GM Oil Consumption

I bought a Rendezvous used and have been having all of these problems.

I wish I could say that I have enjoyed owning a buick. I bought this car thinking that I bought a good american car. I have always bought foreign cars and have always enjoyed driving and having them. Since i have had this Buick all I have are problems. The car is 3yrs old and has 50,000 miles on it. In the last 4 months I have had a wheel bearing replaced, power steering shaft replaced, the car pings with any octane under 89,and console latch broke. The dealership has told me it's normal for a GM product to be down a QT of oil or more within 5000 miles. I think this is unacceptable. How can you sell a car that performs this way? This means that the car is burning oil or something else? . There are no leaks the dealership has checked everyhing. How does a basically new car with 50k burn oil? My low engine oil light comes on regurly now. I feel this car is a big LEMON. The state says this doesn't fall under this lemon law provision. I guess it must fall under a piece of american crap. I am so very dissapointed in the quality of this car. THe buttons on my stearing wheel flaked off. This car was suppose to the top of line GM product. If this is true I can only imagine what the bottom line must be like. I will never buy another american car ever again. I have owned a few american cars in my life and all they have done is cost me money. I have owned honda's, nissans and all i ever had to do is change the oil and normal maintinance. I have never had to add oil even after 175,000 miles on these other cars. THe dealer gave me a GM bulletin.....basically to cover their butts. Stating that it's acceptible for a GM product to be down a 1 qt or more around 2,000 miles or more. This could be due to road contions, environement condition, viscosity of oil being used, speed. Basically making it someone elses fault. I think this is a bunch is crap. I truly believe they have a major defect........ I have spoken too a few others and they report the same issues. Why is this not being talked about? Any one have any similar issues, thoughts? Where did the oil go... well out my exhaust which means there is a build up of carbon in the system....will GM pay for a new muffler, Catalyc converter.

If others are having this same problem lets talk. Let's do something about it!!!

I am so dissapointed. I wanted to buy an american car but if we can't make a car that performs than why bother. We complain about jobs going overseas, etc...... well lets do something about it. If you build quality they will come.

Sorry to hear about the issues. This is pretty typical though for a first model year run of a domestic vehicle. As far as the oil consumption goes, I've never heard of a GM 3.1/3.4 that consumes oil, although 1qt in 5000miles is not much at all. The 3.1/3.4 is however notorious for bad intake manifold gaskets, which will cause you to loose (burn) coolant, so keep an eye on that. Not sure about that causing oil usage though :confused: . Most auto manufacturers spec 1qt in 1000 miles is okay. Most Audi,VW,BMW,Benz use WAY more than 1qt/5000miles. What oil are you using? I'd bet if you changed your oil yourself & used a quality off the shelf oil, you'd see the consumption drop. Also the ATF in your 4T60E transmission should NOT be streched past 50Kmile changeouts if you want it to last.
G/luck
Joel

I might give you the new model car thing except that the 3.4 engine is not new. It was used in the Aztec for a few years before that and probably another car. The last time I got the low Engine oil level light it was about 1500k and was down over a qt of oil. Will GM pay for a new Catalyc converter/ muffler whe nthey corrode and fail because of the extra carbon and junk buildup? I am amazed that GM has not had a class action suite on this type of problem. This is really and enginering problem. It's a known defect. An engine should never build oil. Oil is a lubricant.....If this car was 6 or 7 years old and 175 k I might buy it but 50k....no way. I can opnly imagine what this can do to an engine ? Deposits of carbon etc..........

Any thoughts? THere must be others out here with this problem or is mine just a lemon. It would be my luck!

THankjs

Jerry

I realize the 3.4L has been around for a LONG time. The old school pushrod GM 2.8/3.1/3.4 family of 60deg V6's was introduced in the early 1980's & is virtually unchanged. Again, the only thing the later 3.1 & 3.4L are notorius for is intake manifold gasket failure, which results in coolant loss, heating system issues & possible engine failure (due to coolant in combustion chamber). In 25yrs of following/tinkering with cars/trucks (I'm not a "mechanic") I have never seen or heard of a modern, low mileage GM 3.4L that uses oil. Something is wrong in your case. It sounds like you have a valve stem seal issue, or possibly stuck piston ring pack(s). Both rare in this engine at this mileage. I would guess that a class action suit would be impossible in this case.
G/luck
Joel

