2 Potential Reasons Your Car Is Consuming An Excessive Amount Of Oil
When it comes to elevated levels of oil consumption in a car, most people assume the cause of the problem is a leak. But actually there are a wide variety of automotive ailments that can lead to this problem. if you would like to learn more about some of the factors that may be at play, read on. This article will discuss two potential reasons your car is consuming too much oil.
Blocked Or Gunked Up PCV Valve
An automobile's positive crankcase ventilation system--often referred to by the acronym PCV--plays a vital role in ensuring engine efficiency. It's job is to funnel excess engine gases back into the combustion chamber. You see, such gases still contain a decent amount of hydrocarbons--hydrocarbons that will provide extra energy when burned. Not only does the PCV allows your car is able to maximize the amount of energy it gets from its gasoline, but it also helps to prevent oil from escaping backwards out of the engine.
Unfortunately, the PCV loses its ability to promote engine efficiency when the valve that leads from crankcase to engine becomes clogged. This tends to happen slowly over time, as water, oil, combustion by-products, and other sources of particulate matter build up into a nasty sludge. Once this sludge has blocked the PCV valve completely, it will lead to an increase of the gas pressure inside your crankcase.
This pressure, in turn, leads to an increased degree of oil leakage out of your engine. By having a blocked PCV valve cleaned, serviced, or replaced if necessary, you can do wonders to restore the efficiency of your automobile. In the process, you should also find that your excessive oil consumption problem becomes much less severe.
Warped Cylinders
The cylinders in your engine are where the mixture of gasoline and air are combusted, thus providing the energy necessary to make your car go. As you can imagine, over the course of years and years, this process of combustion subjects the cylinders to an incredible amount of stress. Eventually it can even cause the cylinders to become warped out of shape.
In a perfect system, the piston inside of your cylinders fits perfectly, with no gaps at all between it and the walls of the cylinder. When a cylinder becomes warped, however, that piston no longer fits as snugly as it should. This allows oil to escape around the sides of the piston--a problem commonly known as oil pumping. Talk to a mechanic, like PDR Automotive Inc, for more help.
