2011 V6 Burns Oil

[tlavoie87]

Originally Posted by fhrex

I have a full stock LLT with 65K miles. No issues whatsoever. Use GM Dexos and change oil every 4K miles. No oil usage. Dexos has now been changed from synthetic blend to full synthetic, and will start to change oil at 5K intervals.

95K supercharged always used full synthetic every 3k does not burn oil.. i would not recommend going the 5k the DIC oil percentage used to be set to every 5k and then they changed the programming to every 3k because of the failing timing belts so FHREX stick to the 4K

[W4rMach1ne]

I Did my own oil change today. Mobil 1 Full syn 5qt and 1qt Lucas pure synthetic oil stabilizer. It looks at sometime my oil did leak somewhere on bottom of engine.

[burnn1]

Update:
124k miles
has continued to burn oil - much worse on a hot day in the mountains
CEL comes on every 3 months or so and I can knock it down with Cataclean
This stopped working ~3 months ago
Dealer says the only solution is to replace that cat at $1200+
Suggestions?

[tlavoie87]

doing the cat yourself be about a quarter of that price

[lbls1]

I know this is an old topic but a couple of things:

Oil consumption can be caused by several factors, including the original factory build. In the past it was common to have some GM engines "taste a little oil" right out of the factory. It would've been beneficial to have caught the oil consumption early with an oil economy test, to see if the oil is breaking down prematurely.

In these modern times, a lot of people are starting to believe that you should leave oil in the crankcase for 8k, or 9k miles, or until a sensor tells you to change the oil. Just realize that if the sensor is telling you to change the oil, and lets say you ignore it for another 1k miles, that damage has already been committed to the engine. Adding oil to a weakened or thin oil body is just keeping you from running out of oil, and not protecting the engine like oil is supposed to.

The old adage still remains true that it is far better to change oil sooner than later. Changing oil at 3k miles is more beneficial because you are ridding the engine of the contaminants that's been deposited in the oil body. Leaving oil in the crankcase longer just means that you have the particles and contaminants circulating within the engine and through internal moving parts longer, which causes more wear (the parts that require lubrication).

If you are at a point where your mileage is high and the engine is burning oil, then the things you should do to help the situation is to monitor for leaks (you would be surprised that there are leaks that you may not be seeing), change the oil in shorter intervals (nothing wrong with 2k mile intervals), and use a high quality, proven brand of oil. You can live with oil consumption, but you want to manage it and not allow the engine to get worse in consumption (until you are ready to either rebuild the engine or replace the engine or car).

I have had years of experience with oil using, leaking GM engines, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have a bad engine or car if it uses some oil. You should not, however, be at a point where you are adding oil everytime you use your car; You are defeating the purpose of having a reliable automobile if you allow this to continue.