Excessive oil consumption.

[Mad Dog 20 20]

My '02 Explorer 4.0 with 50k was 3 qts low on oil 7 weeks and less than 1 thousand miles after an oil change. On Dec 24 the garage had to add 3 qts just to get the oil to show at the safe level on the dip stick. On Jan 8 I checked it again and the oil level is down to the add mark. There are no leaks and could not detect any blue smoke coming out the exhaust. Can anyone offer any explanation? Thanks

 

[Four0Sport]

pull a spark plug.. see if they are coated with oil. if so it could be a ring issue, and the oil is getting burned out the exhaust. also check the drain plug, make sure its tight, and the oil filter, sometimes the filters can leak from an old gasket left on the mount or the gasket where the filter mount is bolted to the block can leak.

do you seriously drink mad dog 20/20? i thought they stopped making it.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome

 

[Four0Sport]

Yes the official welcome committee has spoken

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread to the stock 2002-2005 stock section.

 

[97awdx]

The drain plug has a little O-ring that sometimes gets knocked off.

 

[97awdx]

Now that I have been thinking about it, I bet 10 bucks that whoever did the oil change left the old oil filter gasket stuck to the block, so now instead of 1 gasket you have 2 and oil is leaking out, I have seen it happen a dozen times. It just seems strange that you would start loosing 7 Qts of oil after an oil change.

 

[Willard]

From my experience when the old gasket is left on it doesn't just leak, it blows out immediately and spills all the oil out everywhere. At least that's what happened to me once. Covered the garage floor in oil the instant the oil pressure built up.

It's still a valid thing to check, but I'm thinking it's something else. The o-ring on the drain plug is a good idea and easy to check as well.

 

[Curtis]

Im in the same boat.
My 04 4.6 has mysterious oil consumption too.

I have the oil changed at Mobil express - cause for the price of a case of oil these days its not much more to have them do it.

One time when they checked the oil before they drained it it was low.
I dismissed it and thought to my self the guy wiped it with his finger before showing me.

The next change, was the same, it was down more than a quart.
The next change it was still full - confusing

Over 3000 miles I can add a quart sometimes.

There are no leaks (new cement driveway and there are no drips)
Doesn't burn any that I can see, even at night with headlights behind me I don't see or smell any smoke.

For $69 the dealership will add dye, and let it run for a couple hrs. They said they can see the dye in the tail pipe if its burning or see the leaks if there are any. I may do it for piece of mind.