Acceptable oil consumption - new Mondeo

Nick1881

Nick1881

Nick1881

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Joined
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Nuneaton, UK
I have a 2017 Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 150 company car. After I think only 6-7000 miles a message popped up saying, oil level low. I checked and sure enough it was low on the dipstick. I asked the fleet company, they told me to take it to Ford. I did and they topped it up, I checked and it was full after. Now on 12000 miles, the message popped up again last Friday. I got round to checking it on Sunday, it was below the low, literally just on the end of the dipstick. I had to go to Halfords and buy a litre, put it all in which took it to the minimum.

Is this normal? Previously I had a Passat, which during 85000 miles it never used a drop of oil.

I’ll book it in with the garage as soon as I can but work is really busy at the moment.
 
Nothing noticeable is acceptable tbh. Most cars will lose a bit, but one fill should last until the next service.

Also it should be filled to at least half way, don't only put the minimum in. Oil starvation will definitely kill the engine eventually.
 
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Some cars state up to a liter per 1000 miles which i think is bonkers but i guess that's just a way of the manufacture getting out of warranty claims. (Looking at you VW...)

It may say in the manual for your car what acceptable usage is, no matter what though i suspect what sounds like 1.5 liters over 6000 miles will be deemed fine however annoying that actually is :(
 
Yea I have a feeling they will say it’s fine and not do anything. It will be a real pain if I have to top it up every few thousand miles, especially when I average 2000 per month. Also I can see my boss complaining that I brought oil on my company card, when I guess the lease company should supply it. I wonder if Ford will give me 5 litres and charge the lease company for it.
 
Nick1881 said:
Yea I have a feeling they will say it’s fine and not do anything. It will be a real pain if I have to top it up every few thousand miles, especially when I average 2000 per month. Also I can see my boss complaining that I brought oil on my company card, when I guess the lease company should supply it. I wonder if Ford will give me 5 litres and charge the lease company for it.
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The lease company very likely won't supply top-up oil any more than they'll supply petrol (or diesel). It's a consumable. As said above some engines are actually designed to use a certain amount of oil over a particular distance, and some just use oil anyway (gen 1 and 2 TSI especially, though VAG say they've resolved it in gen3). During run-in, some oil consumption is normal also. It will generally taper off as you get miles onto the clock. In any new car I wouldn't be relying on the OBC to tell me the oil was low after 6,000 miles either tbh. You should be checking the oil regularly as part of your (hopefully) usual routine - tyres, lights, coolant, brake fluid etc. If you're doing 2,000 miles a month I'd personally be checking every week or two, it's not like it's hard work. My 2.0T TSI used almost a litre and a half during run-in but hasn't used a drop since *touch wood*.
 
Rainmaker said:
The lease company very likely won't supply top-up oil any more than they'll supply petrol (or diesel). It's a consumable. As said above some engines are actually designed to use a certain amount of oil over a particular distance, and some just use oil anyway (gen 1 and 2 TSI especially, though VAG say they've resolved it in gen3). During run-in, some oil consumption is normal also. It will generally taper off as you get miles onto the clock. In any new car I wouldn't be relying on the OBC to tell me the oil was low after 6,000 miles either tbh. You should be checking the oil regularly as part of your (hopefully) usual routine - tyres, lights, coolant, brake fluid etc. If you're doing 2,000 miles a month I'd personally be checking every week or two, it's not like it's hard work. My 2.0T TSI used almost a litre and a half during run-in but hasn't used a drop since *touch wood*.
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Depends if it is on a fully maintained lease or not.

Major PITA but I guess all you can do if your company aren't happy about paying to top it up is calling the lease company when it says it needs oil and go with what they say. If they say take it to Ford then maybe have a word with the service people and get them to stick another litre on the invoice and keep it in the boot and replace it when you next take it in.
 
sovietspybob said:
Some cars state up to a liter per 1000 miles which i think is bonkers but i guess that's just a way of the manufacture getting out of warranty claims. (Looking at you VW...)

It may say in the manual for your car what acceptable usage is, no matter what though i suspect what sounds like 1.5 liters over 6000 miles will be deemed fine however annoying that actually is :(
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Yea it's silly. If an engine is using that much oil, it's a badly build engine. Not normal.

If it's using that much, you don't need to even bother doing an oil change as your forever topping up with fresh oil. Just change the filter once a year lol
 
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https://www.cars.com/articles/how-much-oil-consumption-is-normal-1420682864535/

Good article here, you do need to check your oil weekly though. Failure to do this and suffering an engine failure will render you liable with the lease company (Don't ask me how I know :D)

The problem is all engines have a tolerance for part fit and if your particular engine has all the max tolerances it will use more oil than one that is built to all the minimum tolerances.
 
Oil consumption is down to many factors not just a particular engine, BMW’s M54 is a notorious drinker yet my 530i used none in my ownership, on the other hand I know of owners who put a litre in every other week!

I know of trucks that use hardly any despite 1m Km under their wheels yet new ones that need a few litres a month (very large engines mind you)

So long as the consumption stays constant I wouldn’t worry too much, I’d only be concerned we’re the consumption to increase (without any evidence of a leak)
 
TBH I've only ever had one new car to compare

That needed no oil top ups between any service which came @ iifc 10k miles
 
The wife got herself a 18 month old Toyota Paseo a few years ago and that drank oil - took it back to Toyota dealers and they said it was within tolerance - It would go from full to low in a week and then not budge for weeks then back to weekly - I checked it every week and in time she had it that engine never faltered - never blew smoke or leaked oil. -Was a worry though.

My TDCi Focus never uses any at all.
 
I added another litre today and noted the mileage, I'll keep checking it and try to work out how much it's using, then get it booked in with Ford.
 
Pah, none of you know you are born! :p

Back in the day, one put a can (Pint/quart) of oil in every time one filled up

Cars back then practically ran on a 2 stroke mix

:D :cool:
 
My Seat Ibiza Cupra drank oil 250ml every fill up. Nice to say my Leon Cupra doesn't use a drop.

If it's constant and within tolerance there isn't much you can do. It won't hurt to ask ford to investigate just in case there is some sort of recall or update.
 
Just to update this, I booked the car in with Ford, I think it went in on the 30th of November maybe. By the following day they had decided that it was low on compression on one cylinder and burning oil in the cylinder.

The lease company got me a rental, Kia Optima and I've not seen my car since. At first the garage said they would get a new engine sent and fit it, then they said that Ford want them to strip the engine to investigate further. Last update was that I won't see it this year and if I call them on the 2nd of Jan, they will get me a car to use so the rental can go back.
 
Nick1881 said:
Just to update this, I booked the car in with Ford, I think it went in on the 30th of November maybe. By the following day they had decided that it was low on compression on one cylinder and burning oil in the cylinder.

The lease company got me a rental, Kia Optima and I've not seen my car since. At first the garage said they would get a new engine sent and fit it, then they said that Ford want them to strip the engine to investigate further. Last update was that I won't see it this year and if I call them on the 2nd of Jan, they will get me a car to use so the rental can go back.
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What you think of the opitma?
 
It's not great, compared to my last two cars, a Passat and the Mondeo. It's quite noisy, a lot of road noise on the motorway, the seats are pretty rubbish, it feels cheap inside, sound system is pretty poor. However the engine seems ok, reasonably responsive and it seems to return good mpg, the satnav is ok. There aren't many other toys, but then it is the entry level.
 
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