2Quik

I noticed that my 2004 acura tl is burning oil although i dont have any leaks, spark plugs are clean, no goo under the radiator or oil cap. I haven't done a compression test yet but since i can't find anything wrong with it i am not sure that will. So my car is burning oil now but i am not sure how much since my 17 year old drives it i haven't been good about checking it but since i noticed it's burning oil i will watch it. I bought it with 50k miles and always serviced it and changed the oil according to the the dash indicator. So i am assuming that its burning oil since it's over 200K now but at oil changes i noticed it was lower in between oil changes but not by much. I've always use 5-20 Valvoline every oil change so my question is what type of oil do i use now? I've done some search and found that i should be using 5-30 since my car is burring some oil. I do see that Valvoline makes MaxLife high mileage and i was going to trying that but noticed that it is synthetic blend and since I've never used synthetic oil am not sure it's the best option. or should i just stick to regular Valvoline 5-30 oil.

Any recommendations or thoughts?

2Quik

if i decide to go with the Valvoline makes MaxLife high mileage do i need to use a synthetic oil filter?

thoiboi

Where are you located? Don't over think it. If it's burning, just add more. Upping weight may hurt gas mileage if you're in colder climates. Synthetic or Dino doesn't matter

2Quik

I am in the Boise, Id area. ya maybe i making more of it than it is.
i appreciate the replay.

01acls

Stick to Dino oil. There's no significant benefit to switching now. It's gotten you to 200k. You really can't ask for more than that from a motor oil. Stick with a sure thing. If it's not broken don't fix it.

I've seen first hand switching to synthetic may burn more oil and in a worse case scenario main seal starts to leak.

​​​

GreenSpades

IMO if u have been using valvoline 5-20, I would try valvoline 5-30. See if that changes anything. Try small steps, dont change too many variables. Synthetic is a bad idea IMO. My car has 150K and burns maybe 1qt every 2.5K miles. I use 5-20 and then top off with a 5-30 after 2K or so miles.

People may do it differently than I do, but I believe in changing oils and weights and trying things outside of the factory recommended. That is entirely at your own risk of course. Ive read people can have problems with vtec engaging incorrectly due to thicker oil but ive never had that. In my rx7 it used so much oil that I switched over to 15w-40 oil recommended for deisel trucks. People thought I was nuts, but that is what I found worked well. Granted I rebuilt that engine and knew exactly what was in it, so I didnt care what other people thought.

csmeance

you may have a "hidden" leak somewhere such as the oil pump gasket (common at higher miles) or the front/rear main seal. You could also have a bad spark plug tube gasket letting a little oil into a combustion chamber.

Some oil burning off over the 5-10K mile intervals the MID gives but it shouldn't be more than 1/2 quart!

sockr1

iTrader: (5)

you probably have one of the common oil leaks most of us experience. rear oil seal. i have to top off about a quart over an oil cycle, but i have no leaks in my parking spot. i talked to a shop and they said it's a rear leak which drips out under pressure when the car moves and that's where the oil goes. they say when you're parked it won't leave any spots and it only happens when driving. they say they see it a lot and dont recommend until doing a timing belt job (which i had just completed so i couldn't pay for it again).

it's also very expensive so i'm going to just keep an eye on it and top off a quart every 5-6k miles. no biggie. i've had it this way for about 1.5 years

YungMoola15

Try Lucas oil stabilizer I've heard good things

thoiboi

How would that help burning oil...

DMZ

Synthetic oil is all I've EVER used since new and after 257K miles, I don't burn a drop!
I used to use NAPA's own brand synthetic (Valvoline SynPower with NAPA's name on the package) 5W-20 and recently
switched to Mobil 1, and not the extended interval one nor the high mileage one either.
.
.

YungMoola15

i personalky never used it but know few people who have and it stopped burning oil

GreenSpades

This is what im having plus another small leak I havent exactly tracked down. For me I check the oil every other gas fill up or so and I am on top of it. 2x a qt of oil between changes is like 4qts a year = $20/yr. FOR ME that is not reason enough to fix it, but if it gets worse I will take it upon myself to diagnose and replace the leaky seals, not gonna pay a shop 100s of dollars. Im cheap

No one is saying synthetic oil is bad, ive used it in previous cars, and IMO is best to start using from the beginning or after a rebuild. Our 328xi is on synthetic and that is the factory recommendation so thats what its always been on. But it is not recommended to switch a high mileage engine from conventional to synthetic. Cars and their seals can get used to specific oil comopositions and changing to synthetic can cause small changes internally and even cause leaks or worse. Sorry thats not specific, but what ive read in general. I did switch over and use it in an accord that already had 100K miles and had no problems. All I did was spend more money tho.