Quote:
Originally Posted by digital rules
What's the most mileage an engine could reasonably go before it starts consuming oil?
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I drove an '88 Ford Escort for about 20 years. As best as I remember it starting using some oil at between 250 and 300K miles. I've got an '02 Escort now with 200K miles that uses about 1/2 quart between 5K mile changes. Different engines are different and oil consumption is kind of unpredictable. The first car I ever bought was a 1977 Buick Regal bought new in 1977 it used some oil from day 1. My '16 Versa has about 6500 miles on the oil that's in it now and is still sitting right on the full mark. The Citgo conventional 10w40 is kind of a molasses color not black at all. Unless I see a drastic change in the oil color or the feel of the oil I plan to run it 7.5K before draining it and refilling. I know when my dad bought a new Mercury in '68 the recommended change interval on it was 6K miles. The Buick I bought in '77 had a recommended interval of 7.5K. These were both carburetor V8 engines and before the days of synthetic oil on store shelves. I've never understood why the intervals have dropped over the years with the improvements in engines and oils. I think the Versa should be good for 7.5K and will probably have good life left in the oil when I drain it. Back in the early '90's I had a Chrysler that I used as my work car, it would burn/leak a quart about every 3-400 miles by the time it had 200K miles. At 200K miles I quit changing the oil and used oil that I'd drained out of my better cars at oil change for topping off oil. When I sold the car it had 231K miles and oil consumption was still about a quart every 3-400 miles. I had a friend who needed a cheap car so I sold the Chrysler to him for $250 dollars. He drove it for probably at least a year or two and several more thousand miles before scrapping it because they'd started requiring emissions testing in the area where we lived. The Chrysler wouldn't pass because the catalytic converter had been removed many years before.