Q: Oil level and effects

asked by on September 01, 2016

Took my CRV in for a service and the oil life on the dash said 10% life and the low oil light never came on. Was 9000 km since the last oil change, which is a bit longer than usual for me. Even so, the mechanic called and said the oil was low and it has caused a bit of oil burning - though he couldn't say how much. He's doing an engine flush to try to rectify the situation. I've never heard of having low (but not too low) oil causing oil burning. Is this true? What do you think the impact will be on my engine? Thanks.

My car has 110000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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When the oil life says 10% life left, this has to do with how long it has been since the last time you changed the oil was. This does not indicate a low oil level in the motor. As for the oil burning, this is not a result of the oil being low. It is possible that the reason for it being low was that it was burning oil, however oil being low will not on its own cause it to burn oil. I would suggest having an expert from YourMechanic come to your home to run a series of tests on your vehicle now that the oil is fresh to determine if it is actually burning oil at this point. If it is, this could point to a larger more critical issue.

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