Here’s the truth: oil usage has pretty much always been a problem.
Thinking back to the old days, a gas station would wash your window and check your oil levels, among other things. If you had low oil levels, they offered to top it off.
Now fast forward to the 70’s through 90’s. With drivers changing their oil every 3,000 miles and not really checking oil levels often, this did not cause a major issue when they were down a quart or quart and a half. If you were not checking your oil, you did not know it was low, so never realized you had an issue. General oil usage advice says that if a car does not use more than a quart per 1,000 miles, things are considered normal. Back in the 90’s when this advice was issued, it did not sit well with most consumers, but it was pretty much standard policy with all automakers.
Now today we have oil change intervals that are much longer, from 5,000 miles with normal being 7,500 to 10,000 miles. Others are even longer. So you can imagine if you are using a quart per 1,000 miles, you are consuming a lot of oil in between oil changes, or even running the engine on the dry side. Recent research shows that if you are towing or using the vehicle in what is considered heavy duty service (which applies a lot of us), you are consuming a quart at 750 miles or even 500 miles for some vehicles. With all of that said, there are other factors actually causing an increase of oil usage in newer engines.
For the most part, today‘s engines are made much better than before – but they are using more oil. A few of the common reasons are thinner motor oil, synthetic oil (still a big debate if this actually causes leaks but seems to), lighter-weight engine components, low tension piston rings to reduce friction, more power out of smaller hotter running engines with power adders like turbocharging and supercharging. And sometimes, it’s just a manufacturing defect/design issue.
Our Bar’s Leaks Valve Seal Oil Consumption Repair can help with many of these issues except (for the most part) manufacturing design defects.
Smaller, hotter-running engines are causing valve stem seals to fail, and this is a big issue that we hear about every week. Plus most modern engines have twice as many valves per cylinder — 4 instead of 2 — than older engines, which makes the oil usage problem even worse. And with low-tension rings, any type of carbon or gunk on the rings will make them stick, which can cause oil burning. Bar’s Leaks Valve Seal Oil Consumption Repair has a really good detergent package plus other very proven, reliable ingredients that clean up rings and piston grooves. The product’s viscosity modifier and tackifier helps keep oil from going by piston rings, pistons, and valve seals while making the motor oil a little thicker. And the product works in all cars, so it’s a universal solution to a common problem.
Have questions? Feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to help you out.
