Noticed during my first 2,000 Miles with factory oil, I lost between ¼ and ½ Qt of oil. Yea I know the dip stick is crap but I was careful to always park the same way in my garage and check the oil in the morning. After oil change to Mobil 1 @ 2000 miles I have noticed that over the last 1200 miles the oil level is down about 1/8 of a qt. So basically during the first 3200 miles of operation my JK has “lost” about ½ Qt of oil. Is this just burn-in or break-in burn off?

Where did it go? No burning oil smell or blue smoke from the tailpipe. I have spent several hours crawling around under the JK with flashlight and mirror looking for some wet spots in all of the common forum posted locations, valve covers, timing chain cover, oil filter, intake area etc. Only place I could find any oil was at the seam where the left cylinder head is attached to the block at the very back left corner. The only reason I discovered that was because I took a paper towel and ran it along all gasket seams on the engine. It left a mark like this ___ (literally) on the towel and nothing has ran or dripped from that area.

Can’t believe I have become this Anal over a Jeep, But I love her dearly.

 

It's normal for engines to use some oil - and maybe as the engine gets broken in it will use less. I had a dodge truck where the manual stated it was normal to use a quart up to 5000k miles.....mine never did but no two engines are alike so you may have to keep an eye on it.

 

My wife's VW uses a quart every 6000 miles. Factory said it was 'normal'.

It does get burned, but so little leaks at any one time that it can't be seen in the tailpipe.

Keep an eye on it and if it gets worse, see the dealer under warrenty. Keep records.

Just out of curiosity, did you break in the Jeep easily or did you run it hard?

I've seen a trend with friends and family that those people who break in the vehicle easy like your daddy told you are more likely to consume oil and those that just "GO FOR IT" rarely have any oil consuption. My V10 was smoking tires before I had 100 miles on it and it's never used a drop of oil in its 12 year life.

 

I went with the mild to moderate break-in with mixed driving. Kinda by the book.

 

My long trips, 650 miles, with the trailer on Interstates at 70-75 mph will consume 1/4 to 1/2 qt of oil for about 4 of these trips. So that works out to 2600 miles for a half quart max.

Running without the trailer for city and country and Interstate running do not appear to consume oil between changes of Mobil 1. The trailer adds a load that requires much more shifting out of OD and sometimes down a gear. This consumption is more (1/4 qt.) than the 4.0 in my 05 Unlimited but the 3.8 runs about 1000 to 1500 rpm higher for the same hills.

Breakin was with standard oil, various speeds and loads with shorts bursts of power.

 

There's a TSB for oil leakage through the timing cover or somehwere, check them at project-jk.com. Of course, if you don't see leakage, that's probably not it.

Jeff

 

From page 71 in the 08 manual.

"A new engine may consume some oil during its first few
thousand miles (kilometers) of operation. This should be
considered as a normal part of the break-in and not
interpreted as an indication of difficulty."

 

As one person already said.....no 2 engins are alike. I remember my old Chevy van.....I could never keep the oil full. It would always go down a quart really pretty fast, so I kept putting it in to keep it full. Then a mechanic told me....let it go, see what it does. Well.......it never went below that one quart low. It turned out, that's how it wanted to run.
It seems that every engine will have it's own little quirks. Keep an eye on it and see if it just levels off and stays at one particular spot.
Good Luck...

 

Somebody beat me to the Manual quote already. Did you change that oil EXACTLY at 2000?


Perhaps you didn't give the engine enough time to break in on the "break in" oil (if the JK has it?). In any case, I'd say keep an eye on it. It could be normal. It might be that the seals havent set properly yet.

If it starts losing a lot more, though, I'd bring it to the dealer. And I wouldn't admit to the oil change at 2,000. If they ask, say 3,000. (I don't know if they can penalize you for prematurely changing engine oil...especially during break in).

 

Thanks good logical comments from everyone.

Don't agree with wayland1985's comments about break-in and break-in oil and lying to the dealership. One thing I have learned and taught my kids is that integrity is more important than a $$, those that are willing to lie about oil changes, stopping here so I don’t offend anyone and back to the topic at hand. Oil stuff has been discussed to death on every web site on the web. Other vehicles have been changed at as low as 500 miles with no issues. Also the oil change interval is mileage and or time recommended. Let’s say I drove my JK home from the dealership, short trip of 6 miles and let it set for 3 months without moving it. Well then that would fit in the severe scale of short trips thus need a change at the 3 month period with a total of 6 miles plus say 5 at the dealership for moving it around prior to delivery. So bottom line I would do an oil change with 11 miles but at the required 3 month interval. What is right and what is wrong?

Maybe it will start leaking like the 1967 Chevy II Nova I had in High School, never had to change the oil cause it leaked so much I would add about a quart every week and it never seemed to get dirty, I even put some of moms cooking oil in it one time cause dad did not have any oil on the shelf. Those were the good old days of care free driving, no payment, no property taxes, cheap gas, no insurance and no maintenance requirements.