What happened?!
Moderator: volvite
What happened?!
2001 LE. Started it yesterday afternoon and a big cloud came from the exhaust. Smelled funny too. Smoke was blue like oil smoke. Shut it off and checked oil level. There was barely any on the tip of the dipstick. There's still about 1200 miles left before scheduled oil change (I stay on top of this on all my cars). No oil on the ground or on anything under the car. Wasn't ticking or running rough or anything. This engine has about 60,000 miles on it. What could be going on? Am I screwed? Please help!
Could also be piston rings. The VQ35DE engine was made with cylinder bore that have a slight taper. The lower rings on the piston sometimes get to the point where they fail to seal and the engine starts to burn oil. The fix is to re-ring the engine with the updated ring set, but of course this means tearing the engine all apart to remove the pistons.
OK, now I'm baffled. Went home and checked it on my lunch break. The oil on the dipstick is now a little over full (from what I added yesterday). Started up fine with no smoke. Could something have gotten blocked or something? It seriously had a drop on the tip of the dipstick yesterday when it was doing all this.
Ok, Well let me say when mine was lower mileage it would use a lot more Oil if I drove it fast on the freeway. This improved over the years. Even with the small leaks it now has, Oil cooler ( fixed once already) and maybe valve covers, its still better at 105K than at 25K when I purchased it.
Others have carefully documented Oil consumption on the VQ35 engine from new and it continued to drop ie get better, as the engine went over 60K miles. ( that's as far as the record went for that guy.)
So although 2 quarts is a lot in 1800 miles If you have been driving it harder and faster that would account for some of your consumption.
Time to check for Oil in the intake behind the PCV connection I think.
Others have carefully documented Oil consumption on the VQ35 engine from new and it continued to drop ie get better, as the engine went over 60K miles. ( that's as far as the record went for that guy.)
So although 2 quarts is a lot in 1800 miles If you have been driving it harder and faster that would account for some of your consumption.
Time to check for Oil in the intake behind the PCV connection I think.
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