Hi guys, I have a question about engine oil level. I have a 99 Infiniti I30 with 120k miles on it.

The mileage hit 3K after a nearly 1000 miles drive this weekend since the last oil change. When I almost got back to Dallas, the engine oil light went up, and i checked the engine oil level, it's very very low. I added 2 quart's engine oil, it's still very low.

Is there a serious oil leak? But I didn't see a drop of oil from the oil pan, and emission doesn't have black smoke(there is no oil burned), Where has these engine oil gone? and has the driving with engine oil low caused damage to the engine? What should I do now? I will drive 800 miles back to Georgia this weekend.

Your suggestion is highly appreciated!!!

 

It's obviously leaking out or burning up - it doesn't just vanish.

If you can't figure it out and get it fixed prior to your trip, you need to take some oil with you on your trip and check it periodically.

 

can the car survive 800 miles drive, if I bring some engine oil with me?

 

but how fast engine oil is gone, normally ?

 

time for detective work. If you don't see the leak from the bottom or anywhere else check IM gaskets and rubber O ring tube seals

 

should I take it to a mechanic or dealer? not sure if they will give me thousand dollar bill.

I saw the knock sensor is covered by oil, but I'm not sure that will cause the leaking very fast.

 

knock sensor in oil?

one of the vets might know if its just a gasket but i'm not sure.... if it is a gasket DIY. try to see if you can see where it is leaking from while its running

 

There shouldn't be any oil in the valley at all. Are you sure you're looking at the KS? That's generally not an area where one happens to peek in to check the oil level...

Regular shop or dealer is up to you. No one will know how much it'll cost until you actually diagnose the issue...

Normally, you shouldn't lose much, if any oil between changes.

Depends on how fast you're losing it. I hope you didn't keep driving with the oil light on, once it comes on you've already pretty much guaranteed engine damage. You say you added 2 quarts but it's still low, well exactly how low was it? You neglected to mention specifics.

Black smoke does not mean oil is burning, it means you're over-fueling.

How would we know if there's a serious oil leak or not? We're not there with your car, YOU are. You need to actually take a look.

Yes, if you completely neglected to turn the engine off once the low oil pressure light came on, then you likely damaged the engine. This is common sense to kill the engine if there's an oil pressure problem.

Why would you limit the scope of your investigation to the oil pan? There are a lot more places than just the oil pan that oil can leak from... Is there no oil staining anywhere visible? Have you lifted the car up and gotten underneath it to see? Are there no traces of oil left on the ground when you park?

Have you filled it completely back up and ran it to check for any signs of engine damage, or oil leaks? Have you checked the muffler tip for any oil residue?

So the oil level was perfectly fine before this trip? You did check the oil level before taking a trip of that length...correct? If not, then who knows how long it took to use up that much oil.

 

Thank you, pmohr!

I'm sorry, I think I messed it up with campshaft position sensor, which is very easily to be seen.



I didn't check it before the trip, I didn't know it will leak, because I never saw a single oil drop on the ground before.



I'll take a look today and come back with more details and pictures

When I was exiting high way, the oil light went up, then I stopped the car after the ramp. However, I heard sharp click before the light went up and drove for about 100 miles. I thought that was from drive belt. After I filled 2 quarts oil, the sharp click was gone.

thanks for these suggestions, I'll check it.

I didn't check it before taking the trip. so stupid I am

 

The CPS has an o-ring that tends to leak, it just needs to be replaced.

By 'sharp click' did it sound like this?

 

kind of, sharper than this. but after 2 quarts oil, it's gone.
Actually I did here this sound from time to time, but not as bad as in the video.
By the way, was guy in the video you?

 

No, that's not my video.

If the noise went away when you added oil, it could've just been the chain tensioner, who knows.

 

OMG, I just googled rod knock, it is a serious problem
I'm going to record some sound clips and put it here this evening. Hope it's not rod know

 

... if its gone it was probably just from low oil pressure or lack of oil. But i guess a clip can't hurt

 

BIG SMILEY HAPPY FACE. (to this thread, if you read all of it you should know why...)

Anyway:
My grandpa roll's in a '98 I30. Burns oil like no other, but its not black smoke. That's when you are over fueling or burning carbon deposits. Haha.
Burning oil sometimes is colorless. Just stinks.
Have a friend drive behind you and ask him/her if your car smells like ca-ca, or pours out a small-large amount of blueish-grey smoke.
If you don't have any friends, find a drifter who likes to sniff paint.

 

Hi guys, I just took a video and several pictures.
The video is to show the engine noise, and the pictures are about oil pan and cramp shaft position sensor. Please take a look, any suggestion is appreciated



pictures
oil pan:
http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...48880609179154

http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...48905639591874

cramp shaft position sensor
http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...48923377629282

 

Hi pmohr, I got underneath the car and didn't see oil leak. the only part that has oil is beside the oil filter, I have a picture in my last post. and I also opened the hood, took a close look, there is no oil except the CPS, also see the picture above. Thanks!

 

You never told us whether there was oil residue in the muffle tip or not... did you check that? It almost sounds like that's your timing chain clacking cuz it was louder when you were right above the t-chain cover than it was when you were aiming the camera at other parts.

