Questions and Answers

Saturn Consuming A Lot Of Oil Q. Hey, My dad's 1996 Saturn runs low on oil. It has 65,000 miles, 1.9 liter, A/C, P/S, fuel injection, automatic transmission and rack and pinion. It's been 4,000 since the last oil change. I added three quarts to bring it up to the full level on the dipstick. The motor has no drips, but had some seepage. The spark plugs look healthy.

Could oil be leaking into the coolant? Could driving habits be to blame? I read a PCV valve can cause oil loss (this Saturn's PCV is fine). How can a PCV valve cause oil loss?

Thanks...

A. The PCV is a constant vacuum leak that is drawing vapors from your crankcase. The wrong PCV valve could allow too much oil to get by the valve! A clogged PCV valve or it's hose can cause a build up of pressure in the crankcase and force oil out of the external seals in the engine.

Sounds like you need a compression test to see what shape the cylinders are in. Also, it could be bad valve seals. This would make it blow a puff of blue smoke on start-up.