Unknown Oil Loss

Hi folks,

The car is a '99 SL1 with about 64,500 miles on it. I was sitting in line at
a drive-thru the other day when noise started coming from the valve train. I
went home and shut the car down. I let it sit for about an hour then I
checked the oil level. There was no oil on the dipstick at all. I hitched a
ride to buy some oil, came back, and added a quart. That only measured at
the very bottom of the dipstick. I put yet another quart in and it was
within normal range.

There doesn't seem to be any leaks under the car. A flat piece of cardboard
showed no leaks. I had a friend drive behind me on the highway and I pushed
the motor up to 5K, but no smoke. I checked the exhaust at idle, still no
smoke. My last oil change was maybe 2-3 months ago (it was overdue by 1000
miles) and it was down by a quart then. Two quarts lost seems like a big
thing on a car that only uses 4 quarts. I can only hope that there's no
damage as a result of oil starvation.

Any suggestions as to where this oil is going? Could it be slowly burning
away and not noticable? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

My 1998 SW2 starts burning oil every time my PCV valve is due for replacement,
which has been every 12k or so. It doesn't burn oil the rest of the time.
I just broke 90k last month.

If you haven't changed the PCV valve in a while, it's a cheap thing to try.

-DanD

 

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'll post whatever I find out here to
the group.