Saturn ION RedLine Forums banner

Oil consumption

2K views 23 replies 5 participants last post by  Chris Morin 
#1 ·
I've noticed over the last couple oil changes on my '07 Ion SC 2.0 that my oil level is getting low after only a couple thousand miles after an oil change. I was a gm tech back in the early 2000s and remember customers coming with oil consumption concerns and it was acceptable for an engine to use 1 qt per 2000 miles under normal driving conditions. I changed my oil about 1500 miles ago and today I noticed a ticking noise when I pulled into my garage. I checked the oil and it was barely indicating on the dipstick. There is nothing leaking under the vehicle, the coolant is clean and it's not smoking out the exhaust that I can tell. The car has 180k miles and the person I purchased it from a few years ago said the only performance work it's had done was port/polished heads. I've been using the stock recommended mobile 1 5w-30. Has anyone else experienced oil consumption like this before or has any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
Most things are acceptable with GM I've noticed my few months working there.

How do the plugs look? It's just odd that if it's not leaking, and not going out the tail pipe, where's it going then? I know you're asking yourself the same thing. Wonder if maybe it does have a leak somewhere. Rear main, back of the valve cover, I've seen around the timing tensioner leak.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Check your air filter for oil staining indicating excessive oil going through the pcv system, and most likely caused by excessive blow by into the crank case through the rings, mine burned 2qrts of oil every 1k miles and with in a month of a new air filter it had a massive oil stain on it. (Can post picture on Monday when back at work) i had about 30% cyl leakage on cyl #2 but it would never miss fire until max boost near redline. I just did a rebuild a few months back and has been nice to still have full oil after 3k miles of driving. Note i probably started burning small amounts of oil around the 180k mark by 230k i was burning a lot more oil so felt it was time by the time i hit 250k.. i could also give it a full throttle blip while stationary in neutral and a lovely smoke cloud would emit from the tail pipe. Fun fact i'd top off with 10w-40 diesel oil and it slowed down the consumption 😅
 
#6 · (Edited)
I put the car up on the lift this morning and looked underneath. Everything is dry as a bone. The only thing I see under there is some residue from coolant leaking when I changed the thermostat a long time ago. I pulled the air filter and there's not a drop of oil in there. I pulled out the plugs and they look decent.. plug 4 did have a little oil on the threads (see pic). I threw a scope down each spark plug hole and I can see just the normal carbon deposits on top of the piston. Unfortunately, the end of my scope is too big to get into the cylinder so I couldn't take a peek around. I did an engine-cold compression test while I had the plugs out: 1 - 220; 2 - 210; 3 - 220; 4 - 230psi.
Automotive tire Motor vehicle Car Bumper Automotive exterior

White Font Auto part Metal Fashion accessory

Automotive tire Hood Automotive lighting Motor vehicle Rim
 
#9 ·
Random other thought. After our engines run they do need a long time , sometimes up to 30 min, for all the oil to run back down. Have you checked the oil after it sat a while / overnight? On a side note.. where is all the rust? Lol mine looks no where that nice underneath and yes i am in NJ so salt eats cars.
 
#11 ·
You should see my car. Not a spec of rust on it and even has the factory antirust protetion on it.

Your compression numbers look good. They are what I got on my redline when i tested it. I honestly dont remeber the redlines eating oil. My original never had that problem and AFAIK my current one does not either. I have driven it about 2k miles since i got it so i will double check.
 
#10 ·
When I pulled the car in yesterday morning, adding oil was the last thing I did after pulling the air filter spark plugs, doing the compression test. The car had been sitting for a couple hours at that point. I put about two and a half quarts in when I topped it off. I'm really not sure about the rust. I think I got lucky considering this is a vehicle that has been in Rhode Island it's whole life. There's only a little bit of scaling rust on the edges of some of the shielding under the vehicle. Other than that, there's nothing anywhere.
 
#13 ·
Wow. Yeah, I checked and there wasn't a spec of oil on the inside of the filter. Even the end of the tube coming from the PCV barely had anything on it for residue. However, this morning when I got to work and parked in the garage, after getting out of my car as I was walking in, the wind must have been blowing the right way and I got a whiff of burnt oil. I'm not sure if it was coming from my car or not, but I guess it's possible I'm burning just enough to not produce any blue smoke. Any ideas on how I can confirm this?
 
#20 · (Edited)
So, I got the leak down tester today and I think I got a dud. The gauge that tells you % of loss seemed totally off (sits at 80% loss with nothing connected and pins out when you put more than 20 psi to it.). But I still ran through the process regardless and listed for leaks out the tailpipe, intake, and crankcase. The only place I heard leakage was through the dipstick tube. I could hear bubbling on cylinders 2, 3, and 4 and just air on cylinder 1. I will hopefully have a replacement tester tomorrow and will try the test again and let you know if I have more accurate results.

edit: got the new leak-down tester -- still junk -- returning -- ordered the more expensive OTC brand - will be in Monday.
 
#21 · (Edited)
OK. So, I got the new leak-down test kit in. I ran the car to operating temp (which I hadn't done the first time around) and ran through in firing order - 1-3-4-2. I ran the test up to 100psi and I have ~0-1% loss for all cylinders. I ran through the test twice just to make sure I got the same results and it was consistent. So I would imagine that means the cylinders/rings are in good shape. Back to the drawing board...
 
#23 ·
Update: Did an oil change over the weekend. Noticed when I got to work on Friday I could hear lifter tapping. Ran to the gas station and grabbed a quart of oil - it was barely showing on the stick. I decided to do an oil flush and threw some Seafoam in it for a good ride, then used some Motor Mechanic Oil Flush and let it idle with that stuff for a bit before dumping the oil. Filled it back up with a little heavier weight oil this time - 10W30 Mobile 1 High Mileage. We'll see how things go this time around. Still a mystery where the oil is going.
 
#24 ·
Update again... Put about 900 miles since the last oil change and went to start the car before work on a cold morning and could hear tapping in the valve train. Checked and the oil was barely on the stick again. Dumped about 3 quarts to get it to where it should be. I've got a week vacation coming up here soon and I think I'm just gonna tear down the motor for rebuild. It's got just over 190k now and it probably couldn't hurt. Wondering what y'all recommend for a rebuild kit. I did some googling and there seems to be quite a few choices out there.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top