oil consumption per km (please contribute)
 

Hi Guy's

Some of you know that I'm known to drive pretty hard at times, but lately i've been pretty good with no lisence and all.

I have a service booked in for thursday and since my 40,000k service to my 51,000k service i've put 4.5 liters of oil in at the request of the oil light!

Lets do the math: 11000km / 4500ml = 2.4 ml per km.

seems excessive to me.

can you all work out your oil consumption per km (average) and post.

Ummmm, that's 2.4km/millilitre.....not 2.4 mils/km.

I get approx 10km/millilitre. And I still have my license..... ;) BTW, did you buy that farm shed RX-7?

I get about the same as you KAS. I fill up about every 3rd/4th tank with about 500ml I get about 350-380k per tank. So at say 4 tanks per 500ml I get 3.5...Very rough.

Andrew

auzoom, yeah thats about right. i get almost the same km's per tank also. Interesting.

My s6 rx7 didnt consume that much and it was driven pretty hard.

I get about 200-250mL/1000km, say 0.2 -0.25mL/km OR 4-5km/mL......

<500 ml/5000 km.... it's been serviced twice in 110000 km and 16 months.. but it's not a car that's driven hard often or for long.

Rowds

Hi Kas,

Apparently, I've been getting something similar to you - about 3kms per mil.

My car has not done many ks though. There was a rumour a while back that the cars were programmed to use more oil for the first few thousand ks, but I don't know if there was any truth in that or not. Presumably the idea was to help with sealing and bedding in the rotors, but I've never bothered to look into all the hows, whys and wheres of the oil is delivery system in our engines. Anybody know?

The car gets driven hard when I do use it. But not recklessly I hasten to add. :) Let's just say that fuel and oil consumption are not something I think about. The figure above was worked out by going into my shed and sticking a stick into the oil container and doing some rough calcs. Never thought to do it before. :)

I am very similar to you too, labrat

less than 500ml/2000km. so about 4km/ml. This is highway time, Kas, with baby at the back and she does not know how to say zoom zoom yet ;)

^^^ ditto with labrat and taka. And yes, although I don't have the same records as for fuel, I would say the 8 used more oil in the first 10,000k than it is using now....probably around double

OK well I have only just clocked 5k kms. So maybe this is why.

Andrew

Being an analytical chemist, I know that about yay that much down the dipstick (a precise measure of volume known only to me) means about 250mL, and I have a 250mL plastic bottle at home that I use to measure the oil into. I'm always concerned about overfilling.

yeah, interesting. I cant say that between 0k-10k, 10k-20k, 20k-30k, 30k - 40k i've ever put more than 1lt in. Why all of a sudden have a put 4 liters in at the request of the oil light staring at me and the dip stick well below the L.

Very interesting Timbo. That backs up the vague impression I'd got (from who knows where) that it uses more oil initially, by design.

Recently, I've noticed that my styling habits have changed.

Drving around shifting at 2-3000 RPM feels...how do I say it, CRAP. And that's how i used to drive.

I tend to change at 3-4500 RPM now and it feels like im driving well up to speed with cars

next to me, and they don't even seem to be tapping half of their rev range...

Does anyone notice that it takes abit of go in the RX8 just to keep up with the car

next to them? Not street racing, I mean just plain driving. I find it frustrating, especially

knowing the fact that your consuming twice or three times the petrol they are.

My bad...I didnt read "oil".

Sorry. :D

Just had a bad day and needed to let it out.. :(

I get between 350 - 450 km per tank , depending on my mood :D and shifting pattern .

As far as my oil is concerned i usually check every 2000 km top it up using 750ml - 1000 ml of oil .


B.....free

michael

Only just done 5000k and used 1.5 lt was only buying 1lts of oil at a time have now got a5lt to be on the safe side

I have to add about 1litre of oil for 3,000km

Same here... Pretty happy with this - it is certainly manageable...

About 250mL per 1000km for me.

this is good news then. seems mine isnt using an excessive amount any more than anyone elses

There is probably an argument in more frequent checking oil level and consequent more frequent and smaller oil additions. It has to do with the average age of the oil in the sump. If you are burning 250mL/1000km, you are adding 2.5L between 10,000km services; about 50%? of the total oil inventory of the vehicle. If you top up frequently, your engine will be seeing on average "younger" oil through its life. Topping up with say 1L every few thousand km means that you are cycling between partially used and refreshed oil. This isn't such a problem if you're using a high grade synthetic oil, but perhaps something to be considered if you're using the mineral-based Mazda rotary oils.

Labrat could you explain your last sentence re+problem with the mineral oil as opposed to synthetic.

I am currently looking at putting in a second larger oil cooler and possibly increasing the size of my oil pan , i believe Greedy has a larger one available .

As up to 30% of engine cooling is with oil i feel our Existing oil sumps are not entirely adequate especiallYif you go FORCED INDUCTION .supercharger /turbo or track use

B...free
michael

For forced induction you may want an upgraded oil pan Lock

I think even if you race your 8, an oil cooler is enough.

What you need is a oil temp meter and see what you need. I will put one on later.

L&L, my take on it is that synthetic oils have a generally higher tolerance to temperature than mineral-based oils. Imagine the oil molecules as long bits of spaghetti. They lubricate because the longer the molecule is, the greasier and stickier they are. High temperatures break down the long molecules to shorter ones (say macaroni), and their ability to lubricate is much reduced. I think the Mazda rotary oil is probably very similar to the mineral based Castrol Magnatec, which is a pretty good oil. However, if I was using Mazda rotary oil, I'd probably be inclined to change it every 5000km.

Going back to the old rotary synthetic versus mineral argument, the synthetic oils are chemically different to the straight chain hydrocarbons in mineral oils. In earlier rotaries, the synthetics would attack the synthetic rubber seals. However, Mazda is using newer polymers in the Renesis, and synthetic oils have been cleared. I noted on the label of my Castrol synthetic container that they claim the oil is compatible with all modern seal materials.