eww that smell! Could be oil problem

[AirJigga25]

Just raising the question of the ever popular oil consumption problem on my SLS and I want to know if that is probably why I always smell oil or something.

Sometimes when I pull to a stop I smell it, Sometimes when I back up I smell it, and sometimes when I'm just speeding up at low speeds I smell it. I know for a fact that my car burns way too much oil, possibly a quart every 1000 miles. I have the best extended warrantee I can get and have 80k on my ride.

I hypothesize that this might be why my car STINKS. Can anyone concur or give insight?

Also, with the oil consumption problem, will that end up hurting my car or be bad for it in the long run or should I continue dumping oil into it? I think it is a GM defect and cadillac should pay for it, but who knows.

G

[kcnewell]

As long as you keep the oil level up and it's not pouring out, You'll be fine! The smell is most likely the oil burning on the exhaust system. Next time you're under the car...look at the leading surfaces of the exhaust system, you'll probably see burned oil residue!

[jadcock]

1000 miles per quart is actually within GM spec. They say if it's worse than 2 qts./2000 miles, it's a problem. It's actually GOOD for your engine that it uses this oil. The only way to oil the valves and upper areas of the cylinder is through what they call a "total loss system", meaning the oil gets burned as it's mixed with the combustion gasses. The Northstar is a very well-oiled engine, and this will be apparent if you tear one apart after 200k miles. The cylinder walls should look like new still.

All engines "use" oil. Some more so than others. You might have an engine that seemingly doesn't use any...but then maybe the cylinders get loose due to wear and you have to have it oversized. Or maybe you have an engine that once it starts to get older, it BURNS lots of oil (visible smoke out the tailpipe) because the cylinder walls were never lubricated enough to begin with. The Northstar engine will last for hundreds of thousands of miles...the compromise is increased oil consumption throughout its life. This is pretty well documented on this site and on caddyinfo.com.

[PONCHO]

Try a compression check. See if the rings are sealing right. Sometimes rings can crack and you wont notice anything unusual until you're at a certain RPM or doing something else. Is there smoke from the exhaust? Do you think it could be leaking by the valves? Check for oil leaks around hot engine parts as well (manifolds, etc.)

[AKPsiMC03]

i used to get that smell in my thunderbird. always thought it was oil... till one day my PS pump went out... turned out to be a small leak in the PS line and was dripping onto the ehaust manifold.

[AirJigga25]

Thanks fellas...

[Katshot]

Oil leaks SHOULD be covered in your warranty. I'd get it fixed ASAP since it's an expensive repair and you don't want to have to pay for it later. As for the oil consumption due to burning, Jason's right, GM DOES consider 1Qt/1K miles "normal". That's BULLS%#T, some Northstars do and some don't use oil, and the rates vary by a wide margin but the chances of you winning in an argument with them is somewhere between slim and none.
And as far as the Northstar lasting "hundreds of thousands of miles", don't bet on it. In my experience, few see 200K. That seems like a lot but by today's standards it's not. Most will die early due to assembly defects. Overall, the basic design is good but the actual assembly of many Northstar engines was flawed. I say "was" because I have no "actual" experience with post '01 engines.

[AirJigga25]

I've had the oil problem checked and fixed. I had another dealer check the oil and he said it was dry underneath the car. It just stinks faintly... It gulps oil like college kid funnels beer.

Speaking of what an extended warrantee should and shouldn't cover...the warrantee wouldn't pay for my torque converter not working because it was a wiring problem and not the torque converter itself...bastards. 200 bucks in labor later... bastards, all of 'em.
Thanks for the help.

[jadcock]

Originally posted by Katshot
And as far as the Northstar lasting "hundreds of thousands of miles", don't bet on it. In my experience, few see 200K. That seems like a lot but by today's standards it's not. Most will die early due to assembly defects. Overall, the basic design is good but the actual assembly of many Northstar engines was flawed. I say "was" because I have no "actual" experience with post '01 engines.

"Most will die early". I bet you a coffee that less than 1% of all the Northstar engines produced "die early due to assembly defects." What's your definition of 'early'? 1k miles? 10k miles? 100k miles? Any assembly defect would show up very very early in the engine's life...like in the first few thousand miles I'd guess. Once an engine gets broken in past the first 25 or 50 thousand miles, it's usually good to go until something major physically wears out...like a set of rings or a cylinder wall or something else.

There are so many "normal" Northstars out there that have never been opened up, and probably never will. How many? Who knows -- you don't hear about 'em on the message boards like this because their car runs great. GM doesn't hear about 'em because they don't come back to the dealership. The majority of message boards tend to skew the perception of the covered vehicle to the negative -- because few people show up to boards like this without problems...they're here because they need to fix something. My grandma's never had to fix her Northstar. My Northstar has never been opened up past the oil fill cap. The realtor we just saw this past weekend has a '99 Deville with 60-some thousand miles and has never had anything major happen to it. I wouldn't agree to the statement that most Northstars will die early due to assembly defects...care to qualify that statement?