[dlattanzi]

A red oil can indicator light came on while I was driving, which surprised me since there were 6,119 miles since my last oil change. I went to the dealership where I bought it to have the oil changed and asked that they note how many quarts low it is. My Optima has 55,761 miles and has been serviced regularly by the dealership. The dealership didn't note on my service that it was 3.5 quarts low or that I requested an oil consumption test for excessive oil use. I was told that 1 quart per 1,500 miles is normal use. I said, hmm, really, that would mean that I would use 5 quarts of oil every 7,500 miles. I was also told that an oil consumption test indicates a problem if 1 quart of oil is consumed in 1,000 miles. Currently my Optima is consuming a quart every 1,700 miles, no leaks, at this rate I would have to put in 4.4 quarts of oil between oil changes; they say this is normal.

Is this the message that Kia wants to send to customers?

 

[elp_jc]

That's ridiculous. My car was consuming more oil, but now (with 25K+ miles) it's about 1/4-qt every 3K miles, which is not that bad. What worries me more is it consumes coolant. Not sure if it evaporates from the open reservoir, or leaks internally or externally. But many times I can smell coolant when opening the hood, so I'm more inclined to an external leak somewhere (probably the turbo). No signs of that anywhere though. I'd absolutely make a dealer do an oil consumption test. Good luck.