FIXED??!! 2002 Chevrolet Tracker - 2.5L Excessive Oil Use

[rhillig]

We have a 2002 Chevy Tracker with a 2.5L V6; it has excessive oil use. We have replaced the PCV valve. Drove it, used 1qt oil in 100 miles. No oil leaks visible on the motor. We have checked with Identifix & other sources; do not see many problems like this with this engine.

Anyone else experienced this?

[liljoe]

I would lean towards valve stem seals letting oil get past them....

[steven kiser]

just for s&g's i would let it sit for a while and check oil level. start and run it for 1/2 an hour shut it down and wait a minute and check oil level. if there is a significant drop in the level i'd look into the return ports in the head being plugged. how many miles? what's the maintenance on this vehicle? a quart of oil in a 100 miles huh, there should be smoke. how's the vac? could be an intake leak causing oil loss. i've run into that on more than a few occasions.

[rhillig]

The vehicle is not smoking, that is what is driving us nuts. It has 90,000 miles on it. We had purchased the vehicle at an auto auction then sold it to the current customer - so we do not have any idea what the maintenance has been on it. Oil looked good when we had bought it. We really don't want to have to tear the engine down.....but it looks like it's heading more in that direction.

[steven kiser]

with that kind of consumption i would think there would be, at least residue on a plug. if you can isolate it to a cylinder then that's a start. are you using the correct viscosity? i have seen oil issues similar to this if someone switches from synthetic to regular oil. if you are using synthetic in this you will be hard pressed to see smoke. check called for viscosity and make a change if possible. you may resolve the issue by making a change in the weight.

[rhillig]

So far we have changed PCV valve, have now installed a OE one. Sucked some seafoam into the engine and ran. Changed the oil with the proper oil, we have test drove it and used about 1 quart in a little over 100 miles. Plugs do not look bad. We will do some more testing when we can get it back in the shop again.

[fortknoxx]

finger the tail pipe, any oil residue?

check coolant, could have a leak in the cooler going into the rad.

running good?

[rhillig]

Coolant looks good, runs good. Not a lot of residue in the tailpipe. The mystery continues!

[brianp87]

Ive never seen one burn that much and not see it in the exhaust.

[Tim Martin]

I have seen them burn that much oil and not see anything out the exhaust. It appears that due to the way the oil enters the combustion chamber (past the rings or the guides) and a good converter, it pretty well cleans the oil smoke up.

I'd pull the plugs out and go into each cylinder with my boroscope and see what the top of the pistons look like. If the outer perimiter of the piston is washed off, the oil is coming past the rings. If the top of the piston is normal carbon looking its coming down the guides. The only kicker is the 90,000 mile figure. its a little early for that much oil consumption unless the engine has been overheated or the mileage figure is not correct.

[brianp87]

Or a repair was made

[ricmorin]

Tim is right. A good convertor can clean up a lot of oil smoke these days. Maybe pull the valve cover and see if the inside is gunked up?

[liljoe]

I like to look in the intake and see the back side of the intake valves, if the seals are leaking you should see the evidence on the valves....

[Tim Martin]

Ahh. My long boroscope would love that job! Open the throttle blade - slide the viewer in through and snake it to where ya want it! And look and look, and look.

[rhillig]

We used a can of GM upper end & injector cleaner #88861802. (About killed the guys off in the shop.....word to the wise...when using this product in the COLD winter - push the vehicle OUTSIDE of the shop BEFORE starting!!) We will give it a long test drive tonight & see how it goes. But the tech said on the test drive it seems to have a lot more power.

[steven kiser]

the more power doesn't surprise me at all. if it solves the oil consumption that would. but if it solves it who really cares. on occasion i see things happen that make absolutely no sense. i pretty much stopped trying to understand why years ago.

[protraxrptr17]

It would surprise me too, but maybe all the carbon had the oil rings stuck????? It could happen I guess.

[rhillig]

Did the trick! We drove it 100 miles - customer drove it 200 miles. Not using oil anymore!