My 04 coupe with 94k miles is burning a quart of oil in 500miles!
There is no leak, and the car smokes up very little in the morning..
Where is all this oil going? ??

I dont have any type of warranty.. My question is will i be okay if i just keep an eye on the oil and top it off often...? Or will the engine eventually break down on me..?? I cant afford a new motor..

Should i switch to a different weight of oil?

 

I have an 03 A/T and im in a similar situation. My passenger side valve cover is leaking, but very little. Even before this the car burnt oil (not quite as heavy as yours) with no excessive smoke. I switched to 5w50 synthetic and it seems to be doing much better. I was also suggested to use 20w50 if the 5w50 didn't help at all.

 

First question, do you have a catch can fitted? if not i would try fitting one, as these engines breath a lot of oil through the idle/low throttle breather, especially at higher mileages,
As for oil weight, yes 50 will help, but whether its 5W50 or 20W50 will make no difference to the oil consumption, as the first figure refers to the cold viscosity, and since the engine spends 99% of its time at the higher viscosity/temps, which the 50 refers to, it make no difference.

 

Can this still be a good reliable car even with its oil consumption issue though..? Or will it inevitably die over time..? If I just maintain the oil level will it still last another 100k?

I love the car.. and i dont wanna get rid of it.. Im experiencing to performance loss at all.. the thing still pulls Really hard like a brand new car even with 90k miles.
It doesnt miss a beat! still idles perfectly and has that nice punch at around 4k rpm..l

 

Can this still be a good reliable car even with its oild consumption issue though..? Or will it inevitably die over time..? If I just maintain the oil level will it still last another 100k?

I love the car.. and i dont wanna get rid of it.. Im experiencing to performance loss at all.. the thing still pulls Really hard like a brand new car even with 90k miles.
It doesnt miss a beat! still idles perfectly and has that nice punch at around 4k rpm..l

 

If its performing fine, then there is no reason it wont go on for another 100K if maintained properly, if it an 04 then it shouldn't be a re up motor? which are known to be oil burners, due to Nissan fitting different piston rings, but its not unheard of for the earlier VQ to burn oil.

 

I know mines burning a bit of oil, but my issue is I cant check the damn oil with the dip stick cause its a pain in the *** to get out. By the time I get it out, oil is all over the stick and the reading is inaccurate. Any suggestions?

 

I have had a bad oil problem since Nov 10, Did a leak-down test it was ok, they say
I need an engine cleanse, It will fix the smoke and oil problem, my warranty is up the end of May. I insisted to have an oil consumption test, just to be safe. So I guess they looked
a little harder, it seams it is the fuel injector pumps, leaking gas and burning of the oil.
By the way the g35 coupe has 6 injector pumps. Come to think of it at different times
we thought there was a swishy sound in the engine, it was weird. I guess not, it was fuel. After all is done, I will make sure it didn't hurt the engine. Hope this could Help.

 

^^^ It sounds to me like your mechanic is taking you for a ride. Read up on this site and get some more knowledge before you plunk down any serious money with that guy.

 

Ditto.

Please find a new mechanic.

If you keep adding oil you should be OK, but anything can happen. All that oil burning is not good for your catalytic converters.

 

To me smoke upon startup indicates thet you probably have worn valve guides. This would be common in an engine with 97x miles. When the engine sits overnight the oil seeps around the valve seals and into the compustion chamber. I would just check the oil frequently and monitor oil consumption. If it doesn't get worse and is running perfectly don't worry about it. It might also be a good idea to pull a sparkplug and check it.

 

the o4 uses very little tension on oil scraper ring and its easy overtime to build up carbon on it causing it to skip over the bore...this is the cheapest way to cure your problem. buy one quart of Rislone, put it in and run it for about 100 miles, drain it, put in 20w40(not synthetic) with new filter, always works for me

 

I have an 04 manual with 108k and burn 1qt every 2000 miles.

Compression check is fine,
No smoke on start up,
No smoke on flooring it,
No performance change,
Changed valve covers and no difference in oil burn,
Have a catch can, no oil in plenum............

No idea where the oil is going.

I'm not going to worry about it at all. Car still runs like new and if it gets me to 200K what more can I really ask for.

 

This is really educating. Thanks guys!

 

After 100k miles and burning, try 40weight oil