Car trouble--I know, it's a long shot

[Beth Sweet]

Ok, so I know that a lot of the people on here are car people and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on quite what is wrong with mine. It is a 12 year old Buick Skylark that is otherwise in perfect condition, but I have a little oil issue. I drive my car maybe once or twice a week, and it's either a really short trip or, about every 3 weeks, a really long one (1 hour). Problem is, every time or every other time I go to drive my car, it tells me I'm out of oil. I'm not leaving puddles on the ground and I fill it each time. Any ideas?

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by Beth Sweet

Ok, so I know that a lot of the people on here are car people and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on quite what is wrong with mine. It is a 12 year old Buick Skylark that is otherwise in perfect condition, but I have a little oil issue. I drive my car maybe once or twice a week, and it's either a really short trip or, about every 3 weeks, a really long one (1 hour). Problem is, every time or every other time I go to drive my car, it tells me I'm out of oil. I'm not leaving puddles on the ground and I fill it each time. Any ideas?

a 12 year old Buick probably has a pretty worn out engine-

check the exhaust while the car is running- if you are putting out a nice white smoke you are probably burning off the oil. It could be that the rings are shot or something of that nature.

are you actually seeing the oil level drop with the dipstick? or is the oil light coming on?

I am not a mechanic- but when a car starts making oil disappear at that age it is time to start shopping in my book....

I'll let all the car guys on CD tell you the right stuff now...


WC

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

a 12 year old Buick probably has a pretty worn out engine-

check the exhaust while the car is running- if you are putting out a nice white smoke you are probably burning off the oil. It could be that the rings are shot or something of that nature.

are you actually seeing the oil level drop with the dipstick? or is the oil light coming on?

I am not a mechanic- but when a car starts making oil disappear at that age it is time to start shopping in my book....

I'll let all the car guys on CD tell you the right stuff now...


WC

As to the age of the car, it only has like, 70,000 miles on it (I think). I looked at the metal pull thing under my hood (I think thats the dipstick) and the light comes on too.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Beth Sweet

As to the age of the car, it only has like, 70,000 miles on it (I think). I looked at the metal pull thing under my hood (I think thats the dipstick) and the light comes on too.

yes that is the dipstick.

Make sure you check your owners manual as to when to check the dipstick (engine hot or cold) because the dipstick will read 2 different things. Also make sure that you take out the dipstick and wipe it clean, then put it back in and pull it out again for the reading. Oil tends to "slosh" and it may be giving you a bad reading if you don't.

Another thing you could do is get some cardboard and put it under your car the next time you drive then park it, if you are leaking you will see it on the cardboard.

[Jay H 237]

Beth, there's many possibilities.

It could be something major or minor or even several things adding up to cause this.
How much milage is on the car? Do you know which engine is in the car?

As Wayne asked, are you going by the light or dipstick?

If the light comes on but the oil level is OK (or near OK) on the dipstick then the possibilities are that the oil sender is/has failed, the wiring for the oil sender is damaged or a connection is loose, or you have low or high oil pressure. Low presure would mean either the engine is worn or the oil pump is failing. High presure is usually a restriction (clogged oil passage) in the motor.

Is the motor physically covered with oil?

You could have a clogged PCV and when the engine warms up and you're driving it's forcing the oil out of itself. The crankcase pressure is too high. Also check the air filter, it shouldn't be covered in oil. A PCV is an easy fix, you could do it yourself, and costs less than $5.

At the age of the car you could also have several gaskets that are dried out contributing to the loss of oil.

If you are in fact burning that much oil on a short trip then you would have very visible blue smoke from the exhaust (white smoke would be coolant).

And that brings me to my next question, how does the coolant look? Your car would use the standard green antifreeze and it should look that way, not dark colored and having oil in it. That would mean one of the internal gaskets has failed on the motor and they're mixing together.

One thing you can do is take it to a shop and ask them to preform a "leak down test". This is where they put a dye in the oil and see where it's going. This would cost under $100.

Beth, if you've been adding oil according to the light only and find out it's overfilled on the dipstick get it drained out and replaced immediantly. Overfilling a crankcase is very bad, the oil gets whipped into a useless froth when the engines running. The oil pump is supposed to deliver the oil to all internal parts of the engine, and the crank shaft and connecting rods aren't supposed to be submerged in the oil.

There's a few more possibiliteis I can think of but we really need to know whether you're going by the dipstick or light.

EDIT- You and others posted while I was typing up my answer. At 70k you shouldn't be going through that much oil.

