High & Erratic oil usage 1ltr in 80 miles. Then 1ltr in 300miles

Adingley84

The Car
The car in question is the wife's 2005 Signum, 2.2i Direct, 5spd manual gearbox, 85k miles with full service history. Owned for 3.5k miles

The problem
I'm experiencing very high oil usage, but it's also using the oil in an erratic manner. The car's typical journeys have pretty much been the same, 3 mile commute, shopping trips during the week, and longer 20mile runs at the weekend when we 'go places'.

Oil usage: 1ltr typically lasts 200-300 miles, but has twice dropped to 1ltr <100miles.
**
Things that might be useful**
Engine sounds good and pulls well
No blue smoke on start up
No blue smoke when accelerating (as far as i can tell)
Very occasionally starts and then 'dies' almost instantly. Engine then restarts absolutely fine.

Work do date
Valve stem oil seals - seemed to have no effect but the garage (who i bought it from) did them didn't replace one of the** gaskets** properly...so i took it to my regular mechanic who sorted that, but also found the breather pipe was really gunged up and cleaned that.

So essentially a couple of people have had a poke around...and the issue still exists.

So i've come to the experts to see if anyone has experienced anything similar or can share any advice!

Thanks in advance.

rushy

The oil scraper rings can fail, there is mention in VX TIS2000 of this on both the Direct and none Direct engine but this would lead to blue smoke. If you say your not burning oil then you must be leaking it. My head cracked and the oil leaked down the back of the block, but from what i'm aware its not an issue again with the "Direct" head.

Adingley84

rushy said:
The oil scraper rings can fail, there is mention in VX TIS2000 of this on both the Direct and none Direct engine but this would lead to blue smoke. If you say your not burning oil then you must be leaking it. My head cracked and the oil leaked down the back of the block, but from what i'm aware its not an issue again with the "Direct" head.

Thanks for the info Rushy.
It does smell of oil after a longer run, but i just don't know how there's none on the drive if it's leaking that much. 1ltr in 80 miles...i was surprised the thing didn't catch on fire! (over exaggerating i know)

When yours leaked, did any of it reach the ground or all burn off?
Also, do you think the blocked breather pipe is just a 'red herring'?

rushy

Some oil burnt off on the manifold, the rest pooled on top of the gearbox. The breather pipe will be a result of the little drives the wife does, give it all a good clean out and after a good run it wont happen.

Adingley84

Will take a look and post a pic if anything looks wet when it shouldn't be.

Fair enough about the breather pipe, although I'm hoping all that didn't collect in just 3k miles...

rushy

The mayo seams to be a common thing with the 2.2 and short trips, you may even notice a very small amount under the oil cap as well. I may be talking out my ass but if the breather system is all blocked, that pressure has to go somewhere, could it push oil past the valve seals? Anyone?

Adingley84

Ok I've taken a couple of pics.

Pic 1. Does appear to show some oily dampness at the top/back of the engine, anyone seen anything similar?

Pic 2. This bottle appears to be leaking a little at the clip , which is resulting in the pooling of liquid in pic 3. I'll think this is unrelated but thought worthwhile to share

rushy

Your coolant looks a healthy colour but that pooling you pointed out looks like oil, have you rubbed it in between your fingers to check, it looks the same place where oil pooled on mine, but my 2.2 is the none direct so it has a different head, and my type head was prone to cracking. Have you checked all around the Cam cover seal?

5M1THY

mine leaks a fair amount from the back of the rocker cover but I drive a lot so it gets burnt off quickly.. I also don't have a direct 2.2.
I have seen other cars use oil and throw up warning lights due to blocked breathers quite possibly due to pressure build up as said it's got to go somewhere..

Adingley84

Haven't had any warning lights the whole time other than if oil gets too low.

Could the blocked breather pipe have caused something to damage permanently? We've already had the rocker cover gasket replaced at the same time as unblocking the breather pipe

Adingley84

Any more thoughts on this one?

So far a cracked head is looking a possibility as the gasket for the rocker cover has already been replaced and oil still be used/leaked

Thanks

5M1THY

Have you checked the actual rocker cover? mines plastic and has a small crack which I think has got worse and Is now leaking quite a bit..
A cracked head is possible but I wouldn't change anything until your sure

rushy

You will have the plastic cover as well with it being a YH. As far as im aware the Z22yh head is much better than the SE and not prone to cracking. Also could the cam cover have been over tightened, it can be just as bad as under tightening.

Adingley84

Thanks for the replies guys. A couple of things to investigate for sure.

The last ltr was going to last 300 miles (if I let it continue to run down at the same rate) which is bearable, so may be a few weeks until it gets looked at.

Whatever the result, I'll post back up here

corsaZ22se

have you checked front and rear crank seals? also around timing chain cover for oil leaks? another good place to check would be the spark plugs to see if you are burning oil. 1L in 1000miles would be high so what you have is excessive. when breather was cleaned did you have the cam cover flushed as they block up and are part of the breather.

Adingley84

corsaZ22se said:
1L in 1000miles would be high so what you have is excessive.

Yeah Its way too high!

My car is a Subaru Forester 2.5XT and uses a max of 0.5l in 10k miles. At 97k miles the only thing I've had to replace are the drop links. (Other than brakes/tyres). Absolutely bulletproof considering how I drive it!

vpm

That amount of gunk in the breather will cause oil leak problems. You need to check every where the breather goes, cleaning out as you go including the rocker cover, throttle body (if it goes there) and the air box, if there is a blockage in the breather the gasses won't be able recirculate so the build up of gasses will look for a gasket to blow and obviously the weakest blows first i.e. rocker, sump, timing cover etc and when the gasket blows you get an oil leak, some times a hefty one without a puddle on the floor. Best thing is clean all the breathers, then flush engine oil, then oil and filter change. you should also replace any leaking gaskets.

Stephen82

I'm looking for the same answer,. Did the previous post solve the problem?

Graham2704

I had an oil leak the other week loosing oil from somewhere turned out to be a lair line crack in the Oil filter cap at the top

Stephen82

I have stripped it all down, cleaned what I could,. Ran throttle body cleaner,. It seems to idle better now. Just put a ltr of oil in,. See how long it last.. It has a bad flat spot at 5,000rpm for about 400rpm.. Also does the z22yh not have a limited? It just holds at 6,500rpm