Hey everyone,

I recently bought an 04 Z AT. I did am oil change exactly 1,800 miles ago using Castrol Syntec 10w-30. I just checked the dipstick and I'm about 3/10ths above the L on the dipstick.

I have about 72,000 miles on the Z. Nothing unusual about the car that I noticed. I'm getting about 28mpg on the freeway so I'm guessing the engine is pretty healthy but I could be wrong.

Am I possibly losing oil?
Is the dipstick accurate?
Also, what level is the oil on on the dipstick when you just finished an oil change?

 

I did the oil change about 5 weeks ago. I'm very curious to find out where the oil is going. I did the oil reading after letting my car sit on a flat surface for 6 six hours.

No burnt oil smell, nothing unusual..

 

Why would you use 10w30?

 

It's in the service manual...

Also, OP, plenty of VQs burn oil. If you're burning less than 1 qt/1000 miles, I would just live with it and add oil every now and then.

 

I used 10w30 because I had am extra jug in the garage.

What's weird is when I first bought the Z, the dealership did an oil change. I changed it after 1,500 because I figured it was Dino oil. I measured the amount of oil I drained and I got exactly 5 quarts.

Should I switch back to 5w30?

 

I just said it, man...10w30 and 10w40 are in the service manual (readily available on this site). You are fine unless you live in a really really cold part of CA.

 

Thanks for the info, man.

I guess the only way to find out if I'm burning oil is to do an oil change tomorrow. The oil is about 2,000 miles old. Would a loss of half a quart show an unhealthy engine?

 

I'm on Pennzoil Platinum. After 550 miles, the dipstick reads 3mm less (went from close to H to 3mm less).

I've been driivng the Z pretty spiritedly this oil change..

Is that amount of oil loss normal?

 

I think i used the dipstick once since I bought my Z 6 years ago. It's as good as useless, in my opinion.

If you're doing your own oil changes, you'll get a better feeling of how much oil you're losing. Luckily, my car has been pretty consistent so I know when it's time to add.

 

Hey everyone,

I just got my oil analysis back from Blackstone. Everything checked out to be normal! Blackstone said the engine is healthy despite the oil consumption.

I was hoping the switch to dino oil would slow the oil consumption down but it didn't. I'm down about 1/3 of a quart in 600 miles, again. The next thing I'll try is to switch out the gaskets. Any other ideas of where the oil is going to?

 

Into the combustion chamber, past the oil control rings. There's no easy and cheap fix I'm afraid.

 

You are not giving me enough facts to work with. Track the mileage. Track how much oil you are adding.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Will the oil consumption get worse? Would it be possible for the engine to reach high mileage (160,000+) with an oil consumption problem?

I'm burning about one quart in 1,800 miles. I haven't added oil in between oil changes because I wanted to send it in for an oil analysis. Unfortunately, I had to send the oil in a little early with 2,000 miles on it because I was a little above the "L" on the dipstick.

 

If it goes strong, idles fine, just monitor oil level and it should last many thousands miles.

 

Dude you're fine. I've grown accustomed to just checking my oil every paycheck (every two weeks) and making sure I'm still within normal limits. It's not an oil change for me, more of a oil refill. These engines just suck with oil and they burn it like they were some type of oil candle.