I have noticed my cooper s engine is useing quite a bit of oil .Its not smoking when running at normal temp or under load .But on the dip stick after less than a 1000 miles it seems to of dropped to the half way mark on the dip stick.Can anyone tell me what might be the cause.The engine done 58000 miles and runs sweet.Im using W30 fully synthetic oil.

 

Now there is an invitation to speculate....

For starters, are you the original owner? If so, how did you break the car in? Drove it like you stole it? Or followed the Owners Manual directions? If you are not the original owner, the same questions would apply to whomever was the original owner. Bottom line, the rings are likely not sealing as well as they could/should. Another (less likely) scenario is that the valve seals are failing. A quart every 2,000 miles is not great for 58,000 miles; but it could be worse. You might try a compression test. If the results are normal, then I would follow-up with a cylinder leak down test.

 

What is a cylender leak down test? I thought a compression test would tell you if the rings were sealing or not or am i mistaken.

 

Compression test checks instantaneous compression. A leak down test puts the cylinder under pressure and tracks how fast the pressure drops.

 

have someone follow you to determine if it's smoking. the rate of consumtion may not be enough for you the driver to notice. also let it sit a couple days and start it . you'll know if the seals are any good .a compression test can help in how fast it comes up to it's max. if it's the same low reading as the one next to it (head gasket ) etc. if you get one low one squirt the oil in there to see if it gets better (rings) or not (valves). then do the leak down if still wondering.

 

back in the 70's you were lucky to get 750 miles to a quarte!

 

I went 5,000 miles between oil and filter changes on my 1978 Diesel Rabbit with no oil consumption between the change (and that continued until 250,00+ miles before a collant temperature sensor failed and caused the engine to overheat and cracked the block). I know of other owners of non-Diesel rabbits that went 7,500 miles between oil and filter changes with no consumption between changes.