Hey Guys,

My Ute has been had an intermittent misfire. I thought that maybe the coils may have been on their way out (done about 120xxx), I have booked it in to have it looked; however I was driving to work yesterday morning and the oil light came on. Checked the oil and it was low… I mean really low! Now before you all flame me for not checking it, it’s regularly serviced and was about 2 weeks away from due date and 1500 kms under. I had to put 3.5 ltrs of oil in it before it reached the ok level! And now the misfire seems to have gone.

So my questions are..
1 Why would it be using so much oil, no signs of leaks or smoke?
2 I run it mainly on gas but at least once a fortnight I run give or take at least half a tank of fuel, is that enough? Or should I use fuel more often?
3 Would being so low on oil cause a misfire?

And help would be good, I trust my mechanic but any extra info to go to him armed with would be great.

Cheers Paul.

LOw oil can cause a miss or a stumble due to changes in combustion chamber temperatures.
Why it's using oil, harder to figure out.
Is it leaking from anywhere on the engine?
Any signs of a blown head gasket? Blowing any smoke?

It may be worth talkin with you're mechanic about the oil being used. It may be to thin for the engines condition.
Even going from a 10w30 to a 10w40 or a 15w40 could be the difference.

Hey are you guys running valve saver? I know it's mostly for older cars on LPG but some systems need it.

And how would you add it to an LPG system? Its only an petrol additive. I would suggest they run petrol more regularly. But the price of a B-Series motor, its probably a break even exercise between running petrol from time to time and dropping another motor in.

I've seen low km B Series motors going for just a crack over $100. LPG motors, significantly more though,

It's called flashlube valve saver.....
They make a system suited for LPG vehicles, you obviously havnt seen under the bay if many LPG cars. Heaps of them have it.

Nope, I have not. Learn something new each day. how is it added to the system?

Yes, it's a good system. Easy to adjust the amounts added. Usually only see it on the older cars and the bottle is usually empty haha.

the valvesaver lube was mainly used on older engines that didnt have hardned valve seats or ran on super...
any car that runs on unleaded or has hardned valve seats dont need to run it.....

Does anyone know if the valvestem seals are the same in the BA and the ded gas BA?

Hey Pakrat,

No signs of leaks and doesn't seem like head gasket, oil was burnt as fk... Guess from being so low, but no signs of water and water is clear... Doesn't seem to blow any smoke (not that anyone but me drives it so never been behind it). Never asked what oil he uses, i know its motul..



Hey Ash,

Have noticed a little puff on mornings when i take off but i just thought that was just cold start... I back out of my car park and then take off down the road; couple of times when i've looked back there is a little beach ball sized cloud of i would say whitish smoke.. but doesn't seem to do it when warm!?!?



SOLD! lol We dont all have a used car yard at our back door!


Hmmm, well not so worried anymore.. Hadn't really look at prices for motors.. But if this is the case i'll just drive the thing till it s**t and swap it!

Thanks everyone one for there replies.. At this stage the mechanic says there doesn't seem to be anything they can really put it down too... So its gotta go back in 1500 kms to check oil consumption...

Cheers Paul