Mondeo mk3 1.8 oil consumption

MichaelAwkward

MichaelAwkward

MichaelAwkward

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Hi,

Just had a quick question for anyone who's owned a Mondeo mk3 1.8 petrol.

What kind of oil consumption is considered normal?

Mine appears to be using it up quite quickly. I topped it up to just below the max marker on the dipstick last week, drove 170 miles to my new home and upon checking it today (haven't really driven it that far all week) it's down below the minimum.

I've gone through about 6L of 5W30 in about a month/2000 miles. It's a 52 reg on 114k, but it still seems like a lot?

There's no leaks that I can see, doesn't smoke at all, so I can only assume that it's going whilst driving?

Any ideas?
 
That is a lot. Mine has only gone through oil a bit fast when it had a leak of some sort - either an oil seal, or a coolant leak. Are your other fluids ok?
 
I had my oil changed at Xmas. Within 3 months my oil light had come on. Checked oil level and was below minimum. Put in a 4l of oil from half raids and since then has been fine. Not sure how it was gone after 3 months but then be fine. Dodgy garage probably didn't put any new oil in.

I do need a top up now as doing 250 a week in miles now.
 
As a very general rule up to 1 liter per 1000~ miles is acceptable by most manufactures. Anything more than that and i'd want to be really looking into it.
 
Sounds like the engine could be burning oil as its done quite high mileage. My mk3 Mondeo ST220 started using a lot of oil when it got to 90k+ miles every 3 weeks it was going below min and I had to always top it up despite the fact there was no leaks at all.
 
Amleto said:
That is a lot. Mine has only gone through oil a bit fast when it had a leak of some sort - either an oil seal, or a coolant leak. Are your other fluids ok?
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Yep, coolant and temperatures are fine.

Dav4 said:
Sounds like the engine could be burning oil as its done quite high mileage. My mk3 Mondeo ST220 started using a lot of oil when it got to 90k+ miles every 3 weeks it was going below min and I had to always top it up despite the fact there was no leaks at all.
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This seems the likely issue then. Is there any way of telling that it's burning oil? Surely there would be smoke?

Just as a correction: I bought the car in June, ran it until August when it went below minimum, topped it up with about 3.5L and since then it's needed another 2.5L after various journeys.

Apparently the capacity is 4.3L?
 
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Wife had a Toyota Paseo 1.6 and it used oil like no tomorrow- Took it back to dealers but they couldn't find anything wrong - never smoked or lost it - Then for a few months never lost any at all. Was really odd but you had to check level every week.

I remember my old Mk2 Zodiac used a pint a day - but there was a plume of smoke following me around.
 
jono_astra said:
The mondeo 1.8 petrol engines are very prone to the piston rings wearing causing oil burning issues.
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Wouldn't that manifest in other ways though? The sparkplugs are clean.

I've been using Mobil 5W30 fully synthetic stuff. Would it make that much of a difference if it's only previously had semi synthetic in it?
 
Just had a thought. I've read that a lot of garages switch older/high mileage Mondeos to 10W40 as seals become looser.

Is it possible that mine has been running on that for a while, and by adding 5W30, the thinner stuff is escaping via old seals?
 
MichaelAwkward said:
Just had a thought. I've read that a lot of garages switch older/high mileage Mondeos to 10W40 as seals become looser.

Is it possible that mine has been running on that for a while, and by adding 5W30, the thinner stuff is escaping via old seals?
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Assuming you aren't finding big pools of oil on the ground under the car then the engine is burning it. Worn, broken or stuck piston rings and worn or glazed bores are the most common causes, though worn/hardened valve guide seals can also cause oil to be burnt.

A high viscosity oil may reduce oil consumption, but 6 litres in 2000 miles means you engine has a serious problem. This level of oil consumption is likely to cause secondary issues such as oxygen sensor and catalytic converter problems.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
I had my oil changed at Xmas. Within 3 months my oil light had come on. Checked oil level and was below minimum. Put in a 4l of oil from half raids and since then has been fine. Not sure how it was gone after 3 months but then be fine. Dodgy garage probably didn't put any new oil in.

I do need a top up now as doing 250 a week in miles now.
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Er... I read that as it was below minimum and you put 4l of oil in? Engine explode in 4...3...2....
 
Yeah people seem to have this misconception that the dipstick goes to the bottom of the sump for some reason.
 
I had a mk3 1.8 about 7 or 8 years back, I sold it at under 60k miles and never burned a drop.

You mention you topped it up with 4 litres of oil... I'm pretty sure your engine would have stopped working a long time before if it was that low. That's almost the entire capacity, a whole Castrol bottle worth of oil.

Not wanting to sound patronising, but are you sure you're checking the level correctly? It's very easy to check the level shortly after turning the engine off and not allow the oil to drain to the sump, likewise when topping up IIRC the Duratec runs all the oil through the head and takes a while to hit the bottom.

Also, very important to have the car level in all directions as far as possible, in my experience even a small slope will give erratic readings.

Your car was obviously low on oil but shouldn't have needed 4 litres! :)
 
My E39 uses a lot of oil. But I'm told these can be like that. It's on 180000 miles so I switched to 10w40 and it seems a tad better.
 
Had my 1.8 mk3 for ~2.5 years and the only time the oil was touched was servicing. Between intervals, never had to top up, it was up to 120k on the clock for an 06 plate and over the last year I was doing ~200 miles a week in it. Swapped it for a newer, lower mileage Focus in June, wish I kept the Mondeo.
 
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