What’s up with new cars drinking oil?

[Fleet]

Originally Posted by blazerj

My Honda Fit has ~130K miles and has never drank oil. I don't top off and have not had to since Day 1.

My
1995 Lincoln Town Car also does not burn oil. I never have to add oil in between changes.

[texdav]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

In many vehicles by the time the oil light comes on its too late, the damage has been done.

But bone dry? I really have to doubt that many failures in just the car running bone dry. Unless oil is dumped the light will come on long before.

[Zen88]

I knew someone who bought a 1985 Chevy Caprice brand new with the 4.3 throttle body injection. They were the type that didn't do much maintanence at all, and rarely changed the oil, or anything else. At least three times that I can think of, they kept driving it with the oil light flickering and ran it down to almost nothing. It began shutting off due to low oil pressure. THEN they'd add oil. That engine lasted to a little over 100,000 miles, which I still find hard to believe. I do not understand this mindset.

[southernnaturelover]

They should design the oil light to coincide with the level on the dipstick. At one quart low the oil light should come on and stay on, and at two quarts low the engine should shut down.

[studedude]

Originally Posted by HappyRider

The “past” is more like 50 years ago. No topping off between oil changes was taken for granted.

but would you have gone out and bought a used car, for a regular driver . with 120,000 on it" :ighter oils are getting to places faster and in larger quanity than they did 50 yrs ago. If rings do such a good job that the car never uses oil something isn't getting properly lubricated

[sdlife619]

I work for an auto parts store, not naming the company, but in the last few months we have been taking a lot of 5w30 and 10w30 oils off the shelve and replacing them with 0w20 and 5w20 weight oils.

Ford is one of the major automakers that have been using 5w20 oils in their cars for awhile now, therefore other automakers have made the switch too.

We are selling a ton of the lighter weight oils especially 5w20. I am not sure why, but either it's because many new cars on the road today are using the thinner oils, or that maybe newer vehicles are burning oil more than we think. Because I notice customers will come in, and purchase a single quart of 5w20 oil, not the usual 5 quarts unless obviously they're doing an oil change.

So something is definitely not right. IMO a 5w20 oil in a turbocharged engine making 300 hp is simply too thin to hold up over a course of 3-5,000 miles. Even running a full syn still doesn't help.

The trend towards high power, higher revving, smaller, direct injected turbocharged engines could be the main culprit here. Engines designed with high fuel economy in mind and not necessarily power, are stepping down to thinner oils in order to achieve this goal which is fine, but what about when the engine hits 100,000 miles? Parts start to loosen up, the internals aren't tight as they once were. And in smaller 4 banger engines, the changes are more noticeable compared to say a V6 or a V8.

I think looking up oil specs online for 5w20 full syn oils can help people on choosing the better oils that have a higher flash and boiling point to prevent oil evaporation. The thicker the oil in some cases leads to a higher flashpoint, but it all depends on the company, and oil type like if it's high mileage or even a diesel spec'd oil.