2005 CTS Oil consumption

[bwestZ71]

My wife bought a 2005 CTS last year with only 28K on it and found out that it uses a quart of oil in 1000 -1200 miles and we where told that's normal usage. I've never owned a newish vehicle in which any usage was normal let alone noticable. We found this out when the low oil sensor wouldn't allow us to start it up once, it was down too low and we had the car towed. I was also under the belief that with synthetic oil we could go 5000 miles between oil changes , now if I'm wrong I'd like to know, but everyone I've talked to outside the dealership I bought the car from says between 5000 and 7000 miles using the recommended Mobil 10W30, we have the major extended service plan on this car for another 45K miles and the dealer will not even entertain seeing what could be done to stop it from useing the oil up so fast . Another ASME certified master mechanic friend of mine said there's been problems with these engine forever and it needs to be replaced.
What do you think

[3600cc]

Hi bwestz71

I recently bought my 2004 3.6 (55k miles) and I think I'm using a quart every 800 miles.

It does not puff blue and seems to run good (although I doubt MINE would run a 14.8 quarter mile like some folks' on this forum).

I think its simply a case of bad quality control with these engines. The engineering is magnificent but the assembly sucks.

Now that I've read so many folks using oil (and thankfully its the minority), I wonder if there's a correlation between oil burners and poorly sealed airboxes (like mine was). See other threads on airboxes as I do not mean to hijack this thread's subject.

Seeing that I paid $8800 for the car I'm only a little bummed. I truely feel bad for folks that paid way more or even close to retail for a new one.

I'm going to try an Auto-Rx treatment on my engine to see if that helps. It will be months before I can post the results of that treatment however.

Good Luck.

[concorso]

Luckily Im not having that problem, as I bought brand new. Im just blown away that a dealership said a qt every 800 miles was normal, tho. Speaking of quality control, I think GM needs to exact some quality control on its dealerships.

[jae420]

This kind of language and attitude is not helpful to any discussion --JimmyH

[MDH20s]

I have an 05 with the 3.6 and it uses about 2 quarts of oil between oil changes and just like everyone else the GM dealership said that it is normal... They actually changed the oil, I drove it for about 1500 miles and they checked out the useage and told me it was within tollerance. I have seen crazy sh*t like this dealing with military contracts and equipment but for it to be acceptable to burn 2 quarts of oil in 6000 miles is unbelieveable! No wonder GM is going bankrupt! (I still love my CTS)

[nuskool]

Originally Posted by Musicman

My 04 CTS 3.6 has 81000 miles on it and change the oil every 6000 miles. I am adding a quart of Mobil 1 at 3000 miles and was down a quart when I changed it recently. I know that FoMoCo claims that a quart every 1000 is considered "normal". (No Ford for me)

I've had more Ford's than I care to count and have never had an issue with oil burning, except for my 69 Mustang. 302 w/ over 100k on it. That was a lot back then. Replaced the valve seals and problem went away.

Oil burning is not brand specific by any stretch of the imagination.

[nuskool]

I find this to be a very strange problem. Only some people are burning oil. Usually it's across the board with most cars. Thankfully ours has not burned a drop in the 4000 miles since we bought it. Does GM have very poor quality control? Every engine, every part should be consistent from one to the next.

[txbest1980]

i have never had a problem

[cadillacroadside]

as per gm guidlines on the oil consumption tsb "1qt of oil in 2000 miles is an acceptable rate of consumption". there is a new tsb for this engine to replace piston rings and valve guide seals. we have done many with great success, unfortunetly when we disassemble sometimes it needs chains and tensioners and they are on intergalactic backorder, so some people are waiting up to a month for parts

[3600cc]

Hey Cadillacroadside...

A Technical Service Bulletin for bad rings, etc causing high oil consumption?

Cool. Does this mean I can get the dealer to pay for most of the cost of new rings, valve seals, cam chain, etc... ?

I don't know how TSB's work.

I'm currently trying Auto-Rx to see if it reduces my oil consumption. If I can reduce my consumption so I can get at least 1500 miles to a quart, then I'll keep the car and do nothing with the TSB.

I love this car but I just can't live with 800+ miles to the quart it was originally getting when I bought it 2 months ago. I think its doing a little better now though.

It currently has 58,500 miles.

Thanks

[Pwayne]

I bought my 05 3.6 last June. It has 63000 miles on it. It uses no oil between changes. My last car was an old Mercedes that had high oil consumption until the valve stem seals were replaced, and this made a huge improvement. Kind of goes along with the service bulletin mentioned above.
This still doesn't answer the question why some are seeing very high consumption, and others virtually none. Are those that are not having the problem yet going to develop the same problem, or was their cars just assembled better??
My belt tensioners make noise, if my car is covered by this tsb, will they replace them even though the car is out of warranty, if I take it in for this tsb??

[Spyke]

tsb means technical service bulletin NOT a Recall.

It helps the technician to diagnose and to repair the problem thats all.

[madtap823]

I purchased my '05 3.6 towards the end of last year... love it. I did notice when checking oil recently that I am a bit lower than should be / have been. Ok no biggy, as I was getting close to oil change time, I just figured I would knock it out there. Not having had a "newer" car in a while, and knowing that I have used oil additives in the past successfully (BTW my CTS has about 52K on it), I figured I would would go ahead and do the oil change, and add the brand I have used to the past... well my attempt to just knock this out has now turned into about a $200 oil change. As seen in a couple of other posts/threads (unfortunately after the fact) it is highly recommended that you use a fully synthetic 5w/30 (ish) oil with "no additives"... **SIGH** Most expensive oil change I have ever done; I just keep telling myself that the first one was just a oil flush... oh well

[cadillacroadside]

just because its a tsb does not mean it gets repaired under warranty. the dealer determines if any warranty assistance is offered. things that are looked at in the case of assistance are..did u purchase new , did you have the vehicle maintained at the dealer, have you had prior problems under warranty. i review all cases in this situation and determine if goodwill warranty applies

[Pwayne]

OK, I get it now.

Do you think that those not using much oil now will soon start?

Is it the piston rings, or the valve stem seals? Valve stem seals would be a lot cheaper to fix than piston rings.