Burning oil; scheduled maintenance questions

[manny24]

I drive a 1999 I30t, manual w/ 120,000 miles on it. I was told that it had been burning oil-- 5 quarts in ~ 4000 miles. I was also told that perhaps my engine warped during an overheat this summer, although I am not showing blue smoke through the exhaust, which is a telltale sign of that.

Anyway, I took the car to an outside mechanic, who changed the oil, and told me that it d/n appear from looking at the filter that the oil h/b changed as recently (within 3 1/2 weeks) as had been told to me by the dealer/mechanic. Further, they changed the oil and put in thicker oil (10 w 30, instead of the recommended 5-w 3 (also-- told me to use 10 w 40 this summer). I've been told to watch it, and change the oil every 3000 miles. I have also been told that the engine should not seize as long as I keep oil in it, and that I can drive the car for a long time to come.

This was really good news, b/c I love this car, and I would like to drive it over 200k miles, like everyone else does, it seems.

One other thing-- a couple of my friends (one drives a 1995 Saab w/85k miles and the other drives an Audi w/>175k miles) said that in all the years they have owned their cars, they have never done the recommended servies beyond simply changing the oil. I wonder how many do/do not do the scheduled maintenances. Of course, I did them all to date, but it did not stop my oil burning problem.

Bottom line: outside mechanic much less expensive than dealer. Also, no notive to sell me a new car.

Thanks.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Welcome. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Have a compression test done and let us know what the results are; they could tell us a lot.

If you don't want to pay someone to do it, you can get a simple kit from an auto parts store and do it yourself in the driveway.

[manny24]

Thanks; nice to be here. Will do on the compression test. (any opinion on the scheduled maintenances vs. just doing regular oil changes? Maybe it is better to do some preventative maintenance, instead of just replacing things as they go bad-- like a chain drive going bad during a trip or something!).

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'd say it's always a good idea to keep up on scheduled maintenance.The dealer has a very specifically designed schedule for it that helps keep on top of things that you might not normally think about as well as common wear-and-tear items, etc.Even though I generally prefer to do my own work on my car, if I had a car new enough to fall under a scheduled maintenance regimen, I'd absolutely take it in. Better to keep on top of things now than to have to deal with cumulative effects later.