Excessive oil consumption

[ganseg]

I just follow the dealership recommendations. I was 800 miles away from needing to come in for another oil change.

Thank you for your reply. The dealer can set the maintenance reminder where they want. Mine was changed to 5000, which I was good with. Default is 7500 miles, which I believe is too long, I especially when shops MAY buy cheaper oil. Do you happen to know if it was around 7500 when you were getting it changed?

 

[MrMCar]

How often was your oil changed over the 80k? I am at 60k and did 5000 mile oil changes at the dealer. I switched to doing it myself at 54k with top quality oil and it got dirtier than usual. I took that to mean my oil from the dealer wasn't great. Now I have a stronger cleaning oil in there, but only 1000 miles so far. I am hoping that it will help my engine get cleaned up and not fail.

I'm going tangent here but will try to be informative about a couple of aspects of the larger issue and try to answer a question.

So the dealer is doing a "Oil Consumption Test"(?) BMW (my professional background) also have oil consumption issues. The most important thing to know going forward; What is the manufacturers (KIA) technical criteria? Written within the repair and technical documentation?
Without knowing what is or is NOT pass/fail, how can you move forward intelligently?
(BTW BMW's spec was IMHO just ridiculous) This document of what is the specific criteria should be available. Either through your service department and/or the internet.

"Oil was dirtier than normal" This is an interesting conundrum. Having been a professional most of my life, I do look at the color of the oil draining. Furthermore my customers often would ask if "The oil was dirty?"
After working on cars for over 47 years, I can't really say by looking at what drains out. I can quantify a couple of "red-flag" things I'll look for. However color is very subjective and temperature dependent.

On the initial drain, I look to make sure that no water (coolant or heavy condensation) is present upon the initial removal of the drainplug. Water is heavier than oil, so should be the first to drain out. If...there is any?
Then I quickly look for suspect minute metallic particles.
Then if I don't see any, I proceed onto the rest of the vehicle check and set the tire pressures.
The only time I'd pay hyper-attention to a oil drain, was after the first oil change on an engine we rebuilt. That got saved into a large pan for thorough scrutiny. Also with an inspection of the filter pleats.

I learned many years ago, after a couple of (self-imposed) false alarms, that the color/appearance of the drain oil has a LOT to do with the temperature one drains it at. Oil should almost always be drained when hot. Yeah it's tough however, your best chance to get most of the oil out and any suspended maleficence is draining when hot.

I had a couple of M3's that sent me in the wrong direction (just for a short time) when the drained oil looked terrible. As if there was a silvery (bearing color BTW) appearance to it. Turned out to be a characteristic of the specified 10W-60 oil called for when drained at an in-between temperature. Drained HOT, it had a perfectly normal appearance.

Detergents and detergent additive package in oil: Buy any 1L of oil and you actually get as much as .9 or as little as .75L of oil. The remainder is the "additive package". Most are mostly oil, some specialty oils have HEAVY additive packages. (the aforementioned 10-60, being one)
Racing oils such as Redline focus on just oil and protection, with a very light (if any) detergent package. Most oils of late have a decent detergent package. The heavier the detergent package, theoretically the dirtier the drain oil should be. Given that the detergents are doing their job. A cheaper oil would (most usually) have a lighter additive package and would clean LESS. Therefore should... look cleaner upon draining?
Unless the oil was so bad that engine damage (not likely at any dealership) had been happening. Also keep in mind the temperature observations I detailed above.

 

[Dpeep]

Thank you for your reply. The dealer can set the maintenance reminder where they want. Mine was changed to 5000, which I was good with. Default is 7500 miles, which I believe is too long, I especially when shops MAY buy cheaper oil. Do you happen to know if it was around 7500 when you were getting it changed?

It was prob the 7500

 

[OldPilot]

... Racing oils such as Redline focus on just oil and protection, with a very light (if any) detergent package.

Interesting. I used to run Redline racing oil in my cars. My engine builder's advice was to "Run any oil you can get for free." But from freshening heads after every race weekend I found that the char on the back of the exhaust valves was heavier with something like Valvoline than it was with the Redline. On the theory that more char couldn't be good for gas flow, I switched to Redline and also wire brushed the char off when I freshened the heads. Whether it actually made any difference or not, I have no real data. But it felt like the right thing to do.

I wonder if the extra char with the Valvoline was due to the additive vs Redline.

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[ganseg]

To all the people here who have had catastrophic failure due to oil loss, how often were you changing the oil and do you do a lot of short trips? (One person has answered 7500 miles). I drive 18000 miles a year and change every 5000. I am not sure if that was good enough. When I used a top oil (Pennzoil Ultra Platinum) it was getting dirty looking earlier meaning it was cleaning up after whatever oil the dealer had used the first 54k miles. I think 5 k will be fine with a top quality oil, but I wouldn't go that long anymore on whatever a shop puts in.

