For the past two years or so (40 K miles worth), the car has been eating about 1Q of oil every 1 thousand miles. So I've been just checking the oil regurarly, and adding it as necessary (5W-30 dino.) Would this kind of oil consumption be considered borderline 'normal'? Several months ago, I had the car looked at by an indepedendent mechanic (Charley's Garage in Boulder, CO - specializes in Jap autos; highly recommended by many locals), but he didn't find any problems. There are no visible oil leaks, no smoke coming out of the tail pipe. The car passed Colorado emmissions about a year ago (though I don't know if it would today :)
This is my wife's car, she only drives it around the city, and she's a pretty careful and conservative driver. Usual speeds: 30-50mph.
Over this past Memorial Day weekend, we went on a road trip from Denver to New Mexico. We did about 1,200 miles in three days, and it was mostly highway driving at freeway speeds - 65-80mph. To my great surprize and frustration, I had to ad 5 quarts of oil during our trip
- 1Q every 240 miles, on the average. What could have caused such a big jump in oil consumption? Is it possible that the car eats more oil at higher speeds/higher rpms?
I am going to have the car checked by a mechanic this week, but I wanted to hear your opinions.
TIA