Oil consumption / condition of engine ?

[JasonS8]

Does anyone know if there is any direct correlation between the two? My '99 C4 (53k miles) does not seem to comsume ANY oil between services (maybe 1 litre per 8k miles). I had bought it used a few months back.

Does this mean the previous owner ran the engine in with kid gloves, thereby ensuring all seals & joints bedded in perfectly?

What oil consumption does everyone else get?

[nonegreen]

I get about half a litre per 6k. IMO having to top up between oil changes is indicative of a buggered engine. Also IMO the 10k service intervals on mineral oil cars these days means that most shopping trolleys are fit for breaking after about 30k. I ran my opel up to 250k on synthetic and oil consumption never varied from about half a litre per 6k throughout that time. this went with no loss of power through the rev range.

[steve-p]

quote:Does this mean the previous owner ran the engine in with kid gloves, thereby ensuring all seals & joints bedded in perfectly?

If it means anything at all, it is more likely the opposite actually. Running a new engine in too gently can lead to glazed bores, which increases oil consumption. More modern thinking about running in is that it is a good idea to use a reasonable amount of throttle and revs to bed everything in.