Burning oil = bad?...
 

Hey I got a 04 Winning Blue rx8. I only have 350xx miles and currently everytime i drive my car and turn it off it smells of burning oil -.-;; in like 1300 miles since my oil change i was down to low on the dipstick. So i'm guessing this is bad. I have no smoke coming out of my exhaust. Any idea's what is the problem? My roommate is picking up a car from the same dealership as the mazda dealer i go to so i'm gonna take it there soon but I sorta wanna know what it might be. any help will be great. Thx anyone and everyone =)

Rotaries burn oil.

yes but does it smell so bad outside the car -.-? i know about rotary cars i spent months and months researching my car. please dont insult my intelligence by giving me a bs answer like that. I know they dont burn oil as fast as my car did and it sure doesnt smell of burning oil so bad that it reeks outside of the car

no one is trying to insult your intelligence but if you haven't checked your oil in 1300 miles, it sounds like you didn't do research and don't know anything about rotary engines and how to care for them. that comment wasn't meant as an insult either.

smell bad outside the car- did you flood or anything recently. also make sure there's no oil leak.

about 2 oil changes ago, i too had my oil burn quick, down to low in about 1000 miles. hasn't happened again yet.

The Renesis engine was designed to use oil. Because of this, you will likely have to add some oil between oil changes. How much you will have to add will depend partly on how hard you drive the car. Also, getting an occasional whiff of burned oil is normal.

1.3L

:eek: I hope that you check your oil more often than that. That would be like 5 or 6 fill ups. You should check at least every other. Unless you are OCD like Mac and check it every 1/4 tank.

You may be smelling the cat - does it have a sulfer or rotten egg smell? If so it is probably the fuel in the cat and the smell will eventually go away, according to the mazda TSB. I have 8500 miles on mine and still smell that occasionally.

The smell is not common. You may have some leaking somewhere. Check around your filler cap and oil pan. I would ask the dealer to check for leaks and try to track down the smell.

I burn about 1 quart every 1000 miles which is normal but it really depends on how hard you drive it. More revs equals more oil used. It sounds like if you do have a leak it's not a lot since your oil was down about where I would have expected it to be after 1300 miles.

just drove to FL and back, about 1200 miles total. Used a little over a half a quart. Pretty normal consumption there. The fact that your car smells like burning oil outside the car suggests to me a leak. Drive your car until you oil is hot, park it level with a piece of cardboard (clean) under your car and see if a leak shows up (overnight). Good luck.

That sounds like more than average. Together with the smell, you could have a leak. I had a smaller leak than that on my old Honda, and the fumes got pretty bad.

I've only got 5.5K on my 8, so I don't have much personal data. But I've noticed that oil consumption is uneven. I've been OC and topping off at a half quart down, and that's happened in anywhere from 300 to 1000 miles.

Wouldn't hurt for someone to take a look.

Ken

Especially if they just changed the oil. Maybe they didn't quite thread the plug right.??

U should've check it more often. Unless you're kind of person like me who change his own every 1.5 - 2.5 K miles.

Bring it to dealership. Theres extended powertrain warranty anyway

sounds like an oil leak somewhere

I actually had a smell like that last week. I got my pil changed on Friday and so far no more smell. I was only at about 2,200 miles, but I was at the 3 month mark, and I do drive mine hard at times.

-Brian

my car has always been different from the other rx8's cuz it burns very little oil and the fact that it was lowered that low so rapidly was definately not expect and it only burned for about 3-4 days so thats why i'm worried. Its a recent problem and yes i do check my engine oil every other gas tank and all the typical stuff. also no recent full throttle or anything like that excessive. anywayz dealership seems like the place to go but still i feel that my dealership is dumb as a rock so i feel like find opinions but w/e

Thanks guys, this is very useful information since that I will be getting a rx8 very soon.. So basically, I have to check my oil every 700 miles, just to be safe? And when the level of the oil gets low, just add some oil to fill it? I really don't want to do an oil change every 700 miles when my oil is low..

My MOP was leaking onto my exaust manifold....that sure smelled like burning oil :D:

You don't change it then - you just top it off. Same as any other car.

700 miles, if you drive 12000 miles a year (typical average) is once every three weeks. Depending on how conciencious you are, you should be checking oil, tire pressures, etc. on any car somewhere between once a week and once a month.

Checking oil on the 8 is not as onerous as Mazda makes it out to be. Look for the "Houdini dipstick maneuver" thread - I believe it's in the DIY section.

Ken

Thanks man for the clarification. Anything else I should know about owning a rotory/rx8? (Sorry for threadjacking ;) )

FAQs and sticky threads are your friend.

Just learn how to put on a look of distaste and say "That thing has pistons!" when you look at other people's cars.

Gotta do it at just the right level. Too subtle and they think you're kidding. Too strong and you lose some teeth. But just right... :)

Ken

lol nice... i'll be sure to keep that in mind in case i run into a piston lover :D

If you use synthetic oil should you still change it every 3000 miles?

Lots of oil stays in the coolers, so you're never actually running "all new oil" after an oil change. So many here change it every 3k instead of 5k, regardless of their choice between synth & dino.