Oil consumption and air con question
Discussion
Afternoon all,
I have been running a 2000 Tuscan for a while now and recently noticed a high oil consumption rate. I covered 200 motorway miles over the bank holiday weekend and before I set off, the dipstick was at maximum and when I returned it was a quarter down the "max" mark. I think I put in a litre to bring it back to max.
The car is 16,000 miles and was serviced by The TVR Centre 2000 miles ago which included the tappets. It has not had a rebuild before. It was signed off as having a clean bill of health 2K miles ago, so I am wondering whether it is rebuild time. Can they creap up on you like this? Or is it just an appetite for Mobil 0/40 which I know the TVR centre puts in.
The engine pulls strongly and although it has a tappety sound when idling and throughout the rev range it is not out of the ordinary or difference from the other Tuscans I have been in.
Also, the aircon needs to be regassed. Any recommendations in London or the surrounding area for this? Thanks!
I have been running a 2000 Tuscan for a while now and recently noticed a high oil consumption rate. I covered 200 motorway miles over the bank holiday weekend and before I set off, the dipstick was at maximum and when I returned it was a quarter down the "max" mark. I think I put in a litre to bring it back to max.
The car is 16,000 miles and was serviced by The TVR Centre 2000 miles ago which included the tappets. It has not had a rebuild before. It was signed off as having a clean bill of health 2K miles ago, so I am wondering whether it is rebuild time. Can they creap up on you like this? Or is it just an appetite for Mobil 0/40 which I know the TVR centre puts in.
The engine pulls strongly and although it has a tappety sound when idling and throughout the rev range it is not out of the ordinary or difference from the other Tuscans I have been in.
Also, the aircon needs to be regassed. Any recommendations in London or the surrounding area for this? Thanks!
beano500 said:
So that's about a quarter of a litre over 200 miles, and it's the watery stuff.....
No that's not necessarily a concern yet.
IMHO
(Sorry can't help about the re-gassing.)
Thanks. I just realised that I may have totally mis read the dipstick! So if the dipstick is showing half-ful, that means 0.5 litres of oil burned (and not 3 litres)?
I thought it was 3 litres of oil burned and the dipstick equates to how much oil is in the sump. So for example, i thought :
dipstick showing 1/2 = 3 litres of oil left
dipstick showing 3/4 = 4 litres of oil left
So if the dipstick is just reading a trace of oil at the bottom, it means that there is still 5 litres of oil left?
If that is the case, then i can breath a big sigh of relief. I check my oil almost daily now !
p.s. no blue smoke. Got a bit of white smoke but that was (i think) condensation when it was outside for 1 week in muggly weather ...
Are you sure?
Ohmigod - for a moment I believed what was written in the handbook!!!!!!! 
itchy said:
As an aside, I'm using the heavy stuff (Castrol RS 10W-50) at the moment and haven't needed to put in one drop in nearly 1500 miles. What on earth is wrong with my car! (No "you drive like a wuss" comments, thanks
)
Mine too (though it's a t350). 1600 miles and it hasn't budged on the dip strick (that's on 0-40 mobil 1 too)
itchy said:
As an aside, I'm using the heavy stuff (Castrol RS 10W-50) at the moment and haven't needed to put in one drop in nearly 1500 miles.
Do you mean RS10W-60? I have used the same for quiet some time now, pre engine up-grade use to use about 1 litre per 800 miles, post engine up-grade (2004 spec)have only added about half a litre in 3000 miles.
tracklap said:
Thanks. I just realised that I may have totally mis read the dipstick! So if the dipstick is showing half-ful, that means 0.5 litres of oil burned (and not 3 litres)?
If that is the case, then i can breath a big sigh of relief. I check my oil almost daily now !
Remember to leave the car for a few minutes after you shut it off in order to let the oil drain back completely before you check it. Also overfilling is MUCH worse than running low on oil. An engine will survive being run well below the minimum line. In fact an engine will survive for a short time without any oil whatsoever, without incurring any serious damage. All it needs is a coating of oil for the oil to do it's job. The reason engines hold more than a coating of oil is due to heat. It is necessary to keep the oil circulating in order to prevent it frying and carbonising.
Also note that the oil level when cold will vary slightly from the oil level when hot.
The TVR engine also uses a dry sump which is not so common as the more usual wet sump. The oil is stored in a separate tank rather than just laying around at the bottom of the engine.
Flash19 said:
Remember to leave the car for a few minutes after you shut it off in order to let the oil drain back completely before you check it.
Another no no. Leaving the car for a few mins to let the oil drain will leave you thinking there is no oil in the engine as it will have all drained away. You need to check the oil level as soon as possible (we are talking just a few seconds) after switching the engine off after it is properly warmed. And yes - you will burn your fingers!
To check the oil level, make sure the engine is hot, like been running for at least 20 mins. Keep the engine running and open the service bonnet. Unscrew the oil cap and dipstick and wipe it on a cloth. Then switch off the engine and quickly screw the dipstick back in, leave for a few seconds, then unscrew and read.
I found this from a lot of trial and error, and Im sure other variations may get slightly different results due to the varying amounts of oil draining back into the sump. I found this way to be accurate and consistant though, which is especially important when checking consumption.
Let me know if Im wrong, but I thought that the spread from Max to Min was one litre? I used this to work out how much to top up. Otherwise when you go to recheck, you will need to go through the same procedure of keeping the engine running before making a reading. Otherwise you will be topping up a hell of a lot to get a reading!
I found this from a lot of trial and error, and Im sure other variations may get slightly different results due to the varying amounts of oil draining back into the sump. I found this way to be accurate and consistant though, which is especially important when checking consumption.
Let me know if Im wrong, but I thought that the spread from Max to Min was one litre? I used this to work out how much to top up. Otherwise when you go to recheck, you will need to go through the same procedure of keeping the engine running before making a reading. Otherwise you will be topping up a hell of a lot to get a reading!
beano500 said:
Also overfilling is MUCH worse than running low on oil. Sorry, but I have to disagree there! With a SP6 you WON'T do damage by slightly overfilling and running low IS your biggest enemy!
Overfilling a dry sump engine is not the same as with a wet sump. The factory put an extra half litre or so in mine at service.
If you don't believe me maybe I could overfill mine, you could put just a litre in yours and we'll see who blows up first?
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