"Normal" oil usage

[TheDeadCow]

Because blatantly to me it feels like a case of "we couldn't figure out to to reliably make it not burn a lot of oil, or even make it similar from one engine to the next, but if we put it in the manual we have an excuse." The wide range of what people are burning seems to also make this seem like it's the case. VW gives the warning in their manual too, and they don't burn as much as some of the GT350's I see here.

Please. Name other high performance cars where people are constantly posting over oil burning issues, 2yrs into the car being out. If you look on Vette forums what some of them will say is a "take it to get looked at" is borderline normal here. It may be normal for the GT350, but others are having almost 0 oil burn and other are having a lot. Yes there is fluctuation depending on how you drive and where, but there is a HUGE variance. From little to none every 7500, to 1 every 750 is a MASSIVE range. I would drive my Mach1 like I stole it every day and only change the oil every 12 months(5k miles), and I'd MAYBE burn 1/4-1/2 a QT. This is while driving only 12 miles a day to work and back, red lining daily and I STILL has better usage than even a gently driven GT350.

At what refill interval should a person worry about burning to much oil, with how wide the range is. Thats my point. At what point is it NOT normal.

I believe the manual states something like 1 qt per 1000mi is acceptable. Soooo I would imagine anything beyond that would be something to worry about. It's not rocket science, so let's not make it more complicated than it has to be.

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[UAmach1]

I believe the manual states something like 1 qt per 1000mi is acceptable. Soooo I would imagine anything beyond that would be something to worry about. It's not rocket science, so let's not make it more complicated than it has to be.

Refilling 1/2 your oil every 5k just sounds shady to me unless you are living over 5,000 rpm. If it was 1 for 1000 "with heavy track use" I'd find that more acceptable and even reasonable.

 

[GTthree50]

i Get that the OP is concerned about excessive or perceived excessive consumption and that the examples he gave show the GT350 to use too much oil. I’ll throw air cooled 911’s up for comparison also. More high performance than any VW I can think of and they can use fairly good quantities of oil. I had two of them before buying the Shelby and don’t find any of the oil consumption figures that are within factory spec alarming at all. More a matter of what one is accostomed to. Rotary engines Mazada’s use a bunch of oil too. Many cars do use oil and many do not. For this owner it’s all part of the package. It’s a thrilling car and I’m enjoying the crap out of it.

 

[TheDeadCow]

Refilling 1/2 your oil every 5k just sounds shady to me unless you are living over 5,000 rpm. If it was 1 for 1000 "with heavy track use" I'd find that more acceptable and even reasonable.

Not all of them burn a ton of oil. I have 3500mi with 2 track days and mine burns no oil....not yet.

Maybe this isn't the car for you.

 

[Wriggly]

I drive mine like I am racing every time I get in it. It is driven hard. I run it up to 8K every chance I get. I mash the gas and shift fast and quick all of the time. I rev to about 3500K and launch from every red light or stop sign. Just enough so the tires don't spin. It is so much damn fun. My car is in no way only driven to church on Sundays by grandma. However, it is maintained and very well cared for just driven like Ford says the car can be driven. It is a weekend driver and I drive it.

That was not a typo earlier. I burn 1 quart per 750 miles. Not 1 per 7500.

You're from Texas. You guys just have oil pouring out of the ground in your backyards. Might as well use it.

 

[car crazy]

Every German car I've owned required 1 to 2 quarts of oil between oil changes. If 1 quart per 7,500 miles is your benchmark for failure, every car I've owned in the last 20 years would have failed.

 

[oldbmwfan]

Every German car I've owned required 1 to 2 quarts of oil between oil changes. If 1 quart per 7,500 miles is your benchmark for failure, every car I've owned in the last 20 years would have failed.

I see the P-car in the picture, but what others? I've had multiple BMWs with 250k+ miles that didn't consume oil at all. Most of them were M30 motors, but also M50s, S52s, and M54s at 100k-150k.

 

[Wriggly]

Because blatantly to me it feels like a case of "we couldn't figure out to to reliably make it not burn a lot of oil, or even make it similar from one engine to the next, but if we put it in the manual we have an excuse." The wide range of what people are burning seems to also make this seem like it's the case. VW gives the warning in their manual too, and they don't burn as much as some of the GT350's I see here.

Please. Name other high performance cars where people are constantly posting over oil burning issues, 2yrs into the car being out. If you look on Vette forums what some of them will say is a "take it to get looked at" is borderline normal here. It may be normal for the GT350, but others are having almost 0 oil burn and other are having a lot. Yes there is fluctuation depending on how you drive and where, but there is a HUGE variance. From little to none every 7500, to 1 every 750 is a MASSIVE range. I would drive my Mach1 like I stole it every day and only change the oil every 12 months(5k miles), and I'd MAYBE burn 1/4-1/2 a QT. This is while driving only 12 miles a day to work and back, red lining daily and I STILL has better usage than even a gently driven GT350.

