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Oil level low

1150 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  scoff, 
B
Hi all
Been a while since I've been on here. My Mk3 is a lot more reliable than my Mk2 was!
Anyway today I thought I would check my oil (should do it every week I know.................) and there was only a wee drop on the end of the dipstick. Now this is normal when I first pull it out so I wiped it clean and placed it back, waited a few seconds and pulled it out again. Hmmmm still the same. The engine was cold so thought I'd leave it til later on after I had been out and about. Well I put the car away and decided to have another look. After the first pull I put it in and pulled it out again. This time dry as a bone!
The engine had just been running so I imagine the oil is still running back into the sump.
But given the car leaks no oil and certainly doesn't burn it whats going on? Has anyone struck this before.
I don't want to go putting more oil in when I could over fill it (as in the oil level is ok)
I'll leave it for an hour and go have another look.
Over the three years or so I've owned the car the oil level is always at least between the two holes marking high and low level.
Its a four cylinder 2003 Zetec petrol by the way.
Cheers
Baz
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PURPLE_2L_LX
All engines will burn oil to some degree.

It maybe a minute amount that you never really notice. Doesnt need to have clouds of blue smoke pouring out of the exhaust.

May only burn at certain revs or engine loads, Or when accelerating with high engine vacuum.

Keep checking more often & see if there is a pettern to it.
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R
yeah i dont understand this bit, when dip stick is first pulled oil level shows as low, wipe relace pull dip stick again and correct level shows.
so how does this work? common sense says if something is siting in liquid, the level will be the same all of the time, not lower on first pull.i have even noticed that the oil level can be different on both sides of the stick, weird.
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B
Yeah I agree it is weird but it's always been that way.
Anyway I topped it up with a litre of oil and it is now just in the min range so i'll put a another litre in and check it more often. :eyesup:
The engine has done about 179K so I'm hoping she's not becoming a little oil burner (at least more than it should be.
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A
On this note I was suprised that my 1.8 MK3 burned 1 litre of oil in 3000 miles. That said it was mostly full tilt on the Autobahn.
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scoff
Mine burns a litre every week!!!!
Going to look at the compression, but I think it could be valve stem seals :(

Its going soon, had enough! :)
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