Mazda Protege loosing oil?

So I have been looking for someone to have had this problem already but they are all a little different. My car eats oil and I have no clue where it's going when I park there is no big puddle and my car does not smoke out the tail pipe but after a few hundred miles it's 1-2 quarts low. Anyone have any clue what's going on? My buddy was saying maybe I need a catch can for the car but idk it just hit 218,000 miles so maybe it's rebuild time. I don't know, please let me know what you think, thanks.
 
Not sure about year or engine size but i do know the 2.0 engines in the early 2000s have a tendency to burn oil. Sometimes a LOT. It seems the oil rings get gummed up on the pistons and the consumption begins. Guys have used seafoam in the oil per instructions to help clean up the sludge and gunk and change oil every few hundred miles. Many times it helps slow the consumption considerably. Search seafoaming mazda 2.0 on here.
For starters you could check the pcv and clean/replace if its gummed up. Also make sure the spark plug seals are good or oil can leak into there as well. If your car uses oil id suggest not using synthetic and at least 10w30 if not a bit thicker.
 
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Not sure about year or engine size but i do know the 2.0 engines in the early 2000s have a tendency to burn oil. Sometimes a LOT. It seems the oil rings get gummed up on the pistons and the consumption begins. Guys have used seafoam in the oil per instructions to help clean up the sludge and gunk and change oil every few hundred miles. Many times it helps slow the consumption considerably. Search seafoaming mazda 2.0 on here.
For starters you could check the pcv and clean/replace if its gummed up. Also make sure the spark plug seals are good or oil can leak into there as well. If your car uses oil id suggest not using synthetic and at least 10w30 if not a bit thicker.
Yes it’s a 2003 2.0 and okay I’ll look into seafoaming it and why not use synthetic? I use Valvoline high mileage 10-30 right now.
 
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If you burn oil you’re just throwing money away. Synthetic where I like is like $8 or $9 a quart. Reg oil is like $4 or $5. If you’re burning it why keep spending more? Also there are alot of stories about oil leaks popping up when guys switch to a synthetic oil in a higher mileage engine. So if your engine was a regular oil engine for most of its life and you started using synthetic it is possible it introduced some leaks at the seals.

My 03 p5 has 175k miles and ive used reg oil since it was new. 10w30 and change it every 3000 and its happy. Uses about 1/2 quart every 3000 and no leaks to date.

The seafoam can be added to each oil change to keep it clean but alot of guys do several oil changes every couple hundred miles at first with like 1/2 the bottle to get alot of the initial gunk out. I’ve read 3 or 4 oil changes like that before seeing any reduction in consumption. Ymmv but a few oil changes and seafoam is way cheaper than engine work. I like to try easy fixes before expensive ones.
 
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So I have been looking for someone to have had this problem already but they are all a little different. My car eats oil and I have no clue where it's going when I park there is no big puddle and my car does not smoke out the tail pipe but after a few hundred miles it's 1-2 quarts low. Anyone have any clue what's going on? My buddy was saying maybe I need a catch can for the car but idk it just hit 218,000 miles so maybe it's rebuild time. I don't know, please let me know what you think, thanks.
I had to laugh a bit at this post. To be clear, not at you kmoney59, just at the nature of the question. I had this literal exact question when I first bought my car. I've never seen a drop of oil on the ground. I eventually came around to realizing that these 2.0 engines can burn a lot of oil.

For me, the question after realizing that was always "how long is it going to last if it's burning this much oil." Naturally, it's a quick death if you run out of oil, but it's easy to keep topped off. I'll agree with everything that sleeprp5 said, those are all great suggestions. If you browse around here and the Protege5 section, there are lots of discussions about this.
 
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I had to laugh a bit at this post. To be clear, not at you kmoney59, just at the nature of the question. I had this literal exact question when I first bought my car. I've never seen a drop of oil on the ground. I eventually came around to realizing that these 2.0 engines can burn a lot of oil.

For me, the question after realizing that was always "how long is it going to last if it's burning this much oil." Naturally, it's a quick death if you run out of oil, but it's easy to keep topped off. I'll agree with everything that sleeprp5 said, those are all great suggestions. If you browse around here and the Protege5 section, there are lots of discussions about this
Yeah it just baffles me, I thought it would smoke more being as I have a straight pipe if it was burning oil but I guess it just slide under the radar and yeah I’m gonna do what sleeprp5 said and see what happens. I know 2 or 3 owners and when my buddy’s owned the car I help them work on being the reason I got the car because I knew all the problems it had and fixed them when I got the car for cheap, put a few thousand in and it was still cheaper than a new car.
 
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my rusty 03 burns plenty of oil as well. to the point that i keep a 5 quart regular dino oil in the car.

the way my burns oil i may not even need to do oil changes and just replace the filter every once in a while.

According to youtube guru scotty kilmer- chaning the PCV valve (super cheap and super easy) could help with burning oil. I changed it but didn't notice much of a difference.

Youtube link: How to Fix a Car Engine that Burns Oil for 10 Bucks
 
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my rusty 03 burns plenty of oil as well. to the point that i keep a 5 quart regular dino oil in the car.

the way my burns oil i may not even need to do oil changes and just replace the filter every once in a while.

According to youtube guru scotty kilmer- chaning the PCV valve (super cheap and super easy) could help with burning oil. I changed it but didn't notice much of a difference.

Youtube link: How to Fix a Car Engine that Burns Oil for 10 Bucks
Hmm.

Just going on intuition here, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to never change oil, even if you're constantly topping off, yeah? We know that the oil burns as it slips past the piston rings, but does sludge also burn in the same way? If not, you're burning oil and leaving sludge which will build up in the engine without a full oil drain, yeah? I could be totally wrong though...maybe the filter catches that?

