Burning Oil!??!

So I purchasing my 2005 Legacy GT at 120k a few months ago. I just hit 123k and I noticed that my car was running a little rough. It would accelerate a little sluggish and would idle rough. I went to check the oil and noticed that my dip stick was bone dry, I put 1-2 qts in and it was still dry except the tip of the dip stick. I did a oil change yesterday with Rotella T6 5w-40 and a factory oil filter. It seemed like the oil I put in was the only oil that was in the engine. Seems fine now but i'm worried it could be something a bit more serious. The only mod I have done to my car is wheels and a stage 1 tune from the cobb accessport v1. There are no visible oil leaks or traces of oil when I did the oil change. The repairs I know of are that the timing belt was done before I bought it and it looks like the turbo was replaced (shiner than the rest of the engine) but no paperwork to back that. Any ideas on where my oil is going? Where do start looking?

Piston rings are worn. Very typical with these cars. My car was burning close to a quart of oil every 700ish miles. When my head gasket blew, this gave me the opportunity to pull the motor and replace the pistons/rings. I now only go through maybe a quart of oil between changes (5k).

 

Just make it a weekly thing to do to check the levels.

Yikes, that's no good. How much does a repair like that cost and a dealer diagnostic work it? They said $90 to take a look

 

I was also looking into getting a used car warranty to help pay for some repairs if it's something serious. Anyone have any suggestions or comments about that?

 

 

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Yikes, that's no good. How much does a repair like that cost and a dealer diagnostic work it? They said $90 to take a look

 

I was also looking into getting a used car warranty to help pay for some repairs if it's something serious. Anyone have any suggestions or comments about that?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Depends on what's wrong, but, to permanently repair the problem, you'll need new pistons and rings, which requires tearing the whole engine down. Looking at about 5k or more.

If you're going to have the dealership look at it, make sure they do a compression test. That will give you some sort of idea if your lossing oil from the piston rings.

F1GT how long did you go on worn rings before the head gasket went?

 

I'm having the same issue, about one quart ever 700-1000miles. Compression was a bit lower but consistent across all cylinders. I've been suspecting it's my rings for a while just don't really have an idea of how long it will last. I add oil every week or two depending on mileage but otherwise it seems fine.

I started noticing oil consumption around 80k miles, then it slowly got worse. Around the 100k mark I was at 1 quart every 2 weeks. At 120k miles the Head Gasket blew.

 

Went over 20k miles before pulling the motor.

I have the same issue. Is there any ways I can prevent the rings from being worn any worse? My dip stick was bone dry when I got it too so that wasn't helping any.

 

 

Now I really need to let the car warm up before driving. Rarely do that ever

Does your oil get dirty faster with worn rings? I noticed my oil gets dirty very fast and my car burns oil like a champ (about a quart per 1000 miles at 113k).