I've read posts on this forum from people whose oil level goes up but I have the opposite problem. I have to top up with oil every 6 weeks and get through about 5 litres every 12k miles.

The car is a 2006 model (TS2 2.1 diesel). Other than the oil consumption the car and engine both seem fine.

Does anyone else suffer the same problem - or even have a suggestion as to why it's burning so much? (I can only assume it's being burned as the driveway is free from oil marks).

Cheers,

Phil

 

Has your car got a DPF? if not your oil level will not rise as that's only applicable to cars with a DPF. How many miles has the car done? It's not unusual for some 16v engines to use oil without obvious signs of burning. You'll find that although your oil consumption is high it is probably just within acceptable levels.
Try to see any blue smoke coming from the exhaust while someone else drives and you follow. Leave the car idling for a while and see if it smokes. Coast down a long hill on overrun and see if it smokes when you accelerate away. Finding out when it smokes will give clues to the causes.

 

Thanks I'll give that a try. The car does have a DPF and as far as I know it doesn't smoke (blue or otherwise) but I'll try driving behind some time just to make sure.

I know of other people whose diesels get through a lot of oil (mainly VW owners) but the reason I think it unusual for my Mazda is that up until around 50K miles it didn't *ever* need topping up. Then, suddenly, it started getting through what I consider to be quite a bit of oil.

This change coincided with a service (non main dealer). I've had it serviced since (main dealer) and they didn't find any fault that might lead to loss of oil. Of course this could have just been a coincidence but it has left me suspicious - thinking that maybe something they did during the 50K service introduced a fault that wouldn't otherwise have occurred.

The car has now done 67K miles.

Anyway I'll check for smoke and will post an update soon...

 

It's a bit worrying that it just started using oil. Have you noticed any other symptoms? Does the car start as usual, any rattles etc.?

 

No, no other symptoms* (apart from using oil). The DPF light came on the other day due to low speed driving but a bit of high revving cleared this within a minute. The engine starts first time, doesn't knock or rattle (any more than the usual noise you'd expect from a diesel, that is). It accelerates fine and is smooth both around town and at cruising speed.

* The only other problem with the car is there's a knocking from the front-left suspension when going over bumps. I think it's probably just a worn bush but Mazda couldn't work out what it was when they last checked it and asked for £130 to *try* changing a bush (i.e., £130 to maybe fix the noise, maybe not!). I said I'd wait until it got worse so they can work out exactly what it is before I pay out any cash. I don't think, however, this would be linked to the oil usage.

Topping up the oil is costing me about £45 a year so it's not the end of the world. I just wondered if there might be a known issue that I could try addressing (mainly so I don't have to keep remembering to top it up so regularly).

Thanks for your help