I have a 2003 SLE that has all of a sudden started to consume oil. It has consumed about 1.5 quarts in the last 2000 miles or so. It is not leaking. Nothing on the ground, etc... I am wondering if anybody may have some ideas. Here is what I was thinking. Possible intake gasket leak, sucking the oil in. Possible valvue seat leak.. I was thinking I would be able to check the plugs and see if one is black instead of white and mabye getting an idea if it is one cyclinder. I am mechanicly inclinded enough to to the intake gaskets. I just don't want to take this car into the the dealer for one of those.. Ahhh we can suck this guy try witch hunts...!! If you know what I mean..

Thoughts? Has anybody dealt with this before?

Do you blow blue at start up in the morning? If so, valve guide. Check tail pipe, do you smell burnt oil? If so, could be rings. Check coolant, is it the correct color? If not, you may have oil in the coolant, LIM gasket. Do you have a oil fowled plug? Do you have a wet block? Look around the engine.

Hay Dan,

Blow Blue Smoke.. No.. Smell burnt oil.. No.. Coolant the correct color.. Yes. Oill fowled plug.. Need to check for that. Wet block.. No, with 1.5 quarts of oil missing over 2000+ miles. If it were a leak, I would assume there would be some spots on my garage floor.. Oh I also forgot to mention.. You can notice every so often that the car seems to be jurking or hesitating. Almost like a misfire. But no codes or no check engine light has ever come on.. It comes and goes tough...

OK, that covers the obvious. Check those plugs. Anything odd, make a not of the cylinder and take a picture and post here. We have a lot of members here that know what they are doing. I'm sure we can find the problem

Excellent.. I will be sure to do that.. I plan to check the plugs tonight or tomorrow.. I will take a picture of any that seem odd, if at all. If not, I will be back with some other questions... I really appriciate the quick responses..

Did you check your tranny fluid?

Yes, actually I did, because a few weeks earlier I had changed the tranny fluid and filter. I had thought the hesitation or jurkeyness may of come from not putting enough fluid back. However that is not the case. The fluid level is still correct and I don't see any discoloration or oil in the tranny fluid.

Ok, I had a chace to pull all the plugs.. They are all white in color and none of them look significantly different..(i.e black with oil..) However I did notice that there is oil puddled up on the rear of the head, just under what looks to be a vacuum line into the upper intake? (About a 5/8" hose). The puddle of oil is about 1/4 deep. Like I say though I have lost 1.5 quarts of oil. I have check the trans fluid, anti-freeze, I have looked at the block.. It is not wet..I have never seen blue smoke coming from the car.. Where the heck could that much oil have gone..

Also, like I say the car jurks or hessitates like it is misfiring once and a while. It is not consistant.. I don't know if the two things are related, but they both started happening around the same time.

Can you get a picture of this? valve cover gasket leak? Nothing else should be getting oil that high. It'* then burning off when the engine is heated up.