Hey friends.
2012 Hyundai Accent hatchback, 115k miles.
My car has always had slow oil loss. I typically need to put 2 quarts in between oil changes. Recently it’s increased to 4. But there’s not a drop of oil where I park, so I figure it’s burning instead of leaking.
So I scheduled an appointment with the dealership to have that figured out. They quoted me a diagnostic fee as normal.
When I got there, the service writer told me all they can do is a “top engine clean for about $500 where they take it all apart, soak everything, clean it real good, remove the carbon, and see if that helps. But it usually doesn’t, which means you’ll need a whole new engine.”
To clarify I asked if all the gaskets and seals get replaced during that process. He came back with “well no because they don’t actually take the engine apart, they just clean it real good from the outside.”
I’ve had problems with this dealership and their communication before, so I want some outside opinions. Is this place an absolute joke, or am I missing something here?
For the curious, I told the dealership I’m not interested in that.
Same situation, I burn a gallon between changes and have to add a qt every 1200ish miles. Just keep riding it out and dont let the oil get lower than a quart at any time and youll be fine. Ive been going on 50K miles like this with no other issues.
08 Honda Fit, so similar category of vehicle.
I am in the same situation but worse.
We have to add a quart of oil to our 2016 VW sport wagon after ever gas tank refill. Car has around 120K miles.
Dealer says the only option is to replace the engine for 12K.
So I am thinking the only option is to trade in the car for a certified pre owned while it is still running.
So frustrating that so many modern cars are known to blow engines around 100K miles…
Yeah, I wouldn’t be getting that, so probably your oil control rings are worn out on the pistons, it’s possible a set of rings and a hone might fix it but nobody could tell without stripping and measuring and looking to see what needs doing, you’d also want the head overhauled too, like they say a new engines the best answer unless you can strip and repair your current one yourself to avoid labour charges.
What they are doing is a top cylinder cleaning, basically the run the engine to heat it up, then you fog in a cleaner into the engine through a vacuum line enough that it shuts the engine off, then you let it set for a while, then start it back up and see if it helped free up the rings and carbon and did anything to help the engine. The thing is that there is no real way to know if it is going to help until you do it.
Your main mistake here is going to a dealership for a 11 year old vehicle. Unless you (and others) really have no other highly rated mechanics in your area, going to the dealership should be avoided. If your car is still under warranty, only go to the dealership.
If you really are “burning oil”, there’s likely a compression issue. A compression test is very easy and quick.
DO NOT pay someone to clean the outside of your engine in hopes that fixes an oil consumption issue.
Mechanic here. First of all before you try anything. What oil are you putting in the car? I had a Subaru with bad oil consumption that almost completely stopped when I switched from 5w30 mobil 1 to 5w40 Rotella t6. It won’t hurt anything to try. I’ve done this a few times with older cars and the consumption usually decreases significantly. Some oil brands evaporate a lot easier than others and I have owned many old shitboxes that consumed oil.
Even in my current dodge ram, I was getting some oil consumption with 5w20 while towing my camper every weekend, so I switched to 5w40 and it has stopped.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s anything significantly wrong with the engine. Usually with age the tolerances are a little bit larger and a heavier oil helps to first of all stop the wear and also take up those slightly larger clearances. The heavier oil can also resist vaporizing over time.