 

[MrMCar]

To all the people here who have had catastrophic failure due to oil loss, how often were you changing the oil and do you do a lot of short trips? (One person has answered 7500 miles). I drive 18000 miles a year and change every 5000. I am not sure if that was good enough. When I used a top oil (Pennzoil Ultra Platinum) it was getting dirty looking earlier meaning it was cleaning up after whatever oil the dealer had used the first 54k miles. I think 5 k will be fine with a top quality oil, but I wouldn't go that long anymore on whatever a shop puts in.

Whilst I haven't experienced any engine issues (let's hope it stays that way?) the 5,000 mile interval is perfect for OCD folks. It used to be 3K however, synthetic oils moved that up. For my customer's cars, we would put the reminder stickers @ 7,000 intervals. As usual, about 50% of them exceeded that. Some by gross margins.

My personal cars; every 5K. Easy to remember: 30, 35, 40,000 and so on.

Given that you're using what I consider a VERY good oil, and the oil is still draining very dirty (very subjective) I'd suggest there's something wrong? Engine oil should be a little dirty (still evidence of golden brown patina) at 5k drain intervals. If it's ugly, burnt smelling and/or towards deep mud/black (?) than something is contaminating the oil to make it so.
Be it coolant, unburned fuel, metal from excessive wear, or "D All of the Above."

Oil lab testing at the very first sign of trouble usually helps...

 

[ganseg]

Whilst I haven't experienced any engine issues (let's hope it stays that way?) the 5,000 mile interval is perfect for OCD folks. It used to be 3K however, synthetic oils moved that up. For my customer's cars, we would put the reminder stickers @ 7,000 intervals. As usual, about 50% of them exceeded that. Some by gross margins.

My personal cars; every 5K. Easy to remember: 30, 35, 40,000 and so on.

Given that you're using what I consider a VERY good oil, and the oil is still draining very dirty (very subjective) I'd suggest there's something wrong? Engine oil should be a little dirty (still evidence of golden brown patina) at 5k drain intervals. If it's ugly, burnt smelling and/or towards deep mud/black (?) than something is contaminating the oil to make it so.
Be it coolant, unburned fuel, metal from excessive wear, or "D All of the Above."

Oil lab testing at the very first sign of trouble usually helps...

I am obsessive about keeping my cars running as long as possible. Two of my three are at 190k. Since some excessive % of Telluride's are losing their engines within 100k, I am trying to gather data on what I can do to avoid that. I did have an oil test of the dealers oil and results were fine, but with the better oil getting dirty early I am considered about the low tension rings getting carboned up. Only can do what I can do.

 

[choppinbroccoli]

I have a 2020 Telluride that I bought in April 2019. The car has been very reliable (mechanically). Covid made it hard to get service appts at the dealership but I would faithfully take it for oil changes at a "quick service" facility. During an oil change, it was mentioned to me that I had a small oil leak. I made an appt at a Kia dealership (not the one I bought the car from) to have service done, specifically mentioning the oil leak that I wanted fixed by a certified Kia dealer. I was able to get it in a couple weeks after I was told about the leak. I was told that the oil filter manifold/housing that was the cause, and I paid to have that fixed. Less than 2 months later (before the next oil change is recommended) I took a trip about 2.5 hours away. We stopped for food and 10-15 minutes after we started driving my check engine light came on. When taking an exit off the highway, my car stalled. I have a code reader and it showed a P0171 error (fuel injection). The engine light was on solid, no oil light, etc....The car was acting like it had fuel injection issues. I was able to get the car home and took it to the dealership that serviced it last. They called me yesterday to tell me that the car has no oil in it and that my engine is shot.
I don't have all the records in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the car went in originally with < 100k miles to be serviced...specifically addressing an oil leak. I am currently around 102k miles and have an engine with no oil and the dealership recommends that I buy a new car.
I have filed a complaint with Kia and am awaiting their response. The explanation from the dealership is that I am burning oil. There has been no smell, exhaust smoke, etc...hard to think that for the first 98k miles I went in for oil changes and during the last 4-5k my car became a 2 cycle engine .

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[MrMCar]

Document, document and include specifics, dates, receipts, mileage between, etc. Create a spreadsheet if you have the capability?
Much like (unfortunately) dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, YOU are the guilty party, until proven innocent. It's rests upon YOU to be persistent, forceful (not yelling or argumentative) and elevate to the next level at every opportunity. They also respond to social media (not bashing) posts.

