Hey friends.
2012 Hyundai Accent hatchback, 115k miles.
My car has always had slow oil loss. I typically need to put 2 quarts in between oil changes. Recently it’s increased to 4. But there’s not a drop of oil where I park, so I figure it’s burning instead of leaking.
So I scheduled an appointment with the dealership to have that figured out. They quoted me a diagnostic fee as normal.
When I got there, the service writer told me all they can do is a “top engine clean for about $500 where they take it all apart, soak everything, clean it real good, remove the carbon, and see if that helps. But it usually doesn’t, which means you’ll need a whole new engine.”
To clarify I asked if all the gaskets and seals get replaced during that process. He came back with “well no because they don’t actually take the engine apart, they just clean it real good from the outside.”
I’ve had problems with this dealership and their communication before, so I want some outside opinions. Is this place an absolute joke, or am I missing something here?
For the curious, I told the dealership I’m not interested in that.
Mechanic here. First of all before you try anything. What oil are you putting in the car? I had a Subaru with bad oil consumption that almost completely stopped when I switched from 5w30 mobil 1 to 5w40 Rotella t6. It won’t hurt anything to try. I’ve done this a few times with older cars and the consumption usually decreases significantly. Some oil brands evaporate a lot easier than others and I have owned many old shitboxes that consumed oil.
Even in my current dodge ram, I was getting some oil consumption with 5w20 while towing my camper every weekend, so I switched to 5w40 and it has stopped.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s anything significantly wrong with the engine. Usually with age the tolerances are a little bit larger and a heavier oil helps to first of all stop the wear and also take up those slightly larger clearances. The heavier oil can also resist vaporizing over time.