Disappearing oil

Thunder

///Member
Okay guys 2 questions for you.

First is an easy one.
After switching from the old OEM wheels my baby had on to the 17s I saw that my consumption went up with a bang.
Can only bigger wheels cause this?

Second one still boggles my mind.
I drive my baby daily, when I went to Durban last week she wasn`t drove, not even started. When I came back tried to start it but just got a funny krrrrr sound. Thought it being the battery pushed it once or twice without luck, so I pushed it back and put the battery on charge. While it standing thought I`d check water and oil and realised that there wasn`t oil in my motor. Taking the car off charge, and putting oil in left for 5 minutes to sifle through the motor it started with no problem.
Now my question is where would the oil have gone and is it a bad thing that it disappeared?
 

Thunder

///Member
moranor@axis said:
disappearing oil is bad... when last did you check the oil?

To be honest I probably don't check it as often as I have to, but I topped it up abouit 2 or 3 weeks before it stood for 4 days. I topped up because it started sounding like a diesel with start up, which for me is a sign of either low oil or oil starting to thicken. Its between 1000 and 2000 kilos from the next inspection service as per the lights. Its been about a week now and starting from cold I'm getting that same diesel sound.
 

abmi0000

///Member
1) you alter the gearing when going with bigger wheels and not maintaining the original rolling circumference. Your car doesn't have a lot of torque, which means that you accelerate more to get it going, hence the added consumption.
2) change the oil now and monitor. Trying to save on a few kilos before changing isn't worth it. Check for smoking and try getting the compression tested. No car should use that much oil in 3-4 weeks.
 

moranor@axis

///Member
Official Advertiser
there is normally some oil consumption depending on driving conditions... but it should not be high at all... i dont buy into this 1 quart per 1000km is normal carp :yuck:

none of my cars have ever needed a topup between services... all have always been driven hard and pretty mush lived at the redline :rollsmile:

it is pretty normal to get some oil consumption if you do alot of long distance driving... short distances cause some fuel to mix with the oil so the consumed oil gets topped up a little with fuel...
 

Raybimmer

New member
1. The 17 inch rim and tyre combo weights more than the standard 15 inch combo , this takes more power to turn .( Very little )
2 . The rolling resistance will increase as the footprint on the road is larger . ( Try push a truck tyre down the road - more effort needed than pushing a car tyre )
3 . The frontal area is now larger and air resistance will increase . ( Harder to push a bus through the air at speed than push a car ) .
4 . Adding these factors up will give a small increase in fuel consumption at lower speeds . As speeds increase the consumption will increase but not proportionally .
5 . Your top speed will also drop , you may find that the car ran say 215km/h with standard 15 inch tyres on and now battles to get 205 or 210 km/h .

6 . A powerful car that is undergeared , i.e. where it runs to its top speed with the revs exceeding the normal power peak will not lose too much top end with wider tyres .
7 . A normal sedan like this will most likely not exceed the peak power revs so top speed will decrease a bit .

Oil usage depends on driving conditions and engine condition .
The noise on start up is not good so you may have a oil pressure problem where the oil must be pumped to the cylinder head and takes a while due to low pressure or large clearances .

It may be hydraulic tappets that are noisy when the oil is getting old and the additive pack is being depleted .

Always check the oil level under the same conditions , whether hot or cold . If you check it cold the level on the dipstick will be optomistic as most of the oil has drained from the higher working areas to the sump .
If you check your oil when the car is warm then the reading on the dipstick is pessimistic as there is still oil in the upper working areas that has not drained back to the sump .

No oil leaks ?
Good luck .
 

sclass

New member
moranor@axis said:
there is normally some oil consumption depending on driving conditions... but it should not be high at all... i dont buy into this 1 quart per 1000km is normal carp :yuck:

none of my cars have ever needed a topup between services... all have always been driven hard and pretty mush lived at the redline :rollsmile:

it is pretty normal to get some oil consumption if you do alot of long distance driving... short distances cause some fuel to mix with the oil so the consumed oil gets topped up a little with fuel...

...er, I need AT LEAST a pint of Magnatec per 1000kms to keep oil level at maximum...:fencelook: No leaks whatsoever, no smoke...noisy lifters though.
 
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