Q: Oil consumption. Burning oil. Oil light turns up on idle.
Since I bought my car I noticed that it consumes a lot of oil. The last owner used 10/30w semi synthetic oil. When I have the oil changed the seller told me to use 15/40w oil to strip the oil consumption. I get an oil change about every 6 months. Recently when I drive the car for 15 minutes, when I stop at a red light at idle, the oil light turns up, and immediately turns off when I press the gas pedal. This happens when I'm in D drive, R drive. I checked the PCV valve, it was so sludged, so I cleaned it with carbon cleaner. Nothing happened and the problem was still the same. I haven't changed the PCV valve yet because I cannot find it here on my country. A mechanic told me that maybe the valve seal are worn, or even the piston rings are worn too. My idea is to change the PCV valve and then check if that solves the problem, but I would like to know if it's worth dealing with in case that isn't the solution.
My car has 94000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.
Hi there, thanks for writing in. The valve stem seals are the most common cause of this on your engine. When they fail, it requires that the cylinder heads be removed and rebuilt to fix it. The piston rings can also cause this but they are not as common. Unfortunately there is not anything, not even heavier oil that will fix this. You will need to have the heads rebuilt.
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