I also did my PCV valve with no noticeable decrease in oil usage. I've actually been putting this Rislone engine cleaner stuff in about 100 miles before every oil change, and it seems like it's helped a little bit (though marginally).

Scotty Kilmer is a bit of a polarizing character. His loud and "shouty" way of giving info in his videos is a little wearisome, amongst other things. I'll just leave it at that...he gets plenty of hate as is.
 
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Hello Benji!

Excellent points. I do not have the answer to the sludge question but perhaps others here may offer a better answer to that. I think to play it safe it's better to change the oil every 3000 miles or so. Since I'm using conventional motor oil the cost of oil and filter is pretty inexpensive.

Regarding your Rislone engine cleaner- what improvements have you seen for your car? I throw Seafoam into mine whenever i see them on sale but I haven't really noticed anything differently. Some people swear by that stuff but I haven't seen any noticeable difference.

Regarding Scotty Kilmer- Yes you are right, there are things that he does (like his click bait titles) that could be better. He's not perfect- but all things considered he does offer good guides on how to do work on your car. Of course, there's nothing better than forums like this to help answer questions and learn.

Without a forum like this I know my P5 would have already be dead and in the junkyard.
 
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I just found this thread.
I've got to start checking the Protege thread.

This is what your piston ends up looking like when your pistons oil drain holes completely plug up...

Notice the lack of spring tension on the oil ring.

20210920_203006.jpg


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The oil hole drains towards the connecting rod.

20210920_204035.jpg


Once that hole is plugged up, it's really hard to clean it out because there is no flow through it to get the engine cleaner to it, but I guess some people have managed to do it.
 
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Hmm.

Just going on intuition here, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to never change oil, even if you're constantly topping off, yeah? We know that the oil burns as it slips past the piston rings, but does sludge also burn in the same way? If not, you're burning oil and leaving sludge which will build up in the engine without a full oil drain, yeah? I could be totally wrong though...maybe the filter catches that?


^^^ That's all true, but some guys were burning a quart of oil every 100-200 miles.

That could mean up to 3 quarts or more for every tank of gas.
At that point your engine is so far gone that you are fogging out the entire neighborhood when you start your car in the morning, and oil changes are the least of your worries.

If your car is down only about a quart or so every 3000 miles, then an oil change is definitely a good idea.
You want to flush out all the stuff in the oil oil that turns it dark.

That's the stuff that carbonizes on your pistons with the extra heat.
 
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... I throw Seafoam into mine whenever i see them on sale but I haven't really noticed anything differently. Some people swear by that stuff but I haven't seen any noticeable difference.

Yeah, that's me, but I was lucky in that when I bought my car in March 2009, it wasn't burning oil.

I started with the Seafoam after joining this forum and reading about oil burning with our car and learned about Seafoam.

I put half a can in my oil, ran it for 50 miles, and the oil came out BLACK.
Next oil change was the same.

Then the third oil change it wasn't black anymore, so I put it in with my new oil, and leave it in until the next oil change.

But I didn't notice any difference either.
It still doesn't burn oil, but I bet it would be if I haven't been using Seafoam with every oil change.
 
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You know we are lost without PCB. Mazda needs to be aware of you and send you a free car for all of your knowledge!

All a want is another P5 that isn't rusty.
That would be cool.

I don't want to have to learn everything about a new car. Lol
 
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All a want is another P5 that isn't rusty.
That would be cool.

I don't want to have to learn everything about a new car. Lol
The whole rust thing is weird. It really seems to be 90% climate and 10% car. Yes, Protege's are more prone to rust than some other vehicles, because of the crappy metal. But mine for example is not rusty at all. It has lived it's entire life in Oregon, some of which was on the coast. I don't believe it has ever had undercoating, and it was certainly not babied before I bought it (or arguably even now).
 
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The whole rust thing is weird. It really seems to be 90% climate and 10% car.

I totally agree.
I live in the Great North Eastern Salt belt. Lol

When I went to look at my car in 2009, when deciding to purchase it, I looked underneath it and it was rusty as hell.

I figured that was normal for our area and it what I was used to seeing.

I previously had a 1983 Mazda GLC, and a 1985 Mazda 626.

After buying my car I went to check out my sisters Honda Accord, and looked underneath.

It was almost completely rust free, and it was a year older with more than twice the mileage!

I never would have bought the P5 if I would have checked out my sisters car first.

But I think I'm glad I ended up with the P5.
I love that rusty old turd. Lol

And it's a 5-speed Standard! Way funner than automatic.
 
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So I have been looking for someone to have had this problem already but they are all a little different. My car eats oil and I have no clue where it's going when I park there is no big puddle and my car does not smoke out the tail pipe but after a few hundred miles it's 1-2 quarts low. Anyone have any clue what's going on? My buddy was saying maybe I need a catch can for the car but idk it just hit 218,000 miles so maybe it's rebuild time. I don't know, please let me know what you think, thanks.
So I have been looking for someone to have had this problem already but they are all a little different. My car eats oil and I have no clue where it's going when I park there is no big puddle and my car does not smoke out the tail pipe but after a few hundred miles it's 1-2 quarts low. Anyone have any clue what's going on? My buddy was saying maybe I need a catch can for the car but idk it just hit 218,000 miles so maybe it's rebuild time. I don't know, please let me know what you think, thanks.
 
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If it is gummed up oil rings as some suggest, the old timers trick of draining a quart and adding a quart of kerosene or diesel fuel then running the engine to operating temperature for a bit may help. Every engine ive done this to a couple times a years internals stay very clean. This may break down, dissolve deposits, and free up those rings. Plenty of youtube on how to do this. If it works way cheaper than a tear down. How many miles on your engine?
 
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