I ran over something on the freeway and took my car for a check up, i was told that i had an oil leak although there were 2 possible places, i had the oil pan re sealed as well as a new head gasket placed (& a few other things) , now my car appears to be losing 1 qt per 1000 miles, i cannot see any oilspots (parked it in the same place every day + placed paper underneath) cannot see any smoke in the exhaust, no funny smells and everything else seems fine, The Mazda garage i went too told me that my model usually burned upto 1 qt per 1000 miles, which seemed strange as i had no leaks period for the first 150,000 miles. i would love some possible ideas to try and solve this problem. Thanks
You might clear up some of this story. It reads as a head gasket possibly being replaced because of something you ran over.
Any overheating, oil light on, etc, etc.?
You’re saying the engine used no oil before what incident; the head gasket replacement, running over something, etc.?
Are you in the habit of raising the hood on a very regular basis and checking the oil level or are you relying on the oil level to remain the same between oil changes?
Significant oil consumption beginning after a head is removed is not unusual. First check for kinked or plugged vents and if no problem is found you may have to live with it.
thank you, to answer your questions
a while after i had had the running over issue, the engine started to make a noise, at that point i took it into the garage where it was found to be 3 qts short from i believe a 4 qt oil level.
Prior to this issue i had never known any oil loss and had never checked the oil inbetween the regular 3,500 mile changes.
“Prior to this issue i had never known any oil loss and had never checked the oil in between the regular 3,500 mile changes.”
I don’t want to seem impertinent, but if you were never in the habit of checking the dipstick in between 3,500 mile oil changes, how would you know that the car did not previously use any oil between changes?
Did you expect your mechanic to precisely measure the amount of oil that he drained when he changed the oil?
A few mechanics might carefully meter the amount of oil that they drain from your crankcase, but–trust me–that practice would be very rare, and that is one of the many reasons why your Owner’s Manual likely states that you should check the oil level every time that you fill the gas tank. Yes, that type of owner diligence may sound ridiculous, but so is never checking the oil level during a 3,500 mile interval. A diligent car owner should lift the hood and do fluid checks at least every few weeks.
In reality, this engine could have been “consuming” oil for quite some time prior to the head gasket change.
It is very tempting to blame the mechanic who changed your head gasket, but this convenient blame game may not be valid.
I’m sorry, but in my opinion, folks who never bother to lift the hood periodically in order to check their fluids have little valid reason to gripe over an issue with oil consumption after a mechanic performs repairs on the car–especially on an engine that has already been in service for 150k miles.
Also–regarding those 3,500 mile oil changes–How many months did it usually take you to accumulate 3,500 miles?
If I seem overly aggressive in my questioning, that is because of the paucity of information that you have provided so far. More detail is needed!