Owning a vehicle comes with some responsibilities. You need to make your car payments and keep your insurance up to date, for starters. You also need to care for the vehicle if you hope to get along and useful life from it before moving on. Toward that end, monitoring your vehicle's oil consumption is a good step toward keeping the engine healthy.
Why does oil consumption matter? How can you monitor it easily? We are going to take a look at the answers to those questions and more in the content below. Let's get started!
An Overview of Engine Oil
In a gasoline or diesel-powered engine, oil is used to keep everything properly lubricated. Without oil, the engine's various moving parts would quickly grind to a halt. That's obviously not the outcome you are looking for, so maintaining a proper level of oil should be one of your main maintenance concerns. Unfortunately, you can't just assume that your engine has enough oil because you've had it changed relatively recently. Engines can consume oil, leaving them with less and less as each day goes by.
So, you don't want your vehicle to be burning through its oil too quickly. But here's where it gets tricky - all engines are going to consume at least a little bit of oil. Consuming some oil is not necessarily cause for concern but going through a lot of oil is likely a sign of trouble. Knowing where to draw the line isn't always easy, but there are some guidelines you can follow to hopefully make the right decisions.
Start by Asking Questions
When you have your oil changed, the technician will drain the old oil out of the engine before refilling it with new oil. As the old oil is drained, it will be collected and can be measured. So, by tracking how much oil is collected out of the engine, and by knowing how much should be in there, it can be determined how much has been consumed since the last change.
Often, the technician will simply offer up this information to the vehicle's owner, just out of courtesy and habit. If your technician does not provide the info, be sure to ask. Even if you don't exactly know what numbers would be good or bad, it's worthwhile to ask the question and jot down the answer. Then, when you return for another oil change in the future, you can compare the new consumption number to the old one. As a pattern starts to emerge, you can decide if you have a problem with burning too much oil.
A Big Warning Sign
Regardless of the consumption numbers you get when having your oil changed, there is one big sign that you shouldn't ignore - blue-tinted smoke emerging from your tailpipe when the car is running. If you see that your exhaust smoke has taken on a slightly blue color, it's quite likely that the engine is burning oil along with the gasoline. That's not what should be happening, and prompt attention is warranted.
Watch for the Pattern
When your vehicle is new, the engine should be working pretty efficiently, and it should be burning a minimal amount of oil. As the car ages, wear and tear will make things a bit less efficient, and it wouldn't be surprising to find that it is consuming more oil between changes. That's not necessarily a big deal but monitor the pattern and take note of any big shifts. For instance, if you have seen that the engine consumes about the same amount of oil each time between visits, and then suddenly it consumes a lot more, there is a reason to have the engine checked out. A break from your vehicle's typical pattern could be an indication that something changed in the engine, so have a mechanic take a look and have maintenance performed as necessary.
Open Communication
The matter of oil consumption is one of many reasons to build an ongoing relationship with your mechanic. If you take your vehicle to the same place for service time after time - such as Taylor & Sons Chevrolet - you can get to know the people who do the work and you'll feel more comfortable asking them questions. If you are worried about oil consumption, for instance, you can simply ask about it and have a discussion about what to watch for, what's going on currently with the engine, etc. The more information you have at your disposal, the easier it will be to make informed decisions.
Change Your Oil On-time
In addition to monitoring oil consumption, the other important topic with regard to vehicle maintenance and oil is to make sure it is being changed on time each interval. The interval you need to observe will depend on your specific vehicle, so be sure to consult the owner's manual or ask your mechanic about how frequently the oil should be swapped out. While 3,000 miles used to be the standard for oil changes, modern vehicles which use synthetic oil sometimes have intervals of 5,000 or even 7,500 miles.
It's easy to think you can just skip an oil change or two from time to time, but that decision isn't worth the savings. Having your oil changed is a quick process, it's not particularly expensive, and it can greatly help to extend the life of your vehicle. If you know how many miles you tend to put on your vehicle each month, you can make your oil change appointments well in advance, knowing roughly when you should be due for another change.
At Taylor & Sons Chevrolet, we offer a trustworthy service department in addition to vehicle sales. To keep your vehicle running its best well into the future, be sure to keep up with your maintenance schedule by making regular appointments with our team. To get started, simply give us a call during business hours. We would love to serve you!