An engine should never burn oil. Oil is a lubricant.....If this car was 6 or 7 years old and 175 k I might buy it but 50k....no way. I can opnly imagine what this can do to an engine ? Deposits of carbon etc..........

in theory a car should never burn oil, in reality it is far from the truth. if the engine was ran at 2K rpm under no load and properly cooled and the proper parts where used(i'll talk about that in a second), then the oil would almost never break down. is that how we drive? no. stop, go, stop, go, hot, cold, hot, cold, lug, coast, lug, coast, ect...

oil is a lubricant, but it does more then that. the combustion process produces about 4500F degrees of heat, about 1/3 of that is cooled by the oil, the oil gets VERY hot(if you have ever changed your own oil you would know that). the oil pressure is also used support pieces of the engine(lifters, tenctioners, crank and cam surfaces - remember many pieces of the engine 'ride' on the oil)

i own a Saturn 1.9L, one of those lower end cars you refurred to. they are very oil dependent cars, typical oil consumption is 1 qt/2000miles. and i am happyier driving it then my mother's buick. almost every day i help people with higher mileage saturns who burn up to 1qt/200miles (and many i add i have gotten 90+% of those cars to 1qt/2000miles without a rebuild).

now a few other parts things that cause oil to go bad:

1. EGR - it a emissions control device, the government tells the manufactiors to put it there. is reciculates the exhaust gases to the intake. the carbon from the exhaust contamulates the intake and some of this dirtt is absorbed by the oil.(plus it adds a little carbon build-up to the combustion chamber)

2. PCV - this is the guy that vents excess crankcase vapors(oil) to the intake. this little $5 piece is a large part of oil consumption because people don't put the right one in. ever have your jiffy lube tech (and i use the term tech loosey) sell you a PCV valve? he is not selling you the OEM piece, he is selling you a universal aftermarket peice that will fit a million different cars. it looks the same but it is not. it has a different flow rate. the proper OEM piece is sold only by the dealership(in this case buick).

in my mind i would never drive a car to 5000miles without a oil change, so you really shouldn't be that consurned. the real place to talk about this is at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com.

to finish oil is very importent to an engine, ever hear of the Ferriari Enzo? an oil change cost over $700(12 quarts @ $60 per quart) miss one oil change or use the wrong oil and you will void your warrenty

BTW what is wrong with your cat? i have yet to hear of an exhaust system falling because of a oil problem.

Excellent points sierrap615. You need to keep crankcase pressure low with a properly functioning PCV system, and on some engines, EGR keeps combusion chamber temps out of oil cooking temp. ranges. The saturn 1.9 runs notoriously hot in the ring pack area, causing stuck rings & oil consumption. As you know, preventative maintenace is the key there. The 1.9L is still a simplistic,economical and extremely reliable engine. The GM 3.4L isn't known to have ring pack, EGR or PCV issues- espically being a 2002 with 50Kmiles. These engines are not that hard on oil either, which does make 5000mile oil changes feasable with normal driving. I'm like you, I can never bring myself to go that far (I'm another BITOG member!!) I would expect some oil usage beyond 4000miles, especially with moderate to hard driving, but loosing 1qt at 2-3000 miles would lead me to believe there are out of the ordinarly problems with this engine, the oil being used, or the way this buick is driven/used.
G/luck
Joel

I have NEVER owned a car that used absolutely no oil. I have owned: 79 olds cutlass supr., 86 audi 4000cs quattro, 1990 Honda Accord, 1990 chevy lumina, and 1996 monte carlo. ALL have used between 1/2 - 1 qt. between oil changes. I will admit, I have driven ALL of them hard, especially the cutlass and the audi. All were in very good condition, some with high miles, some with low. That amount of oil consumption, I don't care if it's american, european, or japanese, is pretty normal. I have talked to many mechanics who agree.

hey guys! another BITOG member here!

That's the place I learned about Fuel Power and Lube Control www.lubecontrol.com . I am one sold customer!

hey guys! another BITOG member here!

That's the place I learned about Fuel Power and Lube Control www.lubecontrol.com . I am one sold customer!

Yep. I'm on my second gallon of each myself.

G/luck
Joel