usual oil consumption on the road.

There are no leaks I can see.

I commute to work a 100 miles a day so no short stints here.

How do I check the PCV valve? Guess that'* a posibility.

What'* GC?

The dealer last changed the oil, now that I think about it I had it changed right before the trip so maybe he didn't top it off properly?
That means I did the whole trip a quart low on oil?
I could swear I checked all fluids the morning we left......

Since you didn't change it. Top'er off...watch'er like a hawk and smile when you realize they goofed and no damage occurred.

Mobil 1 is junk....but they don't let me say that on BITOG.

Thats what i want to know