Mazdas Run Out of Oil?

Geez. I knew they were not exactly "Toyotas" but that's a bad run of luck.

 

I check the oil level on my cars every week.

Generally, unless you have catastrophic failure, you're not going to run out of all your oil from maximum to nothing in a week. You also pick up on sudden increases of oil usage and catch problems early, preventing serious harm to the engine.

Were your kids also doing this, or just relying on the service intervals?

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Out of curiosity, what were the scheduled intervals? I could see a small oil pan + long oil change interval causing problems with low oil levels if the motor 'burned a little oil'

 

google "mazda PCV failure"

 

Sounds like a Subaru. Lots of blow-by and weak ringlands.

 

I simply can't imagine not checking the oil level on a vehicle, especially an older vehicle, for 6000 miles. I check ever fill up, gives me something to do while tank fills and IMO that is a habit all drivers should have. At the mileage of these cars it's perfectly acceptable to use a quart of oil every 1000 miles and that would exhaust the capacity of most sumps.

 

I remember when I was looking to buy an RX-8 a few years ago, it was mentioned that it was a good idea to carry oil with you as it burned through it quickly....may had to do with rotary engine.

 

This is nothing new. Back in 1980, my parents bought a Mazda 626 when it was awarded "Car of the Year" by some periodical. Anyway, it constantly burned oil and they finally traded it in on a Honda Accord.

 

I have raced Spec Miata for 15 years and the best track car I've ever owned is a Turbo Miata. These and every car I have ever owned consume some oil. I am sure the race cars consume more than a quart very 1000 miles, but then again we've done a 25 hour race in SM and MX-5 with maybe a quart added. At 90K or more mileage, I would not worry over a qt every 1000 miles or so. My new cars use less oil, but not zero. It's just a good idea to routinely check as a leak could develop or something else go wrong and it sucks to lose an engine if a quart of oil every month or so will keep it running.

And the rotary tends to use more oil, but the cars at issue have piston engines.

I doubt the engines "suddenly" lost oil, unless the level was regularly checked in which case there had to be a leak or trauma to the engine like broken ring land (but then it should have smoked and lost power). They were older, higher mileage cars that just need more care and feeding.

 

They would have blown smoke and burnt the oil. It doesn't just disappear, has to go somewhere.

Sorry there is an oil pressure light on the dash ... kids need to learn to monitor things to prevent damage, ie. if light flickers on, which it would have, tell Dad and check oil. Part of the growing up process ...
Pete

 

Who was driving the cars when it happened? No oil light? I call bs, sorry.

 

A friend had the same thing happen to his 3.

 

My first VW burned oil faster than any car I'd ever owned, despite being relatively (~70k) low mileage. It also had a very small oil pan and an oil pressure light that only flickered in corners when there was barely enough oil to wet the dipstick. I learned that terrifying lesson during month 1 of ownership when an 1800 mile road trip over a long weekend pretty much used up the car's entire oil supply.

 

Agree. Almost every second car in Sydney is a Mazda ... they are reliable and popular cars.

Mazda does not even make the oil pressure sensor, pretty much the same in many makes of cars. Plus my son has an old Mazda 3 and it uses oil (burns it) and his oil light flickers when he needs to top up the oil ... and he knows nothing about cars. With his first car we had to replace a brake disc has be had ground it down to the vents! ... now he knows to tell us about new noises ... Lol.

This is why for a lot of people first cars need to be cheap so they learn. Plus there is no way they suddenly dumped ALL the oil, no way unless there is a huge hole in the sump.
Pete
ps: why would a compression test be part of a service? And it would not tell you anything about oil loss.

Sorry if my tone offends, but are you sure yours kids are not scared to tell you the true story? I.e maybe the boys decided to do some hooning, etc .... we were all young once and our cars suffered why we enjoyed ourselves.

Lastly do you trust the service place ... over her in Australia there are some dodgy ones that ensure the car will fail to get more work.

 

Audi has a serious problem with oil burning. The A4 requires engine replacement to fix the problem. The dealers are jammed with warrenty engine swaps. Infact out local Audi dealer is building a bigger service facility just to keep up with all the massive stupid issues these cars have. They have 2 shifts running just to keep up.

 

is that related to the oil sludge problem? or a different deal?

 

I just don't understand never checking oil for 6000 miles. Regardless of oil consumption other things can and do go wrong from time to time, such as leaks or even road hazards (oil pan is very low). At each fill up there is usually time to quickly check oil and just look under hood for leaks and coolant and brake fluid levels, too. What do other folks do when fuel is flowing? I think you have been incredibly lucky to have never had a problem between 6000 mile service intervals for 25 vehicles. I've certainly never had that experience. Technicians can make mistakes. My cars all tend to be performance vehicles and most see track time so I am unusual I suppose, but I do not rely on warning systems to alert me to problems when a little mechanical sympathy and checking vitals can go a long way toward anticipating and preventing problems and getting stranded or a breakdown on a limited access highway and the intrinsic danger of getting to and being stuck on a shoulder with high speed traffic around.

I suppose the modern consumer insists on a vehicle that can be ignored and quality is such that you can largely get away with that, but why not be more diligent?

 

As all RX-7 owners must know the engine uses oil to lube the rotars. One can expect to have to add oil continuously to any 7. But not that much. I'd check the feed to rotars. Shuld not be enought to make engine smoke. My custom bult one havs dedicated oil lines.

 

No. It's a cylinder to ring sealing issue along with PCV problems. The cars are a joke.