I changed the oil today (went ahead and switched to Synthetic), and I was wayyyyy over the limit (by about 2K miles, and it was on dyno oil), but what scared me, was when I drained the oil, I found that only 2 1/2 quarts drained out! Where is the other 2.5 quarts? I don't think it was leaking because I park my car in the same spot every night and I have never seen any oil on the ground. Could it be that I was so overdue, could it be burning oil? How serious is this and what could some possible scenarios be?

 

what color was the oil?...you sure you didnt drain your trans fluid?

 

No, it was the oil, and it was dark dark brown- and quite dirty.

 

was the drain plug on the same side as the oil filter or the oppisite because if it was on the oppisite side u drained ur tranny fluid. the tranny fluid can get dark and very dirty. haha ive made this same mistake, so its possible

 

well if it was the break in oil it could have burned it with too many miles on it, i would just keep a eye on the new oil level ever week or so check it

 

Yeah, I thought since there is some loss of oil between intervals, maybe beacuse I exceeded the change date by so much, that more oil was burned. Does that make sense?

 

im clueless...how many miles on your engine?...also do you notice black smoke from yor exhaust at anytime?...i doubt its burning oil...how many miles did you drive on the oil?

 

No black smoke- I drove about 5500 miles on the dyno oil and it only had half the oil I put into it originally when I drained it. And it's not leaking, parked in the same spot nightly, not one drop on the ground anywhere.

 

and you put 4 quarts bak in after you drained it?

 

yeah, well 4.5 quarts

 

Out of the 4.6 qt that you put in, part of it gets dumped with the filter. If you only got 2.5 out of the pan, sounds like you were low 1 to 1.5 qts before the change. Some oil usage is normal but yours sounds like a lot. Just watch until the next oil change.

 

Is/was there a lot of black soot on the bottoms of your exhaust tips?

 

No, hardly any actually