Oil goes poof

[adamastone78]

So, I have a 20/20 equinox. All of a sudden, in the past 3,000 miles, I burned 1 quart of oil. No leaks anywhere. Suggestions, comments or ideas?

 

[PoManNox]

Which engine? How many miles on it? Maintenance history?

 

[adamastone78]

1.5L turbo. 74k miles. All suggested maintenance has been done on time, including spark plugs

 

[PoManNox]

Have you owned it since new? If you follow the oil life monitor or go to 5K miles or beyond between oil changes, they unfortunately don't do well and will form sludge on component like the cam phaser solenoids, etc. Sludge buildup can cause the vacuum pump to fail catastrophically and break the exhaust camshaft as well.

If you have done your oil changes every ~4K miles without fail, then you've done well.

If not, you may consider doing so with an oil like Valvoline's restore and protect or Mobil-1 Advanced Clean from here on out. You can have shops do a professional "cleaning" with kits from BG, etc. It's pricey, but could help.

 

[NXR71]

If not, you may consider doing so with an oil like Valvoline's restore and protect or Mobil-1 Advanced Clean from here on out.

Although some people do not care about Dexos certifications, which can prevent LSPI (low speed pre-ignition) with turbo GDI (gasoline direct injection) engines I do. I'd check the GM database first: https://www.gmdexos.com/brands/dexos1_3/index.html

None of the Valvoline Clean and Restore oils seem to be and it's been blamed for causing engine problems on GDI engines by some people (because, you know, some people have to blame anything but their own choices).

Two Mobil Advanced Clean oils do have Dexos certification: 0W20 and 5W30.

 

[Daniel B]

In my 2012 Silverado I noticed a significant loss of engine oil between oil changes. No apparent leaks, no blue smoke under hard acceleration. The cause, leaking oil cooler lines, a known issue leading to sudden engine failure, but not a safety recall.

 

[Chevy Ecotec]

Have you owned it since new? If you follow the oil life monitor or go to 5K miles or beyond between oil changes, they unfortunately don't do well and will form sludge on component like the cam phaser solenoids, etc. Sludge buildup can cause the vacuum pump to fail catastrophically and break the exhaust camshaft as well.

If you have done your oil changes every ~4K miles without fail, then you've done well.

If not, you may consider doing so with an oil like Valvoline's restore and protect or Mobil-1 Advanced Clean from here on out. You can have shops do a professional "cleaning" with kits from BG, etc. It's pricey, but could help.

I second this.

Here's what it can look like when the vacuum pump fails:



If it gets to this point, they will say you need a new engine. When this pump seized, the cam continued to spin, causing the shaft housing to break apart, leaving a lot of metal inside the engine. I was unable to recover all of the metal.

 

[Chevy Ecotec]

@NXR71,

I noticed the sad face about the Vacuum Pump. I left out quite a bit of details about this engine that may surprise some:

This particular engine had 230k miles on the factory vacuum pump. The vehicle belongs to my daughter. She was good about regular oil changes with full synthetic oil but missed the vacuum pump, apparently twice.

Anyway, I put this thing back on the road because it is a Chevy. A little metal lingering around never hurt the Bow Tie. It had about 10 different codes initially, but when the dust settled, I narrowed it down to the obvious VP and the reluctor ring on the exhaust cam. I grabbed a used cam and used VP from a junkyard for $45. I know what you're thinking: used vacuum pump? Yes, I just needed something with a shaft-housing so that I could plug the large hole. I gutted the VP completely and blocked off the port to the brake booster. We're not doing that again, so I wired in an electric VP and sent my daughter on her way. So far so good. I'll be doing her oil changes from this point on so that I can cut open the filter and inspect it for metal each time.