At what refill interval should a person worry about burning to much oil, with how wide the range is. Thats my point. At what point is it NOT normal.

I remember you from the Mach1 days. Not sure if it was the Registry or the Org. I'm with you. Hard for me to swallow the numbers being reported here. Between a Mach1, a Terminator, a 13 Coyote vert, and finally a 15 S550 vert, all of them in their total collected mileage didn't use any oil. My Shelby has started to use some. I didn't notice any movement on the stick for 1200 miles, then it moved down almost imperceptibly. Now at 1800 miles it's down just about a quarter quart.

Maybe a little STP oil additive is called for here.

I see from your sigline you're contemplating another Stang. I wouldn't do it. My current Ford is the very last for me. I have no damnable complaints about the Shelby at the moment, though if I were to make a list of the "Quirks" that seem to be catastrophic to some members, I could post up a pretty sizable list of bitches. But in the end, it's a Ford....a pretty cool Ford, but a Ford nevertheless.

 

[Rick R]

Did any of you have a normal Coyote mustang before the GT350? My 2011 GT ate almost one quart every 1k miles. By comparison, my GT350 is more parsimonious. 1k every 6k miles is Toyota Corolla land. Or my wife's 2011 Explorer with a 3.6 V6 boat anchor.

 

[UAmach1]

Did any of you have a normal Coyote mustang before the GT350? My 2011 GT ate almost one quart every 1k miles. By comparison, my GT350 is more parsimonious. 1k every 6k miles is Toyota Corolla land. Or my wife's 2011 Explorer with a 3.6 V6 boat anchor.

None of the cars in my sig ate more than 1/2 of a qt between changes. Same for any car my family has ever had, and that includes multiple F150/250's, a Civic, Accord, GTI, 80's 200SX, a Wrangler, even a Dodge Aries wagon.

Are cars just getting better on MPG but worse on oil consumption?

 

[Nicky Pass]

How aware of oil consumption were you before this car? I find that forums amplify smaller issues. This forum is about 1.5% of GT350 owners, so how many really have oil consumption issues....we will never know. If the manual states 1 quart per 1000 miles, why would it be a shock if that's what happens? Drive it, park it and stare, track it park it in a bubble, drive it in the rain or snow....do what makes you happy, it your car and your money.

 

[mustang1]

Did any of you have a normal Coyote mustang before the GT350? My 2011 GT ate almost one quart every 1k miles. By comparison, my GT350 is more parsimonious. 1k every 6k miles is Toyota Corolla land. Or my wife's 2011 Explorer with a 3.6 V6 boat anchor.

What will the spark plugs look like on a car that uses a quart every 1k miles? Normal, or evidence of burning oil ?

 

[torque124]

What will the spark plugs look like on a car that uses a quart every 1k miles? Normal, or evidence of burning oil ?

Normal. You won't be fouling plugs with 1 quart per 1k miles. That is pretty normal oil consumption.

 

[torque124]

None of the cars in my sig ate more than 1/2 of a qt between changes. Same for any car my family has ever had, and that includes multiple F150/250's, a Civic, Accord, GTI, 80's 200SX, a Wrangler, even a Dodge Aries wagon.

Are cars just getting better on MPG but worse on oil consumption?

You obviously never owned a performance vehicle. Look at my signature... Most cars I owned would use oil, the M5 up to 1 quart per 500 miles, and the 335xi (heavily modified though, pushing more than m3 power at wheels) up to 1 quart per 1000 miles.

Audi also states that 1 quart/1k is normal, and so is Porsche etc. It's very relative...and it does depend to some extent on driving habits.

 

[UAmach1]

You obviously never owned a performance vehicle. Look at my signature... Most cars I owned would use oil, the M5 up to 1 quart per 500 miles, and the 335xi (heavily modified though, pushing more than m3 power at wheels) up to 1 quart per 1000 miles.

Audi also states that 1 quart/1k is normal, and so is Porsche etc. It's very relative...and it does depend to some extent on driving habits.

You clearly didn't read my signature or what I wrote. A A4 is no more a performance vehicle than a GTI and I'd say less of one than a modded Mach1.

I also text my friend with a STG2 STI and his previous car was an Audi TT 2nd gen. He said that neither burned more than 1qt a change and he changes at 7500 miles.

It's really starting to feel that many of you just accept oil burning as normal instead of questioning it at all when others clearly say they use little to no oil.

Supposedly the average person drivers 15k a year. Going by that why EVER get an oil change when you are literally burning all your oil every 6-8 month and replacing it. Just change your filter.

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