• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

So...this is bad?

P

PurpleMystique

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Nov 16, 2004
Messages
2,602
Location
Greater Des Moines Area
My car's been burning oil. I started it up today to let it warm up for a couple minutes before checking it to make sure it wasn't too low. After it had been running for about 2 or three minutes I gave it a couple revs by hand at the throttle body. I could see smoke coming out the back of the car and I could smell the burning oil. Then I saw some liquid. At first I figured it was just moisture in the exhaust but I'm not so sure, there seemed to be quite a bit of it.
The dipstick level:
IMG_3738.jpg



After a few revs:
IMG_3740.jpg



Still dripping:
IMG_3742.jpg



Here's what was on the ground:
IMG_3744.jpg



Here's my back bumper a week after cleaning it:
IMG_3746.jpg



And the exhaust tips:
IMG_3747.jpg
 
What does the liquid smell like? If it smells like oil, then thats bad. When you say you're burning oil, you're really burning oil!! :eek:
 
all duratecs burn oil, I know people who go through a quart between changes, my brother's Mazda6 goes through a quart between changes, and it only has 40K miles on it.

was the engine completely cold when you did this "test" because when hot air hits cold metal it condenses and water will come out of the exhaust, mixing with the left over carbon on the inside of the exhaust piping which looks like unburnt oil, if unburnt oil is seriously making it out your exhaust tips, you have HUGE problems.
 
Whenever you start up water will come out of the exhaust. Remember its an average of 1 gallon of water per tank of gas driven will come out of your tailpipes.

Now exhaust tips will be black all tips become black. Now look for oil leaks.

I mean jack the car up and look around the heads and oil pan. Mostly the back head up near the headers/manifolds.

Like alias said oil does get burned while driving, especially if you rev your car often.

.50-.75 quart per oil lost in between oil changes is normal.

If you go over 1.5+ then you have an oil problem.
 
The liquid probably was water, but I am burning oil. I put in synthetic about 3000 miles ago and I had to replace 3 quarts about 500 miles ago...bad. There aren't any leaks that I can see. I've been all over the engine bay and under the car, nothing's out of place. I need to get the compression checked to see if it's the rings. If so, I'm not sure what to do. I really don't have the funds for a 3.0 right now, since I'd want to do headers and a new clutch at the same time, I'm probably looking at around $2000. If it's not piston rings, what would it be?
 
And how could I diagnose that? Within the last week I've noticed the engine making a slightly different noise when it's cold, maybe like a very faint fast ticking. The car only has 83,000 miles on it, I wouldn't expect these problems...
 
Blue smoke out the tail. Fornetti on the boards just picked up a 00 with 83k on it with a spun bearing. Mileage means nothing.
 
Seems like a lot of water / liquid for one start up even if it sat there for a while.

I have no black or anything on the inside of my tail pipes.
 
What weight and type of oil do you use? If you're using synthetic I'd definitely switch to a conventional oil. Try putting in a slightly heavier weight next time and it might slow down the burn/leak.

Either way, that's not normal. I don't think any oil burning is normal unless you're taking regular trips up to the redline. Even so, oil burned should be less than a half a quart.
 
PurpleMystique said:
And how could I diagnose that? Within the last week I've noticed the engine making a slightly different noise when it's cold, maybe like a very faint fast ticking. The car only has 83,000 miles on it, I wouldn't expect these problems...
Click to expand...


first do a compression test. then if you have one or more cylinders that have low compression do a cylinder leakdown test (this requires an air compressor). the leakdown test will tell you exactly where the compression is being lost. example: if you hear air coming from the oil filler neck then you have bad rings on the cylinder. if you hear air coming from the intake or exhaust then you have valves that arent sealing properly. air coming from the next cylinder is a bad headgasket or warped head. finally air coming from the coolant resevoir is a bad headgasket.

but do the compression test first to verify your compression. only do the leakdown test if you have low compression on 1 or more cylinders.




you could also be sucking oil in through the PCV valve. check and see if there is oil in the PCV valve hoses going into the intake manifold.
 
AliasJerk said:
all duratecs burn oil, I know people who go through a quart between changes, my brother's Mazda6 goes through a quart between changes, and it only has 40K miles on it.
Click to expand...

well then all the people you konw and your brother have something wrong with their car.

it is NOT normal for a duratec to burn oil.


stop with this idiocy already...please!

EDIT: and i'm not even sure i agree with harrry on the half a quart thing being normal...though i have no way to prove it. still, if it does burn anything it should not be noticeable on the dipstick...never was with mine. and yeah i revved it quite often :laugh:
 
Last edited:
I'm using 5w30 Castrol Syntec full synthetic. I'm planning going back to regular oil, since I can't afford to keep replacing burning synthetic. I also added some additive that's supposed to help increase compression and reduce burnoff but I haven't seen any improvements.

I went for a drive tonight and it felt like there was very little power from 4500rpm+. The low end was definitely there, but it didn't do much on the way up to the top. This would indicate valve problems, right?
 
TGO said:
well then all the people you konw and your brother have something wrong with their car.

it is NOT normal for a durated to burn that much oil.


stop with this idiocy already...please!
Click to expand...

Agreed. G/f's 6S has 20k and doesn't burn a drop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top