Oil Loss and smoke on cold start up..

[jeff4912]

I have a 2003 XLT with 85k on it. I have changed the oil and filter every 5k. When I got home the other day from a 300 mile drive, I could hear a knock under the hood. Sounded like the radiator fan hitting something but it wasn't. I check the oil dipstick and it wasn't even registering any oil. I put a quart and a half in to get it back up.

Oil pressure gauge never dropped and the idiot light for the oil never went on.

I looked around under the hood and saw no oil leak and nothing under the car either. I last changed the oil 5k miles ago in November 2008. Could the Explorer just be consuming oil?

Also, once in a while like this morning, when I start it for the first time I'll get a puff of white smoke on start up.

Any ideas or input on this one?

Thanks.

 

[lrm]

I have the same problem.

I have over 120K on my 2002 Mountaineer 4.6L V8. I change the oil every 3K, use the Motorcraft synthetic mix 5W-20 and last two changes it was down a quart, I checked it one month (1K miles) after my last oil change and it was down a quart, just took a road trip over the 4th (one month later) and it was down another quart. I have no leaks. I haven't checked compression.

The 5w-20 seems very thin, runny. Should I change to a thicker oil, 5W-30, 10W-30? I'm tempted to use cheaper oil if it's going to start sucking in a quart every 1K miles.