My Kia using a quart of oil a month is that good or bad 128,000 miles
Oil usage is measured by miles not time.
A quart per 1000-1200 miles is probably considered acceptable by the manufacturer.
But spending the $100-150 on a diagnosis would be wise.
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Depends on how many miles you drive a month. My Corolla has 128k and consumes about a quart in 1,700 miles, which I find acceptable.
“Good” or “bad” is relative to the car’s owner. Some folks get freaked out by the engine burning any oil at all. Others don’t mind keeping the oil topped off. Of course, some people struggle to check the oil at all …
Personally, I wouldn’t worry about burning a quart per month. The price to remove the engine disassemble it, and “fix” the problem would probably exceed the value of the car.
Combined with a little personal effort, you can buy a lot of oil and keep this car running yourself. Drive on.
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+1
Rather than assuming that we know how many miles he drives in one month, the OP needs to state how many miles he typically drives before he has to add a quart of oil.
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Your Kia has the Theta II engine. There is a class action lawsuit about them.
Between Hyundai and Kia, there are plenty of cars with this engine, including our Sonata that is burning around 1 qt per 400 miles. There is a knock sensor update, make sure you have done that through the dealer, keep the oil topped off and eventually when your engine seizes, hope that Kia will honor the class action lawsuit and replace the engine. You will need your oil change receipts too.
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I just did a search for kia optima burning oil and this came up. Just changed my 2016 optima and it only returned 4.25 qts and minor in the filter/drain pan over 1379 miles for 5.25 months. The change before only had 4 qts for 1839 miles and 5 months and I thought the Dorman oil drain plug washer was too loose and I lost some there cause the skirt was “wet”. This time the skirt was fine but I still didn’t get near 5 qts out. So it seems mine is burning some oil (and I don’t like it). Only 1 camry that I had at 188K miles and 3K change did it lose 0.5 qts. I normally change oil at 2 to 3K intervals for synthetic. For the kia, the manual says dino but dealer puts in blend. I use full synthetic. I hate when a car burns oil. Oh well, wife loves the car and kias so…
I am just going to drive it til it quits
Now that you know, get a few quarts of the right oil, check it frequently, and keep it topped up. That way you won’t have more engine damage due to the wrong or not enough oil.
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You’re upset about using a quart of oil in 1800 miles? Don’t be. That’s actually pretty good. Anyway, Kia/Hyundai considers a quart in 1000 miles acceptable. I would suggest that you check the oil level between changes. If you check it once a month, based on the amount of driving you do, you’ll be able to top it off and minimize future issues.
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While I don’t think oil burning is usually tied to the defect, 2011-2014 models have a warranty extension on the engine for catastrophic failure.
Whatever you guys do, make sure you have gotten the knock sensor recall/update done because Hyundai/Kia is denying warranty if the update was not done. Also make sure when the engine fails, there is enough oil in it.
Note to myself, don’t buy Kia/Hyundai again at least until you are sure they have gotten their **** together.
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