Is my engine burning oil? Plugs look clean!

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nzoomed, Aug 8, 9:45pm
Ive had to top up almost litre of oil in less than 2000km and yet my plugs look so clean they almost appear new, could i be loosing oil elsewhere?
skull, Aug 8, 9:59pm
Sounds pretty normal for a Trabant
extrayda, Aug 8, 10:16pm
Mitsi?
m16d, Aug 8, 10:19pm
Well if it's not dripping on the driveway, then it's going out the exhaust pipe.
Just keep driving. oil is cheap.
bwg11, Aug 8, 10:37pm
A half litre per 1000 kms isn't that terrible. It is less than some manufacturers consider acceptable for a new vehicle. That said, I would not be happy personally if it were my new car.

Back in the day, a pint (600 ml) in 500 miles (800 kms) was considered reasonable oil consumption. A GTO Mitsi I had back in the 70's burnt that much from new.
franc123, Aug 8, 10:41pm
What is the vehicle/motor, what year, how far has it travelled and is there any smoke after it starts or at any other time?
richardmayes, Aug 8, 11:34pm
Wait until consumption reaches 1/2 litre per tank of fuel. then it might be time for a re-hone, rings and valve guides.
2sheddies, Aug 9, 1:58am
It fascinates me how some modern cars use oil. I'm struggling to remember any car I've had so far, and they have been mostly been older, high mileage dungers, needing top ups between changes. I must have just go lucky.

One of the worst of the modern ones I saw were Hyundai Accents. A lot used to come into work years back (firms cars) and I'd dip the oil and routinely find the level so low, there was no reading on the stick.
franc123, Aug 9, 2:09am
You need to remember that Highanddry collaborated with Mitsubishi for many years in engineering hardware, they picked up a lot of BAD habits from their three diamond teachers, some of which still linger today.
bwg11, Aug 9, 2:30am
My daughter's first car while she was at school was a 1985 Excel, its Mitsi gearbox broke twice, but to be fair it did suffer a lot of abuse and was otherwise quite a solid car.
intrade, Aug 9, 4:51am
loads of car had normal oil consuption of 1 liter for 1000km audi included states so in owner manual on these.
franc123, Aug 9, 5:12am
You were lucky that was the only thing that went wrong, the Excel nearly buggered Hyundais reputation in export markets before they even got off the ground properly, even allowing for the fact it was a low priced car. In the USA, Hope You Understand Nothings Durable And Inexpensive was the line. they eventually had more success with their inhouse engineering than trying to make Mitsi stuff cheaper. But they all had to start somewhere.
nzoomed, Aug 9, 6:32am
lol, na its a classic british car, landcrab, MG B series engine lol. Still runs sweet.
nzoomed, Aug 9, 6:34am
A modern car should not use any oil, especially at low Km's often the dealers will say its normal, but this can be a mixture of poor assembly or sometimes poorly run in motor.
2sheddies, Aug 9, 6:53am
True that. Now I see yours is a British classic, it doesn't appear quite so abnormal. I always thought oil leaks were pre installed in the factory haha! All part of the joys of owning the dear old beasts.

Would much rather have your problem than an expensive electronic issue with a modern car though! Love the classics.
nzoomed, Aug 9, 5:04pm
The thing is that its never used to use very much oil at all and if well serviced these old engines go for quite some ks, anyway, i doubt its burning much or else i should have black sooty plugs i expect, there is a bit of oil seeping out of the side covers, but i thought the engine should be fairly dirty if its leaking alot.

Either way, its running pretty sweet, possibly may be leaking through the valve guides i wonder, the good old engine has done over 230,000 KM and i dont see any sign of worn rings, still has good compression.
mm12345, Aug 9, 5:50pm
Some of the new stratified charge direct injection petrol engines do burn a little more oil than older throttle body/port injection engines. Not sure why, but the manufacturers seem to claim it's normal. One possibility may be lubrication - where with FSI, the bore isn't being washed down on each compression stroke with fuel vapour. Perhaps they changed oil seal ring design or something to allow for different cylinder lubrication needs.
franc123, Aug 9, 7:20pm
Whack a set of new guide seals in it if it concerns you, some of them were only an o ring on those old things. Guide seal leakage will normally cause ash deposits on the plugs though.
bryshaw, Aug 9, 11:56pm
Semi synthetic usually cuts the oil consumption.
nzoomed, Aug 10, 12:43am
My brothers 2001 prelude was using alot too but the dealership said it was normal lol
nzoomed, Aug 10, 12:48am
Yes these are just o rings.
Considering the age it wouldnt surprise me if the seals are worn. Im just hoping its not the rings but it is time i rebuilt the head. Hopefully a reconditioned head wont put extra load on an old engine and shorten the life of the rings.
delmic, Aug 10, 7:28pm
leave it alone . its not broke so dont fix it. Ive had head jobs on BMC stuff by the bucketfull and yours sounds fine
franc123, Aug 10, 7:43pm
I'd put air in the cylinders and change the seals in place, don't remove the head at this point, if the rate of oil consumption slows or stops its going to give you a better idea of what is going to be needed in the future. If its not smoking things can't be that bad.
nzoomed, Aug 11, 6:56am
Yes i do tend to agree, its not smoking, so thats good.

Anyway the head does appear to have some valve recession as some valves seem to have more travel than others when doing the tappets.
Ive never taken the valve springs off on the cylinder, but i believe there are special spring compressors out there that allow you to do this with the head in place, but it has a part that enters in through the spark plug thread.
So the compressed air idea wouldnt work in this case as the spring compressor would be inside the combustion chamber and it would be stopping the valve from falling down anyway.
skydog, Aug 11, 10:32am
To change the O rings. Remove spark plugs and slip a piece of rope into the cylinder space with the piston at about 1/2 stroke. turn crank slowly, the rope will push against the valves holding them closed. You can then remove the valve springs. Do them one at a time. I have used this to replace a broken valve spring on an aircraft.