engine oil level ftl
 

I have no clue what the hell is going on here but I sure hope to find out soon. I had my oil changed with PP 5w-30 right after I bought the car. The oil level has always been good, as I check it about once a week when I clean up the car. About a week ago when I checked the oil it was fine, a week later now and its 3/4 down the dipstick. WTF man! My car doesnt smoke, smell, or have any leaks so I dont know what it could be. Mainly my commutes are short drives, about 5-10 minutes at tops and I havent been on a long trip with it since the day I bought it.

I took it to Mazda and they want to charge me for an oil change to put in valvoline semi synthetic and monitor the oil. They said if I dont burn more than 1 quart every 1k miles my car is fine. They said its "normal" to burn about 1 quart every 1k miles. I laughed my ass off I couldnt help it. He said he knows but its Mazdas guidline for them to follow.

So its normal to put in 2-3 extra quarts between oil changes!? :gay:

shit i would run out of fucking oil between changes. take your car somewhere else.

get a OCC and maybe you're losing a lot of oil through the seals and it's getting burnt up. OCC will stop it atleast from going through the engine.

It may just be the fact that this dipstick is a bit odd. If you check it in the am or after the car has been standing quite awhile, it reads about .5 quart less than if you wipe the stick and replace it and then recheck the oil level. Until I discovered this, it lead me to overfill the crankcase by .5 quart. I've not experienced this in any other car over 40+ years of driving/ maintaining cars.

I wish I could take it somewhere else. The next closest speed dealer is about an hour away. For now im just anxiously waiting for the car to start billowing smoke.

Looking into getting a OCC. Thanks!

Yeah I always pull it, wipe it, then re-check. Its just odd that Ive checked it weekly and its always been perfect until now. I havent done anything different with the car to lose almost a quart within one week. Needless to say im very interested in seeing whats happening.

I dont care if its the turbo or the motor, im just gonna hate losing the car for probably a month while its fixed, I just got the damn thing in january!

you didn't happen to be on a slope right? haha, might've made that little mistake. But for an OCC, go to the for sale thread and find Matt Damond, his kit is perfect, gives you everything to zip ties, great price and service. When you do get it, be ready to get pissed off at the PCV valve.

I live in florida, everything is flat ground here :biggrin: No but really, I did it in my garage which is level.

Oh and thanks for the occ info man!

Why do you say that??? It's easy to install the catch can, the hoses, etc... Do you mean that because you have to lift the car to access it?

he's probable talking about how much shit gets through the stocker and into the catch can?

It is odd that you're getting a different reading now than usual but.........you should ALWAYS remove the dipstick, wipe it off, re-insert, and check. If you just pull it out in the AM or after the car has been sitting for a while, the oil has had time to run down off of the stick and your reading won't be accurate...

If he's losing that much oil, this would just probably be more of a headache. He's going to need to empty the catch can all the time, and if he forgets....let's not get into that. Plus if doesn't help at all and he needs to take it to the dealer, it's something he's gotta worry about reversing first.

I'd say, dump out some extra oil before you go in so the dealer will take it seriously and look into the problem instead of pushing you out the door....

^ well, no... i'd rater empty a can often than have all that crap go into the intake manifold.

Well, i installed mine in the dead of winter so the rubber hoses were realllly hard to get off lol, i eventually used a hairdryer to heat things up.

And yea, not saying that the OCC is the ultimate solution.. but it'll help, and if there is alot of oil going in there, you know a seal is broken.

If you forget to empty the can, it has a hose that basically returns it to the stock setup so nothing real bad happens.

I agree with this 100%, I'm 43 yrs old and have never had a vehicle that reads as you describe until the MS3.

Disagree.
The oil cannot run further down the dipstick than the oil level.

Every car I have owned, until this one, if the car sat overnight you could just pull the dipstick and it would read exactly the same as it would if you wiped it....... this car is different in that regard, it behaves as TopazM3 describes.

See thats what I was wondering. Why the hell do the ms3's do that? I've never had another vehicle in my life do this to me, I thought maybe it was just my car being gay, glad im not the only one though.

I also have this same issue and my dealer also told me unless it's more than 1 quart/1000 miles that it's fine. Have you ever let your car sit and idle 10+ min? You'll probably start to see smoke at some point I know I do now.

Damn that sucks man, good luck with your dealer!

As for smoke, none yet on mine. The other day I had my car idling for about 5 minutes after a 20 minute drive and I didn't see any smoke. I'm gonna keep watching it though.

a turbo car burning oil is pretty normal, though I would say 1 qt every 1k is a little excessive. I am usually down 1qt at each oil change, 3500-5000mi.

and I will agree that the MS3 is one of the most annoying cars to check oil on. Half of the time I can't see the line at all, the dipstick just has a thin coat of oil on it.

This is one whack ass car.

I lose ZERO oil between oil changes, and thrash my car at every opportunity.
OEM pads, 12K miles, OEM tires 13 K miles, 2nd set OEM pads 11K miles, Rotors........ dont even get me started about rotors.

me too...well with the oil part..where I fill her up at with oil after a change is where it stays. Right now, just checked today 2000miles after oil change still sitting right on the dot..

Just saw your other thread as well...good luck with your car. I hope everything turns out well

If the dealer wants to see 1qt loss every thousand miles just drive a thousand miles and suck a quart and a half of oil out of the dipstick right before you take it in. Repeat until they give you what you want.

Hahaha hopefully the car will do it for me. I dropped it off at the shop this morning for the whole clutch problem deal too. Time to get the ball rollin on both these problems.

I knew I shouldnt have posted that my car uses no oil.........

Down 3/4 of a quart!
In about 800 miles, but lots of track time.

Cursed myself by posting.