 

I just checked the muffle tip, it looks like this:

There is liquid drop there, I though it was oil, but when touch with finger, I found it's actually water, covered by black dust. And there are tiny "crystal"(the white dots in the picture below)
http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...63221687355762

I took another picture from underneath again of the drive belts, was the sound from a bad belt?
http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...63213923378322


And the following picture shows how dark the engine oil is now
http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...63231779601298

thanks!

 

oil pan leak or oil pressure switch leak common problem on 4th gen maximas and i 30's

 

oil pressure switch? I have a picture here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/arrogan/...48880609179154

you mean this one?

 

if u are a high RMP kinda guy that is it when u run hi rpm ur car burns oil.

 

The car technically shouldn't consume measurable amount of oil between oil changes. If it is then there is something "wrong" however the mere fact that it's consuming oil does not mean that some catastrophic event is imminent. Most older cars consume some amount of oil. The amount you're describing, if your description is accurate, is pretty excessive, but still it doesn't mean that your engine is about to fail. You can be sure though that if you run the car too low on oil too often and for too long you will cause damage to the engine, possibly premature engine failure even which is obviously a bad thing.

So the thing to do is make sure it's at the appropriate level as often as necessary to ensure that it never drops down below that level. If you can't fix it you need to monitor it vigilantly, or you run the risk of bad things happening. Carry a gallon of oil, a rag, and a funnel with you at all times is what I'd do until you can nail down the problem and get it fixed (if it's even worth fixing, depends upon the nature of the problem).

 

I dont think that that much oil would leak though the camshaft sensor. It looks pretty small to me.

i could see though your oil sending unit leaking though especially with all that oil on the harness........................ but even then i think you would have a puddle of oil each time you park to consume that much oil.

 

Thanks for these advices. some updates.
I brought my car to goodyear this morning. They lifted it up and had a visual check, didn't find any leak. Only the main seal and the pictures I showed have very small leak. They told me, for these old cars, it's quite a normal thing and shouldn't consume too much oil. So basically, they gave me the similar advices as you gave here.

I think I drove nearly 2k miles in the last two weekends. And the rpm was quite high, above 3k. Maybe the high rpm consumes oil very fast and resulted in a very low engine oil level.

I will do the auto-rx people recommended here after I drive back to Atl, if the car should survive.

 

I took a look when they lifted up the car, it's very clean everywhere except the place around engine oil filter as in the picture

 

does this noise indicate some t-chain problem? thanks

 

High RPMs WILL NOT consume more engine oil under normal circumstances. especially nothing near 2 quarts....

 

mechanics in goodyear told me that, a old car like this usually looses a quart oil in 3k, so I figure that plus hing RPM in 2 long drive, it might consume 2 quart oil.
thanks

 

Well mechanics at good year are either full of or

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please... [rant] from my understanding and experience with cars the only reason why you would ever lose that much oil regardless if you drive from Boston to vegas 3 times is if there is a leak in your system. the leak could be internal or external. The goodyear guys may have been trying to help you out because since you haven't found much of an external leak they probably figured that it wouldn't be worth it for them to charge you $500 plus to change a few O rings in your valve cover/ spark plug whole thing (forget what its called) or whatever the issue is.

Old cars probably lose oil for the above reasons because the average person never changes gaskets/plug rings etc or any sensors that may cause small or notable leaks......


So in short this is not normal for your car.... Like we've been saying....[/rant]

 

I'm waiting for someone else to pitch in, apparently everyone on this thread keeps ignoring my comments in regard to your T-Chain so perhaps I may be wrong, you might wanna pray I'm wrong..

 

It's not that old of a car. Also, the VQ isn't an oil burner (VQ30, that is) like many other engines with high miles are. No, it should never consume 2 quarts of oil between changes if it's mechanically sound. That or it's a rotary

 

Could just be a dead tensioner. Ever changed it?

 

LOL at rotary

 

In their defense, at least they burn oil by design.

 

I thought they never reached high miles and got a mandatory engine rebuild every 60k ...

 

Some of the mechanics in Goodyear just trying to make money not solve your problem. What kind of test can they do to narrow down the cause? There are a lot of gaskets in the engine(just did some home work), are they going to change them all?

even the oil level is more serious, I'm more concerned with and annoyed by the engine noise.

 

Could it because there is space between the piston and the wall, and the oil leak from there? The engine noise may also be due to the frictions there?

But I didn't see blue smoke at all, even in the morning when I first start the engine. And I checked the trany oil, it's still pink. really confused where these engine oil gone

 

the previous owner bought the car at 60k from dealer, and he said the only thing he replaced is o2 sensor, and he only did transmission oil change once in 60K !
so I'm sure the tensioner is not replaced yet.

really got clueless about the leak and engine noises

 

Yep, it's there in the scheduled maintenance. At least it should be if you drive a turbo'd rotary.

Seriously though, there are many common places for oil leaks, but even if you don't find a leak I wouldn't get too concerned. Just pour in a quart every couple thousand miles and that's all.

The oil pressure switch definitely can leak oil, it's attached to the oil pan right under the filter. Rear main seals sometimes, crank position sensor and cam position sensor o-rings, and the oil pan gasket itself can all develop leaks.

Dave