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VZ SV6 oil disappearing into thin air!

some_evil

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Hi Guys,

I purchased my second hand SV6 about 18months ago from a dealer and within one month I heard a rattle from the engine, and I took it back and they instantly noticed that rattle was the timing chain rattling as it had no oil at all in the motor, it was below the dip stick.

This was alarming as I was told that the dealer had done a service just before handing the car over to me, and i assumed that the apprentice who did the oil change forgot to refil the oil properly or something stupid. So i left it at stupidity because there was no signs of a leak, no smoke from exhaust and runs smooth.

Now the crappy thing is last week i hear this knocking/rattle while going around round abouts, and instantly i remembered that distinct sound and pulled into my garage and put about 2-3L of oil in it, and this time I had a good look in the engine bay and cannot see any sign of oil, the whole engine is very clean, so a few litres of oil would be very obvious...

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I could take a look at to see where this oil is going? Or is this something I should leave up to my mechanic?
 
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Kiddo

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My advice would be to check your oils more often, 18ish months is waaaaaay too long.

Alloytecs also have a common timing chain issue, might not be relevant. But now you know :)
 

gossie

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My advice would be to check your oils more often, 18ish months is waaaaaay too long.

Alloytecs also have a common timing chain issue, might not be relevant. But now you know :)

All vehicles should have the engine oil and coolant checked WEEKLY. It takes all of one minute to do that, so why not? Tyres should be checked every time you re-fuel, but how many do that for safety and longer tyre life?
 

some_evil

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My advice would be to check your oils more often, 18ish months is waaaaaay too long.

Hi Just to update, yes I had intermittently been checking, and it had probably been 3 months since I last checked it and it only required small top ups here and there... so it seems as if it may use oil in bursts... coincidentally I have done 1000km in the past weekend, so a long drive could have burned it up??? But im just sitting here scratching my head... unsure as to where it is going.
 

figjam

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This may be a stupid, obvious question , but as you haven't said , ...........................are you changing the oil at the regular intervals, and using the correct grade oil ?
 

monkeys437

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"This was alarming as I assumed that the dealer had done a service just before handing the car over to me"

In future, assume the exact opposite. Owners often neglect maintenance if they're about to trade a car in. Dealers spend the bare minimum to get a car salable since their margins are usually pretty tight at the best of times.
 

some_evil

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are you changing the oil at the regular intervals, and using the correct grade oil ?
Sure am, textbook services, straight back to holden, it has Castrol Magnatec 10W-40.

In future, assume the exact opposite.
I think I mislead you buy saying "I assumed" when infact the dealer showed me my service book and said they did a such and such service which includes x, y and z... so I had been told it had an oil change, and regretfully I never checked it myself...

But this is besides the point, im trying to figure where this oil is going too....
 

Big-Al

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it's getting into the combustion chamber, being burnt, and then going out the exhaust pipe mate. was it that hard to figure that one out?
 

WL2005HBD

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it's getting into the combustion chamber, being burnt, and then going out the exhaust pipe mate. was it that hard to figure that one out?

Thought the same as soon as I saw 'disappearing into thin air' haha.
That's exactly where its going.
 

some_evil

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it's getting into the combustion chamber, being burnt, and then going out the exhaust pipe mate. was it that hard to figure that one out?

Righto you twit, obviously I have no signs/evidence of this, I originally thought it was being burned up but the car shows no visible signs of burning oil... so instead of being an a$$, how about you help out someone who obviously is on this forum for some advice.
 
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