When checking your jeep’s engine oil level you may notice that the engine oil level has been reduced. What are the possible causes for decreasing the engine oil volume of your jeep?
Is it bad to drive with low engine levels? How to know whether my jeep is burning engine oil and what I can do to stop burning engine oil?
Above problems can arise in our heads, when we see that engine oil level is reduced in our jeep. In this guide we’ll look at solutions for the above problems.
Contents
What are the possible causes for decreasing the engine oil volume of your jeep?
Engine oil volume can be decreased due to below reasons.
- Normal oil burn
A small noticeable amount of oil can be burned for a thousand mile in any engine. It’s not a problem. That burning oil volume can differ from engine to engine. Normally older worn-out engines can burn more amount of oil than a good new engine per thousand miles.
- External oil leaks
If there are damaged oil seals in your engine, they can lead to oil leaks. If it’s a big damage a noticeable amount of oil can be seen under your vehicle when you park for a few hours.
Sometimes you may notice oil drained marks on your engine body.
If it’s a tiny oil seal damage sometimes you may not be able to notice it. I wrote a separate guide on jeep oil leaks. you can read that by clicking here.
- Burning oil due to internal leaks
Engine oil can burn with gas mixture inside chambers due to worn out or damaged parts inside your engine. We’ll look at them in upcoming topics in this guide.
Do jeeps burn a lot of oil?
With the engine model and mileage of the jeep engine, the amount of oil that could be burned in a normal engine can be differ.
“As a general guideline 0.946 liter (1 qt.) of oil in 3,200 km for the 1st 80,467 km (50,000 mi) is acceptable.
For vehicles with more than 80,467 km (50,000 mi) the acceptable oil consumption for engines is 0.946 liter (1 qt.) in 1,207 km (750 mi) can be acceptable as normal.”
(Above values are for gasoline engines.)
But these amounts may not be acceptable for vehicles that use in aggressive conditions, high RPMs and higher loads, higher speeds. Especially vehicle that are using for rock crawling and extreme off roading activities could burn more engine oil than normal.
How to know whether my jeep is burning engine oil?
To know whether your jeep is burning engine oil you can do a couple of things. Below I listed them.
Checking the engine oil level every morning before drive
Normally best practice is to check engine oil level and radiator fluid levels everyday before starting the engine of a vehicle. It can save you from a lot of troubles.
When checking the engine oil level using a dipstick, if you see a considerable loss of engine oil than the previous day ( according to the miles you run the previous day) you can suspect an engine oil burn.
(You should consider the miles run previous day as well as how hard you used your engine previous day and the mileage of your jeep engine before coming to any conclusion)
Check the exhaust of your jeep
After starting your jeep, check the exhaust of your jeep. If you can feel a burning odor and/or blue/grey smoke coming out from the exhaust, it indicates an excessive oil burning inside your engine.
A thin white exhaust gas coming out at the cold start is normal.
Check your spark plugs
If your engine is burning oil, spark plugs get into trouble easily. Using a spark plug wrench remove spark plugs carefully one at a time and inspect the terminals of them.
You can find black/ oily, dirty terminals if your engine burns oil. When you touch those terminals you can easily identify oily materials.
When those kinds of materials cover the spark plug terminals, it can lead to malfunctioning of spark plugs and later spark plugs will stop working.
So that if your engine burns oil, your engine will not run smoothly as before. It can cause misfires and shuddering of your jeep. Ultimately your engine power can be reduced.
In my case I felt a significant reduction of the acceleration of my engine. After fixing the oil burning issue my engine runs very smoothly as well as improved it’s throttle response and acceleration significantly.
If engine defects like reduction of power and throttle response are also seen with the above mentioned facts, that could be an oil burning in your jeep.
Why is my Jeep burning so much oil?
If you diagnosed that your engine burns an unusual amount of oil, then you have to find out what is the reason for that.
Below is the list of possible causes for an oil burn in a jeep.
Worn or stuck piston rings
This is a very common cause for oil burns when the engine gets worn out. I’m also a victim of this same issue and we don’t have to worry much about this because this can be fixed without breaking the bank.
But we should fix it as soon as possible. Otherwise this can lead to more damages that will need to replace piston heads and many other parts inside the engine.
Piston rings should seal the combustion chamber by fitting tightly against the chamber walls. It avoids engine oil entering to the combustion chambers.
But over time piston rings can be worn out and make tiny gaps between rings and the wall. That leads to engine oil entering the combustion chamber at higher pressures. Then excessive amounts of engine oil can burn inside combustion chambers along with gas fuel mixture.
Blown head gasket
The head gasket seals combustion chambers from engine oil as well as coolant fluids that flow through the passages of the engine block.
Head gaskets can be blown out due to different reasons.
As an example due to abnormally higher temperatures of the engine, head gasket gasket can damage. That can ultimately lead to oil and coolant fluids entering into the combustion chambers and destroying the engine.
Defects in valve seals
Valve seals normally avoid oil entering the combustion chambers. But with the time defects of valve seals can lead to oil burning.
Viscosity of the oil
There are engine oils with different viscosities. For older engines we can use oils with somewhat higher viscosity. High viscosity means they are thicker than oils with lower viscosity.
If we use thinner oils for worn out engines that oil can easily slip through worn out piston rings as well as valve seals that cause oil burning.
Use good quality recommended synthetic oils for your engine. Choose suitable engine oil according to your climates.
Is it bad to drive with low engine levels?
If the engine oil level is at a lower mark or less according to the dipstick, there is a possibility to cease the engine of your jeep if you drive it.
If your engine has an oil burning issue, it's best to refill engine oil to the recommended level before driving.
If you drive with a low amount of engine oil and your engine is burning engine oil at the same time, your engine can easily run out of oil and damage.
What can I do to stop burning engine oil?
There are two possible things you can do to reduce and/or stop oil burning.
First one is using a quality synthetic oil with higher viscosity according to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
That can reduce the possibility of oil leaking to combustion chambers. But keep in mind that this is not a permanent fix.
Another option is using a product like below. This works for most of the users but if the leak is due to a big damage inside the engine this will not work.
Check Price on Amazon
The best thing to do is fix the underlying cause for the oil burn.
How to fix burning oil issues.
As I mentioned earlier, to fix oil burning issues you have to fix the underlying cause. Whether it’s a worn out ring set or damaged valve seals you have to replace them before the condition gets worse.
To replace them your engine should dissemble. For that you should meet an expert.
These fixations can’t be done by yourself, if you don’t have good mechanical knowledge as well as proper equipment.
How often do jeeps need oil changes?
In a jeep wrangler oil should be changed in every 10,000 miles or 12 months, whichever comes first.
Conclusion
So far I told you possible causes for engine oil burns, how to diagnose if there is an engine oil burn or leak on your own and what are the fixes that have to stop oil burns.
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Peace!!