oil level

As it 3 weeks could be a tiny little leak somewhere .. maybe hard to spot ?

worn piston rings ?

Does it smoke?

Rob Graham

Thus spake tomm ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

I have an '00 Astra 1.6 Club and that seems to use a lot of oil too, around a litre every 1000 miles. Apart from a bit of a puff when starting of a morning, there are no signs of smoking or leakage, but I guess it must be burning off very slowly. I understand Astras do tend to use quite a lot of oil, so it may just be a case of "they all do that, sir".

once warmed up the cat will take care of the oil smoke, so watching the exhaust cannot give you much of a guide these days. if it is not leaking, then it must be burning. first step is always give it an oil change and use the right oil, and change it at least as often as specified.

Thus spake Mrcheerful ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

I usually change my oil and filter in between service intervals, so it gets changed every 6 months or 5000 miles, but as it gets topped up regularly during that time there is an almost constant flow of fresh oil into the engine.

no offence intended, but when you change it do you note how much you pour in? and check that against the handbook? I have seen cars with a short dipstick that requires an extra couple of litres to reach the mark. on some cars that excess is a problem and will get burnt. it might be worth letting it get a little under normal level mark and see how quickly it goes down from there, I have a car which leaks if you fill it to the mark, but once it is a litre down it goes a long time before further significant loss. ( I can't be bothered to do the job: drive shaft seals through the sump)

Worth checking the engine breather system is clear. They can be quite complex these days and if it allows pressure to build up in the crankcase can force oil past the pistons and or valve seals. Removing the oil filler with the engine running and stretching some clingfilm across the neck might give a clue - it should be sucked down slightly, not blown outwards.

Thus spake Mrcheerful ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

No offence taken, and yes to both questions. An oil and filter change on my Astra requires 3.75L of oil, and I use a measuring jug for that. And I check the level again after running the engine and letting it settle. The Haynes manual says that the difference between the low and high marks on the dipstick is about 1 litre.

Strangely, I checked it last night having done around 1000 miles since the last check, and the oil is still pretty close to the top mark when I would have expected it to be much lower than that. So that either means I put too much in when I topped it up last time, or the rate of loss has decreased :-)

cross fingers and hope. anything likely to be burning oil in a modern engine is usually difficult and expensive. the days of a new set of rings, valve stem seals, same day and a hundred quid are long gone

As I said I would check the crankcase breather system. On some BMWs, a blocked oil separator will cause high oil consunption. So a similar fault might be the reason.

Sorry but I seem to have hijacked this thread, unless the advice above was actually meant for the OP, but I guess my observations apply equally to the OP. I should add that my Astra has now done 101,000 miles but has had a pretty easy life, driven economically with no thrashing, and gets serviced regularly with cambelt changes done early. Engine still sounds sweet and quiet with very little in the way of mechanical noise. The fairly high oil consumption has been evident for many years, so I just live with it as "something they all do."