2004 3.8 LS Burning Oil

[dorlow]

Hi,

I have a 2004 3.8 V6 LS. I've owned the car since brand new. I think it has 110,000 miles on it now. When I first bought it, I put regular old 5w30 in it for about 10,000 miles. After that, I've put straight synthetic 5w30 in it. There were a few times over the years that I had other people work on my car and they put straight conventional oil. As soon as I figured out they did, I ripped them a new one and made them dump it and put full synthetic in it. I was told it could do damage once switching to synthetic to ever put regular oil in it again... don't know 100% for sure if it's true.

For a long time after buying the car, I would change my oil every 3,000 miles. But as the years have gone by and my budget has dwindled, I've been looking for ways to save money. My dad, which is a pretty good car mechanic, said there's no reason to change the oil every 3,000 miles. Just do it when the car dings and says to change it. It seems to go almost 10,000 miles between when the light says to change the oil.

I think it's been around 5-6,000 miles now (I'd have to go back and look for sure), but my car dinged this morning and said "low oil." I checked it and it registered very low on the dip stick. I added probably about a quart to it. I'm planning on going home tonight and changing my oil anyways now.

But, what would cause my car to be using or burining oil now? Is there a semi-easy fix? I consider myself a pretty handy person as long as I have good defined directions to follow for the fix before I start. Or is this completely normal for a car that has 110,000 miles on it? Should I switch to just chaning it every 3,000 miles no matter if the car thinks it needs changed or not?

[maxwedge]

Assuming good maintenace and the engine is in good shape I have found the 2 inner bolts in the lower intake have puddles of oil around them when the upper intake is being done, I remove and seal those bolts and no more oil is being drawn into the lower intake this has corrected abnormal consumption in 3 3800's I have worked on.