Quote:
Originally Posted by smbstyle
If you were loosing a quart per 1k miles from an oil leak, you certainly wouldn't need cardboard under your car; that would be a SIGNIFICANT leak.
How is the car used? I know for track days I'll loose anywhere between 1/8 and 1/4 qt per weekend on track, but no noticeable loss when driving around town.
Also, if you are driving the car hard, it will be normal for the coolant level to stay at the LOW mark when cold. I have tested this, and found that if I fill it above the LOW mark when cold, after some hard miles, it will return to the LOW mark and stay there, which indicates that is the normal level when cold. If it was leaking, it would continue to drop below the LOW mark.
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If it's normal to burn oil quickly while driving hard, then maybe nothing's wrong. I don't track the car but it does see plenty of reasonably hard back-roads driving where I'm holding gears to redline, going WOT frequently, etc. I don't beat on the engine either-- I always try to stay below ~3500 rpm after a cold start until the water jacket warms up to normal temps, try to keep an eye on oil levels, change the oil a little more frequently than the factory mandates, etc-- but it does get a workout. It's rare for me to take the car out and not hit redline or go WOT unless the trip is too short for the engine to warm up. On weekends I sometimes go for a 100+ mile drive into the mountains; on uphill bits I'll often spend basically the whole time between 5500 and redline.
I'd guess that driving like this is a little easier on the engine than tracking the car would be, but it's probably closer to track use than it is to most people's DD/commuting use.
WRT the coolant level, I've been checking it every few days and it doesn't seem to be moving. It just sits right below the "low" line when cold (somewhere about 1/3 to halfway between low and full when warm). That's strange that when you fill it it goes right back to low again straight away. I don't have anything else to do today so maybe I'll go get some coolant and see if mine does the same thing.