Is it burning too much oil?

I have a 1999 Suburban 1500 5.7, 130,000. I bought this truck with 17,000 miles on so I've owned it most of it's life. Numerous things have gone wrong with it but I have always changed the oil and filter around 3,000 miles. Mostly with a Fram filter and Castrol 5W-30. Lately I have had to add 1 to 2 quarts of oil every 3,000 miles. My wife noticed a little smoke from the tail pipe recently, no oil drips. Is this typical to add this much oil? And also if I used Castrol High Mileage would that help?

I have a 1999 Suburban 1500 5.7, 130,000. I bought this truck with 17,000 miles on so I've owned it most of it's life. Numerous things have gone wrong with it but I have always changed the oil and filter around 3,000 miles. Mostly with a Fram filter and Castrol 5W-30. Lately I have had to add 1 to 2 quarts of oil every 3,000 miles. My wife noticed a little smoke from the tail pipe recently, no oil drips. Is this typical to add this much oil? And also if I used Castrol High Mileage would that help?


the use of 1 qt of oil every 3,ooomi is about the most you should see on an average engine of this age....

your use of the fram filters are to be avoided,,,these filters do not filter well and as a result the debris is wearing out your engine....

with the use of non-synthetic oils fiters must be of the highest quality..the filters I use are wix, and purolator plus..

cut the used filters open then you will see...

what oil brand are you using ?,,with dino oil I prefer castrol,,,with synthetic I prefer mobil 1...

I have owned 4 vehicles over 40 plus years,,,with all going over 120,000mi. , and never used that much oil...even the 380,ooomi gm V8..

another componet that can cause engine wear would be cheap air filters,or vacuum leaks which then cause dust and debris to enter the engine...this also causes rapid engine wear..

1 quart per 1000 miles is spec. I switched to 10w30 because of oil consumption. Use much less now.

1 quart per 1000 miles is spec. I switched to 10w30 because of oil consumption. Use much less now.


your answer of 1000mi is the spec for this vehicle is the GM response...everyone knows that this amount of oil consumption over a short period of time does damage and is polluting the air...with the new test standards this will cause emission test failure...

the use of 1 qt of oil every 3,ooomi is about the most you should see on an average engine of this age....

your use of the fram filters are to be avoided,,,these filters do not filter well and as a result the debris is wearing out your engine....

with the use of non-synthetic oils fiters must be of the highest quality..the filters I use are wix, and purolator plus..

cut the used filters open then you will see...

what oil brand are you using ?,,with dino oil I prefer castrol,,,with synthetic I prefer mobil 1...

I have owned 4 vehicles over 40 plus years,,,with all going over 120,000mi. , and never used that much oil...even the 380,ooomi gm V8..

another componet that can cause engine wear would be cheap air filters,or vacuum leaks which then cause dust and debris to enter the engine...this also causes rapid engine wear..

That's what I was thinking that the Fram filter might not have provided good wear protection. I've always used a standard Purolator or most usually an AC Delco oil filter. I understand Fram has a "toughgard" that cost more but I'd still go with the Purolator Pureone. My chevy malibu, with the factory defect piston slap when cold and with lower IMG leak for a while before I replaced it, has 124,000 miles and uses basically no oil in 3,000 miles. It might maybe use a 1/4-1/2 qrt max over 3k. All I've done is change the oil every 3k miles with the filters I mentioned and I don't change the air filter all that often or use any special motor oil. I'm now more of a pennzoil/quaker state guy.

Another thing that can make an engine use oil is if it ever been ran too hot in its history.