car burning oil?

A good indication of knackered valve stem seals is when you start the car first thing in the morning. Either get someone to start it or watch out the back as you do. Look for a big cloud of smoke which clears after a second or two. It's not really a DIY job unless you know exactly what your doing. I did it to a sierra once (1.8cvh) using an air compressor of all things to keep everything lifted in order to change the seals one at a time. It took quite a while. A garage would charge a fair bit depending on the engine. some engines DO burn a small amount of oil, so keep a look out for how much over a given mileage. Vauxhalls are terrible with up to 1litre per thousand miles in some ecotec engines.

John wrote: Vauxhalls are terrible with up to 1litre per thousand miles in

Pah - my fiesta 1.25 Zetec burns 2 litres in 1000 miles now. And still passes the MOT emissions test.

Tony

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I don't think I'm a member so I guess this won't work then.

that is because the cat is still working

1 ml per mile is nothing, you ought to see what VW permit as "normal" heh.

When I first got my A3 2.0 FSI, I remarked to the dealer about its oil consumption. I was told that 1 litre per 600 miles is "within tolerance". :-o

Yup. Now on VAG TDIs that gets very expensive, very quickly...

Will all this oil eventually kill the cat?

(or would that be curiosity) :-)

probably

More information at Most people seem to wince when you mention a head gasket failure/change. But I'm guessing the head has to come off (hence the price of a HG change). Then each valve has to be dismantled and put back together again. I don't know how this would take and experienced mechanic, but I'm guessing it will add another hour to the labour costs.

My Punto had a HG change recently. It cost about £250-300 inc VAT, parts and a head skim. But all garages near me charge £50+vat p/h labour. You won't need to worry about the skim, which costs approx £25-30 I believe. But an 8v Punto HG is probably about as easy as it gets.

I've been told if it's valve stems you get smoke after you've started but it goes away as the engine warms. If it's piston rings the smoke doesn't go away. I understand that the smoke will eventually kill you cat.

Regards,

Tim BTW, I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[...]

Don't worry, it's usenet.

;-)

Chris