c5runs

my sister has an '01 that she bought a couple of months ago. i did an oil change when we first got it with mobil 1 5w30. she's driven about 2000 miles now and the low oil light came on. i did a search and it seems that oil consumption is normal on '01-02 C5s so i added roughly 1 qt. to fill it back up.

besides adding oil every 2,000 miles or so, can i minimize the oil consumption by using heavier weight oil? will 10w40 be safe for the engine? replacing the rings on the pistons isn't an option right now. any suggestions? thanks.

Leo the Lion

1 qt low shouldn't have triggered the low oil light. Maybe you didn't fill it up to the prescribed level when you did the oil change. Did you add 6.5 to 7 qts of oil. Anyway, stay with Mobil 1 5w30, thicker oil won't make a difference if it is a oil burner. Does your sister drive the car in low gears at high rpm? GM says this is why most of 01's burn oil. However they did do many re-ring jobs to correct oil comsuption problems.
Good luck with this, I to live with the constant use of oil over a couple thousand miles.
Leo

Wicked Weasel

the oil consumption was on early built 01s. I had it and was going through 1+ quarts every 800 miles. I had the car rering and now I dont burn any oil.

I would not go with a heavier oil for general use. If you dont have a warranty for the rering then I would just watch the oil level.

yellow01

Not sure I agree... my '01 would always alarm at ~ 1Qt low. It probably varies a bit.


I wouldn't change oil. Live with it, or try to pursue a rering through the dealer, assuming you are ok with them pulling it apart.

I would live with it and do the occaisional decarb routine.

My '01 sucked oil like mad and started pinging as a result. I was never comfortable with any of the local dealers here pulling out the bottom end so just lived with it...

dunbindun(tov)

I would take the VIN to your local dealer to pull up a maintenance history. That may give you clues. I would also visually monitor the oil levels. I had problems with the oil level sensor on my 01 Tahoe, so that could be a problem too.

DBD

djengr

Using different weight oil won't help.

chuckster

My personal opinion on the Oil consumption issue is this..

I currently have 36,000 miles on my 2000..
Between 12,000 and about 25000 miles my car drank about 1 quart every 1000-2000 miles..

After 25000 miles, it burns little or no oil between changes..

they talk about ring flutter, I think it has to do more with break in. I hear the rings on the vette are extremely hard. Oil consumption seems tobe more of an issue with the cars that are driven like Cadillac's

My car is not a daily driver and that is what took so long..

I say if the you drive the **** out of the engine and do some regular WOT runs.. You'll eventually see a difference.. Just my humble opinion..

c5runs

i hope we have the same luck as you. i think her car has about 19,000 miles right now. the first owner that we bought it from never mentioned anything about oil consumption when we asked if there were any problems with the car. i should have did better research and stick with the '02 and new models.

when i did the oil change i added 6.5 qts, can i safely add 7qts on the next one when it's due? thanks.

Norris

I have a 2001 coupe A4 that was built in November/December 2000 and it has never consumed oil between changes. It is not a daily driver, however when ever I drive it, it is driven hard most of the time.

Wicked Weasel

I think it is hit or miss. I did read that the oil consumption hit the MN6 and MN12 more because those people hold the revs a lot longer than A4 people.

VetteDrmr

Yep, no problem. GM even recommends overfilling one qt. when racing, so driving on the street is no problem.

I've got 140K+ miles on my baby, and she uses less than 1 qt. between changes (made when oil life monitor gets to 0%).

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

C5forFun

I have an '01 A4 with 80,000 on it now and it never uses a drop of oil. However my '00 SS M6 has 52,000 and uses a quart between changes.

ndirishr1

My 01 used 1 qt every 800 mi. I had it reringed. Solved the problem.

Is it a 6 speed? Word was that the 01's had a ring flutter problem and blew oil which was most pronounced at about 3500 rpm under light load. Thus 6 speeds tended to show the problems while the A4's might not show it due to the shift points and normal driving pattern differnces.

I found out about it similar to you when I changed oil and soon after the low oil light came on. I was 2 qts down and wondering if I counted wrong at the oil change. I changed it again and kept careful track and established it was using 1 every 800.

Do a search of the archives and you will find a lot of info and the GM service bulletins.

I've seen some oil suggestions too and some have better usage numbers than Mobil 1 but do the search because I don't recall the specifics.

Good luck!

allmee

My 01 6spd has 37000 and I go through about a qt in 2000 miles. I bought the car in Oct of 04 with 10300 on the odo. I cant say how the previous owners drove my car, I am the 3rd. I can say this though, my tach needle says hi to the redline quite a bit Remember, we do go through some oil due to the PCV issue. I would make an educated guess and say I suck out 8 ounces in an oil change- 2000 miles.

Since I said that, I am going to keep track of how much oil I drain out of my 2 catch cans to see just how much gets pulled of the system in comparison with mileage! I am curious.