Disappearing oil

[Jaf]

My low oil level light came on tonight and when I checked it I was in fact down about a quart. I have gone about 25oo miles since my last change and have not noticed any spots on the ground and have not noticed any indications of burning oil. I am a new owner, I bought the 2000 6 speed about two months ago. Is this common? I have 33,000 miles on the car.

Thanks

 

[PeterG]

I have a 1999 with 34,500 miles that I bought new. It has always used a quart of oil in about 2000 miles. I say 'about' because I check the oil every few hundred miles and top it off. I top it off because oil is a coolant and will lubricate, clean and cool best in the long run if the full 6.5 quarts are flowing. At least I feel better with a full crankcase. At the rate I add oil, it works out that if I did not top it off, it would be down about a quart in 2000 miles.

There are no visible leaks on the engine and no drops in the parking stall where it always sits. There is no blue smoke or other sign of burning oil.

I have talked to Chevrolet mechanics and been told that a quart in 2000 miles is "normal" usage. It blows by the rings or something else according to GM. But, according to GM, it is normal. I have learned on another forum that usage varies greatly. Some LS1's of our years use more oil and some use less.

 

[theplayer]

They will tell you "blow by" is normal but it isn't. It creates carbon deposits and reduces the life of the oil. The oil blows by the rings and gets baked into carbon in your cylinders and the hot gases get by your rings and torch the oil. It burns the remaing oil and that is why you use a quart every 2000 miles. Do either of you have black residue around your tail pipes? The high oil use probably goes along with cold start knock? That is caused by incorrect piston to bore tolerances which could cause blow by. Read the "lifter noise on 2002 coupe" for details about the knock. My 02 knocks when it is cold and it has 8700 miles on it. Some people say it's normal but I just don't see how issues like this can be normal. Oil consumpsion, engine knock, etc. are not normal problems. If GM acknowledged that fact a lot of people would be getting new engines and they know it. It just sucks when you buy GM's "prize car" and pay that much and it has a problem and they say "it's normal". I reshearched the crap out of BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, and Mercedes and passed them up for the corvette. I didn't reshearch corvette because I figured that since they made the car for 50 years it should be problem free.

 

[neilhart]

I have noticed that running the car at unusual high speed and high rpm will cause oil to be consumed. My Y2K car will not use any oil between oil changes (that I can discern on the dip stick) under normal driving. However, if I go out and drive at high speed for a couple of hours (say in excess of 130 and peaking at 150 mph) it will blow out a quart in a short time. So far I have not had the opportunity to have the '03 Z06 at sustained high speeds to see if it does the same thing.

Neil