Something else I just thought of and that I actually know of happening is using the wrong weight oil in the car. I don't know who changes the oil in your car but if they're using a lighter weight than recommended then it could be slipping past the rings and burning it.

I would go for the leak down test and also a compression test. With those two tests you will know the condition of the motor and what repairs it may be facing which you can use to decide whether to keep this car and repair it or unload it.

[sciguy125]

Alright, according to the law of conservation, your oil can't just disappear. You're probably either burning it or leaking it (there's also the remote possibility that someone is taking it). The thing you should figure out is if it is going away when the engine is running or when it's just sitting there.

If it disappears when the car is just sitting there, you probably have a leak somewhere. As Greg pointed out, you should try putting the cardboard under your car. If you're losing bottles at a time, I'm surprised you don't see it on the ground though. The other thing is you should make sure that your actually filling it up. Put in whatever oil makes the dipstick say full, then run the engine for a few minutes and check it again. It should go down because the oil filled previously empty crevices. If you're losing that much oil, this shouldn't matter, but still... Another thing you can do is clean the engine, then look for dirt after awhile. Dirt likes to stick to oil. If you hose the engine down, you will wash away old dirt and you can start looking for new build ups. You might want to have someone who knows what they're doing do this because water is bad in certain places. With your sparse driving habits, it could take a very long time for the dirt to build up though.

If you're losing oil while the engine is running (particularly at highway speeds), you're probably burning it. In that case, you might want to have a mechanic look at it. However, I had an issue where the leak was only apparent while the engine was running. A gasket toward the top was bad, so it only leaked when the engine was pumping oil near it.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Beth,
There are a number of conditions that cause the engine to lose oil only when running. I would start the engine and let it run for ten minutes or so and then pull the car back to check underneath. If there is no puddle then it must be going out the tail pipe (see previous posts) You may need to take it to a techie who can give you a good idea as to where it is going.

As unlikely as this sounds, I have come across more than one instance where someone has swapped the dipstick with another car. That makes the dipstick too short and filling it to the line on the dipstick puts in just enough to barely turn off the light. Get it checked out, Murphy says it will fail you when you need it the most.

[Matt Attallah]

What the hey - I've always loved and will continue to love helping out fellow FIRSTers.

What time/date would be good for you so I can stop by and allow me to take a look at it and see where it's all going. I can drive out to E-Lansing (I'm dieng for a road trip) or if you are going to be in the area feel free to get ahold of me.

My cell phone is (313)995-8574 (feel free to let me know a time/date). Plus I have a friend out in E-Lansing that also goes to MSU...

[Beth Sweet]

Aww thanks for the offer Matt, but you don't have to do that. My main thing was that I wanted to make sure this thing didn't explode and if anyone had any ideas for quick fixes (or if anyone thought this thing would blow on me) before this weekend when I'm sure my father will insist on me taking it to a auto place.

[Jay H 237]

Beth, after you take the car in can you let us know what they find? I'm curious if it's been anything mentioned or they find something else.

(I hope they don't take you for being blonde either )

[Matt Attallah]

Hm...

You claim that it's your oil light comming on. And you do put in oil.

1. How much oil?

I assume you do NOT see any blue smoke - or you'd know where all your oil is going to?

2. Is there ANY type of smoke?

Heh...oil over the engine. If you look around the driver side - to the left of the exhaust pipe (going over the transmission) and see if you have oil puddling up there. Forgranted if it's loosing the amount of oil you claim you'd see a drip or two on the ground where ever you parked it. If there is oil there than you are leaking oil out of the "Distribuitor plug seal" and this is a very-very common problem with GM engines...

3. Is there any oil leaking?

The burnoff can be time consuming. On my 5.0 V-8 towncar it burns about a quart every 5,000 miles - so you won't see it - but you know it's gone! Are you sure it's within a few times of driving the car - or do you just kinda 'zone-out' of the amount of times/time driven in the vehicle? (Don't be offended - you'd be suprised at how many people loose track of how many times/miles they have driven their vehicles..)

Just a little probing and you should be able to get to the bottom of the problem!

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

Beth, after you take the car in can you let us know what they find? I'm curious if it's been anything mentioned or they find something else.

(I hope they don't take you for being blonde either )

I'll be sure to let you know. As for the blonde, if my father wasn't coming with me, they probably would (hence my lack of knowing for sure what a dipstick was), but he's worked for GM for 35 years so he'll have a basic idea if they're being dumb. Hehe