So THAT'S where my oil is going!
 

A few months ago I drove my wife down to Albuquerque to pick up her new to her '05 Subaru Legacy GT wagon. On the way back to Colorado Springs I was driving her Subaru (listening for strange sounds, checking performance, etc) and following her down Raton Pass, which tops out at over 7,800'. She was following a slow moving rv in the left lane for quite a while down the pass at little to no throttle. When the rv got back into the right lane I could tell just when she hit the gas again as I was greeted with a nice cloud of blue smoke out the back of my Maxima!:eek:

It only lasted a split second but it was very noticeable. Now I'm really getting concerned with the life I may or may not have left on this engine. While that was the only time I ever saw any smoke for hundreds of miles, I have to wonder if the crappy rings that have been with the car since new are getting worse. My car has always burned oil in the 7 years and 75k miles since I've owned it, using anywhere from a quart in 300 miles once but usually averaging a quart in 1,000 miles.

Strangely enough on long road trips the car doesn't burn a drop of oil. My guess is it burns most of the oil while the engine is cold and warming up but after the incident on the pass that kind of lays that theory to rest. I'm going to switch to 10W-40 high mileage Castrol GTX and hope that at least somewhat lowers the oil consumption. Heh, maybe I need to point a video camera to my exhaust to see if it helps.

Have you checked to see if your rear valve cover is leaking? I had an oil leak in the coil pack seal in the valave cover was worn out. I bought 2 new valve covers from Nissan for an 03 04 maxima for the price of just one rear valve cover 02 model year. The 03 04 fit perfect and come with pcv valves already installed. Hope this info helps you.

Off subject a little bit, I must say excellent choice in picking up an 05 LGT wagon. Rare beast indeed! Did you buy a 5-speed? It's the only year you can get it in a wagon. What's the color combo? I had an Atlantic Blue/Taupe 5-spd wagon. It was 1 of 99 in that combo.

This was my wagon:

Attachment 34754

So what's your theory on what's leaking? In my err, rather limited mind, it kinda sounds like a valve guide, like it leaks when it's cold and maybe due to the extended period at closed throttle the valve cooled back off, allowing some oil past the seal? Maybe the extended period at vacuum sucked some oil past a valve seal?

Mine's been doing that since approx. 80k. I lose about 1qt of oil every 500 miles and I now have 180k+ miles on mine. Am I concerned about the longevity of the engine? Sure. Who wouldn't be at that mileage, but I just make sure to check the oil once a week and keep it topped off. Not having a car payment since '08 speaks for itself. If and when the engine decides it's had enough is when I decide what to do. Until then...


...I still drive it like I stole it.


Majority of the time, I use high mileage 5w30 SuperTech.

Keep in mind that even new cars will smoke if on the gas hard and hitting high rpms. It is usually blow-by and unburned fuel....

They normally don't smoke blue though. They'll usually smoke a greyish-black color. It does happen once in a while though.

I am very limited on internal engine, but you look like you are on the right track in your thinking. I am still smelling oil on my engine,so my next step Is to check my oil pan and oil cooler lines. Hope you can resolve the issue. Dave Fosh

I never owned a 96 but I owned a 93 se 5apd,butyou are in the right track in. I do know it would blow the doors off of a ford lighting. I bought it used as with all my maxima's. of all of them it seemed to just have the brute force of an muslecar. The only one that equals it was my 2002 se 6spd. Icelandic white.

I would check the washer on the drain plug, thats what happened once to me the washer had a crack in it and caused a leak that I fixed for free. Be careful to be running your car with an oil leak for that long it could be a line or something you can get for less then $20 and fix it. Hopefully it's not a piston ring or something by now I would def look at it if I could because the fix might be a less then like $20.

Congrats on the new car BTW.

If you are concerned with engine wear you can always send a used oil sample over to Blackstone for analysis. I think it's about 20-30$ for the results but you'll get to speak with them and ask questions on what the results mean.

Sorry for the ridiculously late reply. Things got insane at work and then I went on vacation. In answer to your question, no, it's not a 5-speed. The wife needs an auto, she's not into the manual transmission like I am. The color combo is pearl white with black cloth interior. It was an older car than we were looking for being an '05, but the 42k miles one old lady owner all dealer serviced and records got my butt in the Maxima on a drive to ABQ!

Personally I like the car a lot, but then I did almost buy a GT sedan instead of my Max back in early '06 so I'm partial to them. The GT wagon is nice as you rarely see them. We took the GT on a 2,000 mile roadtrip last week to Phoenix and I can honestly say I'm in love with having a turbo while climbing Raton Pass and going up the mountain from Phoenix to Flagstaff.

Reading through some of the horror stories in the Legacy GT forum though I'm now pretty nervous about having turbo problems, burnt valves, head gasket failures, or any other of the major calamities that seem to haunt these cars. I'm going to play it safe and stick with 3,500 mile oil changes on Rotella T6. As it is now though the car runs like a dream, and only burnt 1/4 qt. of oil while hauling almost 1,000 pounds of cargo up and down mountain passes for 2k miles.

Back to my Maxima, my plan is to probably run this car into the ground as it's not worth selling a good running, albeit oil slurping car. It still gives good power and 22 mpg in the city for me, although it's definitely loose as a goose compared to the Subaru!

an external leak doesnt cause oil burn, just oil loss. Its probably rings as has been documented in the 3.5s since practically the day these cars hit the road. Not really a big deal, just keep it full and it will last a long long time and most likely give up the ghost to some other problem when that happens