How much oil should a 156 use??
Discussion
I have got a 2004 156 1.6Tspark and it seems to use a :censored: load of oil. It is a company car and i know some of the some others we have are the same. I checked it about 2 month ago around 4,500 miles ago and it was 1/2 way between the marks on the stick, checked it at the weekend and it did not register. Chucked in a litre and it has done the trick but this synthetic stuff ain't cheap + why is it using so much oil.
I have had 2 Focus' and 2 Golf both of which never needed oil....
D
I have had 2 Focus' and 2 Golf both of which never needed oil....
D
It's the design.
When the oil is hot and sprayed over the valve gear it is atomised. Not all of it returns to the sump as liquid. Certain oils are better at resisting this than others. The recommended Selenia 20k apparently has special additives to prevent this and although my Twin Sparks have used some, it has not been too worrying.
You need to be really careful leaving it so long though! The Twin Spark has a fairly small sump and can use 1 litre every 1000 miles, so you need to keep it on MAX every time you check.
When the oil is hot and sprayed over the valve gear it is atomised. Not all of it returns to the sump as liquid. Certain oils are better at resisting this than others. The recommended Selenia 20k apparently has special additives to prevent this and although my Twin Sparks have used some, it has not been too worrying.
You need to be really careful leaving it so long though! The Twin Spark has a fairly small sump and can use 1 litre every 1000 miles, so you need to keep it on MAX every time you check.
They do have the reputation for "liking a bit of oil"! My wife's 1.8 156 gets through plenty - about 350 miles per pint of Castrol GTX Magnatec 10 / 40. That's just within the acceptable limits in the handbook. When she starts up on a warmed up engine, there is sometimes a bit of smoke out of the exhaust so I'm guessing it's valve stem seals.
I don't know if this is of any interest but it only started burning oil after I replaced a number of bent valves following a premature cam belt failure. Up until then, it didn't use much at all - certainly we'd only add maybe a pint between services. It must have been the only one they made that didn't! I'm wondering whether the stem oil seals I used in the rebuild were of inferior quality or whether I somehow damaged them refitting the valves?
I don't know if this is of any interest but it only started burning oil after I replaced a number of bent valves following a premature cam belt failure. Up until then, it didn't use much at all - certainly we'd only add maybe a pint between services. It must have been the only one they made that didn't! I'm wondering whether the stem oil seals I used in the rebuild were of inferior quality or whether I somehow damaged them refitting the valves?
Avocet said:
I don't know if this is of any interest but it only started burning oil after I replaced a number of bent valves following a premature cam belt failure. Up until then, it didn't use much at all - certainly we'd only add maybe a pint between services. It must have been the only one they made that didn't! I'm wondering whether the stem oil seals I used in the rebuild were of inferior quality or whether I somehow damaged them refitting the valves?
Sounds likely I suppose. In a similar vein, I think I have the only 3.0V6 engine Alfa ever produced that doesn't use any oil...
Mine's been using a litre about every 2000 miles, so not as bad as some. Adie Hawkins of AHM recommended Havoline 10/40 semi-synth to me - he said fully synth goes through too fast. Not sure why he recommends that particular brand, my assumption is that it's the same spec as Selenia, or close to it. Anyway, it suggests that if an Alfa is using a lot of oil and it's fully synth, it might be worth swapping to semi-synth next oil change and seeing if it makes a difference.
>> Edited by saxmund on Thursday 13th October 12:53
>> Edited by saxmund on Thursday 13th October 12:53
TADTS = They All Do That Sir, response when you take it to a garage.
Damien, your comment "Its a company car" says it all really, checking the oil more often could save yet another person reporting "Its an Alfa they blow up their engines"
And its not just Alfas that use oil, Porsche is 450miles per litre, handbook says up to 415miles per litre is acceptable.
My 2.4 JTD which is now Silverback Mikes never used to use oil irrespective of how it was driven and yet as a diesel I expected it to.
Jim
Damien, your comment "Its a company car" says it all really, checking the oil more often could save yet another person reporting "Its an Alfa they blow up their engines"
And its not just Alfas that use oil, Porsche is 450miles per litre, handbook says up to 415miles per litre is acceptable.
My 2.4 JTD which is now Silverback Mikes never used to use oil irrespective of how it was driven and yet as a diesel I expected it to.
Jim
OK OK so they all use tonnes of oil. But why???????
I have done thousands of miles in many cars but none use as much oil. My Golf TDI needed a litre after about the first 5k and then only when it was serviced, that was doing 30k a year. I have never had a car that uses so much oil.....
I have done thousands of miles in many cars but none use as much oil. My Golf TDI needed a litre after about the first 5k and then only when it was serviced, that was doing 30k a year. I have never had a car that uses so much oil.....
I've seen a number of 156's that have a small sticker on the inside of the windscreen saying something along the lines of "The engine in this car is a high perfomance unit and as such you need to check the oil level more often"
Probably came about after 156's started being bought for fleet use, whereas previous Alfas were bought by enthusiasts.
Probably came about after 156's started being bought for fleet use, whereas previous Alfas were bought by enthusiasts.
Yeah right!
So every car that produces the same or more than the 140 bhp my wife's 1.8 pushes out should have one?
Sorry but I don't buy that. There are plenty of other manufacturers that make engines with rather more peformance than the Alfa units and they don't drink oil! It's not a big deal either way for me - I'm often under the bonnet anyway but a modern car with 60,000 on it using more oil than my 15 year old 220000 mile 164?! No, there's no excuse for it!
So every car that produces the same or more than the 140 bhp my wife's 1.8 pushes out should have one?
Sorry but I don't buy that. There are plenty of other manufacturers that make engines with rather more peformance than the Alfa units and they don't drink oil! It's not a big deal either way for me - I'm often under the bonnet anyway but a modern car with 60,000 on it using more oil than my 15 year old 220000 mile 164?! No, there's no excuse for it!
Alfas & Fiats do tend to consume quite a bit of oil - it's the Italian way. But which oil you use makes a big difference - avoid thin fully synthetics e.g. Mobil 1 - nothing wrong with the oil, but it runs through them. Stick to Selenia 20k, or 10w60 Selenia Racing, or if consumption is still high, use HPX - lovely thick stuff that really reduces consumption. You can get all these from your local Alfa/Fiat dealer.
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