Another oil question

[Buzz word]

I started a thread in 'jap chat' a few weeks ago about some severe oil loss I am experiencing. I bought my Mazda 6 2.3 sport about 7 weeks ago and I have a 3 month AA warranty on the car. It has been consuming oil at a rate of about 1 litre every 300-400 miles. I think this rate is crazy so I have been trying to make a claim. No-one seems to have a clue where it is going though.

There are no obvious leaks, drips on the drive etc. It also does not burn blue smoke. I have done a compression test and found all cylinders at 9+ bar but there were heavy deposits on cyl 2+3's plugs. There appears to be a leak into the spark plug valley which I have cleaned up but got messy in a week but just not messy enough. If the oil was going there it would make a very big pool.

I just can't work out where the oil is going. The only thing I can think I have not eliminated are the stem seals but failure normally results in smoke.

The internet suggests PCV failure and there is supposed to be a valve under the inlet but I can't find it.

Any ideas on where my oil is going? If it is serious I need to try and reject it fast.

[Buzz word]

Well I just got back from the Mazda garage. They have checked it over and checked the PCV system finding no faults. They have topped the oil and want me to come back in ~200 miles when it's all gone.

The best part though was practically they all do that sir comment. The guy told me "An RX8 does 1l in two tanks. A tank is 200 miles in those." As if the consumption of a rotary is comparable to an i4 in anyway. I'm starting to get so fed up of this. I could have justified a much faster car at these running costs with 1l a week in expensive 5-20w synthetic.

Some help please! somone must have one.

[Buzz word]

Please chaps? All I am getting from everywhere is dead ends on this and its starting to get to be a problem.

[Superhoop]

This might be an odd question, but how old is it?

[Buzz word]

Its a 55 plate so late 2005. It is the one with the revised dash though that apparently happened on 2006 if that makes any difference?

[Superhoop]

PM sent

[Buzz word]

Cheers mate, PM sent with VIN details.

[Buzz word]

I went back to Mazda again today. It seems the car was possibly affected by a run of bad pistons but the leak rate for that is 0.2l to 1000km which is significantly slower than my loss rate. They said that will be 14.5hrs of labour and £600 for pistons and rings. So apart from that they have no ideas. So now it seems we are all out of ideas.

I called the garage and they weren't interested in taking it back or doing any work on it. I called trading standards so I guess I am going to have to go that route and write a few letters about SOGA.

[Prof Prolapse]

Hypothetically. Having reported on numerous occasions that you are having oil problems and the warranty company refusing to act... Would your warranty cover a new engine if it was to mysteriously fail?

[Otto]

There should be an oil consumption limit for the engine, and I suspect you are way past it. The garage are idiots if their response was 'they all do that'.

[Buzz word]

The warranty seems barely worth the paper it is written on as they will only pay for the part at fault when it is diagnosed. It also doesn't cover misuse etc so its not like I could just follow the manual topping up every however miles and wait for it to run low and spin a bearing. I don't think there is any chance they would do a whole engine even though repair wouldn't be far of just swapping a reconditioned one if it was pistons.

I agree the usage is far too high but the dealers attitude is they all do that. Mazda are struggling to find fault so I think they just want to get rid of me. only one independent I like agreed the usage is insanely high and didn't want to take the car on as they would just charge me a ton and said I should be covered by SOGA.