Car starting to consume oil at a faster rate

[Brawler]

Hi all.
I still have a 2010 Kia Cerato. It's still good as new and has never missed a beat. Not a single failure besides for a battery in 11 years of ownership. It seems like the good run may be coming to an end. Up until now, the car has never needed oil between annual services.
In the last 6 months (+/- 6000 KM), I have had to top up the oil twice. It's not due for a service until June.
Any reason for concern or take it in asap for some preventative work or just a symptom of age?
It's got 150 000 KM on the clock. Car feels fine, no smokey exhaust or anything.
Thanks.

Seeing as someone else has bumped the thread.
Car was serviced at Bosch in May and I mentioned it needs oil top ups. They found nothing wrong and said its fine in older cars. The car needed oil last week (5 months / 4500 KM later) so looks like I will just need to monitor it every few months. The plan was to replace the car but ended up buying a house instead so the car needs to hang on for a wee bit longer.

 

[6spdmanual]

Lol just came across these pictures

This was taken on 16 January



And this was on 30 January



I know I did a lot of driving during this period but it’s still abnormal. Turned out that the valve stem seals were the issue (that’s what I thought initially). Turned out it was a whole lot more than I bargained for

 

[Rouxenator]

Valve seals are kief when they go. My first Astra's valve seals started to go after about 200,000km round about when the head gasket was done. It was a real treat to coast downhill and then give it the beans - making a f....k tonne of smoke as it burned off all the oil that seeped in while coasting.

The best was doing that coming down from the Hugenot tunnel to the toll plaza - coast all the way and when the boom lifts, floor it! Those poor toll booth operators. I smoked 'em out like Georgie did with Osama.

 

[Gaz{M}]

Lol just came across these pictures

This was taken on 16 January

View attachment 1149294

And this was on 30 January

View attachment 1149296

I know I did a lot of driving during this period but it’s still abnormal. Turned out that the valve stem seals were the issue (that’s what I thought initially). Turned out it was a whole lot more than I bargained for

That looks like a BMW dipstick. Our 118i is also supposedly using oil now at 75000km. And it is leaking oil out the bottom. That is BMW ownership for you - they leak oil out of every hole.

 

[pinball wizard]

(I think - the service station guy does it).

Fukkit man! Stop that.

 

[Tim_vb]

change out the PCV valve - its a common cause of oil consumption and normally cheap and simple to replace

https://www.yourmechanic.com/articl...ling-positive-crankcase-ventilation-pcv-valve

 

[$m@Rt@$$]

Lol just came across these pictures

This was taken on 16 January

View attachment 1149294

And this was on 30 January

View attachment 1149296

I know I did a lot of driving during this period but it’s still abnormal. Turned out that the valve stem seals were the issue (that’s what I thought initially). Turned out it was a whole lot more than I bargained for

My Audi was like that when I drove it hard. Stopping at a garage was like fill up with oil and check the petrol.

I used about 500ml oil on like 2 tanks of fuel.

 

[berrypi]

How much do you want for your car?

 

[ubercal]

i carry a 5L of oil in my car.Check oil levels every week and normally have to do small topup every 3 weeks.You get use to it eventually

 

[pinball wizard]

i carry a 5L of oil in my car.Check oil levels every week and normally have to do small topup every 3 weeks.You get use to it eventually

Why don't you leave the oil in your garage and still check every week and top up as needed? Do you really need to carry it with you?

 

[6spdmanual]

Oil looking good since service on the BMW 520i

 

[Nicholas Lisse]

thanks for your response.
Perhaps like 40% between the min and the max indicator. Full pint each time (I think - the service station guy does it). I really should know more...

Turbo or NA?

 

[TheChamp]

This honestly looks like a hard life to live, at least you will get a warning before the engine goes kaboom.

 

[unobeat]

Just make it a habit to check your own oil at home.
I check fluids at home and even tyre pressure at garages.

 

[Aghori]

I use slightly thicker oil because of the ZA climate - it affects your fuel consumption negatively just a tiny bit but you don't have to worry about topping up oil every month.

 

[GhostSixFour]

thanks for your response.
Perhaps like 40% between the min and the max indicator. Full pint each time (I think - the service station guy does it). I really should know more...

The service station guy? You do realise that you can also overfill a car on oil? And that the oil should be measured when cold. Also, that guy probably didn't read what specs your car takes and just dumped whatever oil they had open.

It's not a difficult task, nor a time consuming one. Just learn to do it yourself.

 

[GhostSixFour]

Just make it a habit to check your own oil at home.
I check fluids at home and even tyre pressure at garages.

Get your own little pressure checker. The ones at the garage gets treated worse than Chris Browns girlfriends. These things need to be checked every so often as well, which I doubt happens.

Unless the garage has those electronic ones that are mounted on the wall, they seem to be more reliable.

 

[Aghori]

Get your own little pressure checker. The ones at the garage gets treated worse than Chris Browns girlfriends. These things need to be checked every so often as well, which I doubt happens.

Unless the garage has those electronic ones that are mounted on the wall, they seem to be more reliable.

Agreed. The manual pressure hose was used on my tyres once. After 3 weeks, I decided to check tyre pressure at a garage that had the electronic unit. The manual pressure hose overfilled my tires by 1.2 bars...