disapearing oil 1997 850 base

coolfische · Post by **coolfische** » 07 Oct 2008, 08:21

Car has about 115k on it and I've notice excessive oil loss but don't know to where. No drips, no black smoke out the tail pipe. The only thing is slight white-ish smoke on start up on cold mornings, but that goes away immediately. went through 2 quarts in 600 miles. Oil light comes on in 1500 miles if I don't feed it oil. Seems to be getting worse. Is my engine shot, need it to last next 4 years. Please help, I may ditch the car if its something big.

Sam

turbotim2 · Post by **turbotim2** » 07 Oct 2008, 08:28

Burning oil is what produces your withe/blue smoke. Black smoke comes from incomplete burning of gasoline. It sounds like your valve seals are leaking by. This is quite common, the fix is getting the valve seals replaced. I don't know what the cost is for this job, I have the same issue and am probably not going to replace them based on the age of the car. You use more oil then I am using and you have many fewer miles on your car however so you may want to consider the replacement.

mbsl98 · Post by **mbsl98** » 07 Oct 2008, 09:49

I don't believe you can usually burn a quart in 600 miles without generating enough blue smoke to be visable on a pretty regular basis. Simple white smoke on cold start that goes away quickly is a pretty standard operating condition and due to condensation, etc, not oil. I'd be looking for a leak that only actively leaks while you are moving (if there are no puddles under a parked car), or signs of oil in the coolant tank. Cheap diagnostic is a compression test/leakdown test to get a pretty good read on the conditiopn of the engine internals.

mbsl98 · Post by **mbsl98** » 07 Oct 2008, 10:00

Quick question: Have you changed the weight of oil you have in the motor? A very light oil will disappear a lot faster than heavier oil. One of my sons recently had a low reading that was unexpected, and when we checked further, we found that the shop he had used to change the oil last, put 5/30 into it instead of his normal 10/30. On low mileage motor, I wouldn't expect much change from that, but he has 185k+ and that is probably the cause - making smoe wear a bigger issue.

coolfische · Post by **coolfische** » 07 Oct 2008, 10:56

thanks for the input. I haven't changed the oil, i change it myself and have used the correct/same type for the past 2 or so years. Is there anyway that I am leaking oil and its getting burned off while the car is running. Also if anyone knows about what it will cost for valve seals that would be great. I need this thing to last me 4 more years for grad school, but I would rather not have huge repair bills down the road. I drove My previous 850 from 90K to 250K with nothing but timing belt, brakes, shocks, and oil changes. Makes me nervous with so much engine stuff going on. Also just replaced shot air pump that was completely flooded with water, I don't think that is normal either.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 07 Oct 2008, 15:07

Turbo return line could be leaking massively and stream down and then drip onto your manifold and burn off...I would check that. But if you're having that much burning, you would smell it.

EDIT: Oh, Gosh...Darn. You have a BASE Car.... in other words, no turbo to leak from. The only other place I can think of is the PCV return line to the top of the engine. Take your plug cover off the top of the engine to see if you have oil all up under there...if that is leaking badly, then you'll spill oil out the back, over the top of your engine, right onto a hot manifold.

Post by **vegasjetskier** » 07 Oct 2008, 15:14

The seals are expensive (about $24 each, IIRC) and the labor will be quite a bit because they'll probably have to pull the head to change them. Sometimes they can be changed without removing the head by putting compressed air into the cylinders, but it would probably require fabricating your own special tools.

You can try some Valvoline High Mileage oil to see if it will recondition the seals enough to reduce the oil consumption to a tolerable level.

coolfische · Post by **coolfische** » 07 Oct 2008, 18:42

great, thanks again.....i'm bringing it in to my local guy this friday, hopefully good news.......if not I might ditch it, been nothing but one fix after another for the past two years, the amount of money i spent I could have bought something newer and probably better....too bad cause i like driving it and we have 3 other 850's in the family and all are above 200k with zero issues....maybe i got a dud

turbotim2 · Post by **turbotim2** » 08 Oct 2008, 04:53

If you had a lot of oil leaking out and burning off the manifold, you would smell some serious burnt oil when you stopped the car and got out. Are you smelling anything when you stop? Another way to see if you are burning oil is have someone drive your car while you follow. Have the person, while driving at a normal speed floor it as if to pass and see if you see any additional smoke. Its not always obvious when you are driving and looking out the review mirror.

coolfische · Post by **coolfische** » 08 Oct 2008, 17:07

I only smell faint oil, but nothing unbelievable that I would consider odd. But there is a little smell. I also have noticed that as time goes on inbetween oil changes there is a ticking coming from the engine. Told it was the lifters, usually goes away when I add oil, or change it. but then comes back within a week or so. I don't know, any more ideas of what I could be facing. Don't really want to dump money into it if its just going to give me more issues down the road.