SilverJ

Fortunately my TL is not my daily driver and its garaged daily. So mileage I put on will probably be less than 7K for the year. How often do you guys check your oil for possible burning of oil ? Every few hundred miles ? every few weeks ?
I usually check mine every month a few minutes after I drove the car. Wondering if that's overkill.

Jakes_tl

I don't think that's overkill. That is great practice!

Edward'TLS

Once every month, in the morning with cold engine, with oil all drained back down to the bottom of the engine block.

RenoTL

I generally check my oil at every other fill-up. That comes to about every 600 miles or so. If there was a new problem (leak, engine starts burning oil, etc.) I don't want to find out by there being too little oil left in the oil pan.

JM2010 SH-AWD

I drive around the same amount of mileage as you do. I check the oil about once a month, which is what I have always done. It might need a half to a quart after 4000-5000 miles. So long as it stays this way, it's nothing more than a slight inconvenience.

SilverJ

Interesting, I have always checked the oil when engines been warm.
Why check when its ice cold and hasn't circulated ?

amill

I check mine every few weeks. Usually after I drive it for 20 minutes or more to get it warmed up. I usually wait about 5-10 minutes for the oil to get back into the pan before checking it.

mylove4cars

Indeed the manual says to check warm, reason is because the dipstick is calibrated for warm checking (oil expansion) in one of the threads, Edward made a comment, that all the oil wasn't flown back in the oil pan; which is correct. Nevertheless this is only 1/16Th of a QTY. Oil expansion is larger than the 1/16Th of a QTY between warm and cold about a half QTY difference.

I'm pretty sure Edward knows this and takes the difference in to account. Its more convenient to check a cold engine than a warm one.

So, checking a cold engine will show a lower reading, a warm engine will show a higher reading.

SilverJ

good info. Are you saying 1/16th of a quart ? when I see QTY I think Quantity.

mylove4cars

^^^^^
Sorry, yes quart.

fattydub

I check it usually once or twice a month. Doesnt take much time to do.

Edward'TLS

Because I can't guarantee that the exact same amount of engine oil remains sticking at the top of the engine, every time when I check the oil level after having driven the car around.

potmilkz

check it every month.. you should be fine.. takes like 2 mins and can save you money in a long run as it can get costly if you dont check it..

csmeance

Check the oil, other fluids and the rest of your car out while you are filling up with gas! It gives you something to do every fill up.

LNJ

I got my car in the beginning of June last year and I've yet to check the oil. Have had 2 oil changes done though. I put 20,000km on it since I got it.

dwest1023

My 2009 is not a daily driver. To be honest, I never check the oil anymore. When I did it was never low. When I did check it, I always check with engine cold over night. IMO, the most accurate check. In my Miata, cold is the ONLY way to get accurate reading.

RenoTL

To each their own. For me, it is like the saying about the stock market - Past performance is no guarantee for future performance. The fact that the oil level has always been fine when you checked it in the past doesn't mean a new problem could not arise that affect the oil level. The only way to be sure is to check it once in awhile.

Georgiey22

Now have 17,700 miles on my 2013 TL. It is not my daily driver and we attempt drive it at least one time per week (dinner or movie night). With that I check the oil one time every two weeks however I have no preference if the car is cold or warm. In 2 years the car has never burned any oil whatsoever and by checking regularly gives me peace of mind.

csmeance

issues with oil consumption are on the 3.7L engines in the SH-AWD cars.

mid9pitstop

For a long distance drive, 150+ miles trip, I usually check before and after the trip, especially on the manual transmission vehicle. Other wise, I check it once a month, just like the others have said - a peace of mind.


Cheers

gkon

I don't really check it as I'm now changing it every 3k miles and not depending on MID to tell me. I have a cousin who owns a shop and does it all for me. He's never come back and said that it's extremely low and to check it between oil changes. I've got about 70k miles on it.

Cheers,

Nick

gkon

Just changed my oil today along with the gambit of fluids, I asked my cousin if it was low on oil and he mentioned that it wasn't. I last changed my oil about 6 weeks ago but did two long road trips in that span.

I mentioned to him about the 3.7 burning oil and he said he didn't notice mine burning oil. He did mention that automakers now will never, ever admit that. They are protecting themselves by putting something in the owner's manual that being down a qt between oil changes is 'standard'.

I'm wondering if the folks who are experiencing this issue are waiting to change their oil when the MID is telling them or doing religiously at 3k miles?

Cheers,

Nick

TL260power

I normally don't check it as I take to get the oil change every 3 months. But now since the engine is getting old I recently had a problem that my oil was low and was the reason why I had problems over the last 3 weeks. Engine light came on. Jerking in 2nd and 3rd gear. So now they recommend to check every month which I will now. Even though your car is newer than mine (2002), I would check it every month.