using to much oil

[Rocking Ron]

Hi.

I own a 1998 1.9 td Fiat with 74000 miles on the clock.

Lately it has, require frequent oil top ups (1/2 pint 1000miles)

Has anyone any advise, comments on the subject.

Yours in anticipation Rocking Ron

[Brambles]

What you should check 1stI suppose is if you a burning it or have a leak somewhere.

74K is not a lot of miles for a deisel engine, and if you are burning t ter are a few common reasons. leaking ast the piston rings possibly becaise of oil control ring wear or general piston ring wear. A leaking cylinder headd gasket allowing oil to be punped into the cylinders, or worn turbo charger bearings.

Now, there is a way of telling by the type of smoke you get from the exhaust and when to establish the most likely cause, but afraid I cannot remember the differences and diesel engines are pretty good at burning oil relatively cleanly and without much smoke unlike a petrol engine. An engine cylinder compression test shpud highlight if it is a ring problem.

 

So over to someone else to help here

 

Very common is is worn Turbo bearings and again this can be checked with an oil pressure test on the oil feed to the turbo charger. So unless you can see an external leak which would most likely be leaving drips of oil where you park, it is down to a garage for a few basic tests.

 

Using the wrong grade oil can lead to increased oil burn, but no where near the amount you are topping up.

[747]

It could be any one of a number of things but the first thing I would check is the engine breather. A build up of pressure in the crankcase would cause loss of oil. Check and clean the breather. It might be a type of wire mesh filter which just needs a wash in petrol (or similar)

[rolandrat]

I would agree with 747 but if you can, get underneath and check the back of the engine and see if it is wet or dry, if it's wet then you need to get it checked out because that will be the cause of your extra oil useage. The 1.9 is usually a very high mileage unit with very few problems. Taxi drivers love them, 500,000 miles no problem but they need to be maintained regularly.

[euroserv]

I have to disagree with the above on that point. The 1.9 you are thinking of is probably the Peugeot engine, and it is a bit of a legend but the 1.9TD used in the Fiat Ducato is quite the opposite. In a panel van, anything over 50,000 miles is good and in a camper with all of the extra stresses that come with it, I would say 70,000 plus is really good going without any major work. It only had about 60hp and barely any torque to speak of before the turbo was bolted on and that went up to 85hp with not much more torque. It is too small and too highly stressed for anything more than a car. This is the mistake that engine makers made in the 80's and 90's, particulrly Fiat. The extra power is useless in a van if you have to work it hard to extract any performance. Bigger engines produce more torque at lower revs with or without a turbo. That makes for less stress, lower fuel consumption and longer life.

 

The turbo will not 'use a bit of oil', it will fire it all out of the exhaust while over-revving the engine to a bone dry destruction. You will notice that.

 

The bores will pass oil after this kind of mileage and that is the place to start. There are only two places that oil goes; Out of the exhaust or on the floor. The latter is rather more obvious and easier (cheaper) to fix.

 

First stop must be a compression test to find out how serious a problem you have.

 

Nick

[rolandrat]

I stand being corrected on the Fiat engine but not the Peugeot. I would strongly advise a visual check for external leaks before getting involved with a compression check, it could be a leaking gasket. Anyway if a high mileage engine is using 1/2 a pint of oil for every 1000 miles travelled it's not to bad if costed against a major overhaul.