In the interim, you are out of a vehicle and out of pocket. Hopefully you can recoup on the back end.

Sidebar: There are provisions where you are on the leading edge before any recall or service campaign (two completely different things) and you pay out of pocket for a repair. Only to find out that it was covered (one form or another) and you missed out. Documentation can get you reimbursed. (mostly)

IIRC there is enough evidence (?) to prove that the oil filter housing is a very problematic area? (Things like service bulletins, campaigns, part number changes/revisions to include the seals/gaskets as well) If you can present these, you might...? Have a chance.

Customer satisfaction help lines have budgets too. Sometimes they're flush with cash. Almost anything gets approved. Other times it's, go pound sand....
If you have "all your ducks in a row", and the other 80% have loose paperwork, you might be victorious? It's a s#!tty road to travel my friend. Persistence and preparedness sometimes can be the victor.

Good Luck!!

 

[barwick11]

I have a 2020 Telluride that I bought in April 2019. The car has been very reliable (mechanically). Covid made it hard to get service appts at the dealership but I would faithfully take it for oil changes at a "quick service" facility. During an oil change, it was mentioned to me that I had a small oil leak. I made an appt at a Kia dealership (not the one I bought the car from) to have service done, specifically mentioning the oil leak that I wanted fixed by a certified Kia dealer. I was able to get it in a couple weeks after I was told about the leak. I was told that the oil filter manifold/housing that was the cause, and I paid to have that fixed. Less than 2 months later (before the next oil change is recommended) I took a trip about 2.5 hours away. We stopped for food and 10-15 minutes after we started driving my check engine light came on. When taking an exit off the highway, my car stalled. I have a code reader and it showed a P0171 error (fuel injection). The engine light was on solid, no oil light, etc....The car was acting like it had fuel injection issues. I was able to get the car home and took it to the dealership that serviced it last. They called me yesterday to tell me that the car has no oil in it and that my engine is shot.
I don't have all the records in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the car went in originally with < 100k miles to be serviced...specifically addressing an oil leak. I am currently around 102k miles and have an engine with no oil and the dealership recommends that I buy a new car.
I have filed a complaint with Kia and am awaiting their response. The explanation from the dealership is that I am burning oil. There has been no smell, exhaust smoke, etc...hard to think that for the first 98k miles I went in for oil changes and during the last 4-5k my car became a 2 cycle engine .

If Kia won't cover it under warranty, especially given all the burning oil issues people have had (and they refuse to acknowledge)...

I'd start out as polite as possible, get the dealership on your side (it won't be on them to pay for it, it'll be on Kia), and if nothing happens, go to the local media. Make it painful for them and they'll probably relent.

 

[MrMCar]

If Kia won't cover it under warranty, especially given all the burning oil issues people have had (and they refuse to acknowledge)...

I'd start out as polite as possible, get the dealership on your side (it won't be on them to pay for it, it'll be on Kia), and if nothing happens, go to the local media. Make it painful for them and they'll probably relent.

Social media is where these companies pay the most attention most anymore. To your points, polite but "I've been done wrong."

 

[NDBlackEX]

I have a 2020 Telluride that I bought in April 2019. The car has been very reliable (mechanically). Covid made it hard to get service appts at the dealership but I would faithfully take it for oil changes at a "quick service" facility. During an oil change, it was mentioned to me that I had a small oil leak. I made an appt at a Kia dealership (not the one I bought the car from) to have service done, specifically mentioning the oil leak that I wanted fixed by a certified Kia dealer. I was able to get it in a couple weeks after I was told about the leak. I was told that the oil filter manifold/housing that was the cause, and I paid to have that fixed. Less than 2 months later (before the next oil change is recommended) I took a trip about 2.5 hours away. We stopped for food and 10-15 minutes after we started driving my check engine light came on. When taking an exit off the highway, my car stalled. I have a code reader and it showed a P0171 error (fuel injection). The engine light was on solid, no oil light, etc....The car was acting like it had fuel injection issues. I was able to get the car home and took it to the dealership that serviced it last. They called me yesterday to tell me that the car has no oil in it and that my engine is shot.
I don't have all the records in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the car went in originally with < 100k miles to be serviced...specifically addressing an oil leak. I am currently around 102k miles and have an engine with no oil and the dealership recommends that I buy a new car.
I have filed a complaint with Kia and am awaiting their response. The explanation from the dealership is that I am burning oil. There has been no smell, exhaust smoke, etc...hard to think that for the first 98k miles I went in for oil changes and during the last 4-5k my car became a 2 cycle engine .

Ask your dealer to apply for goodwill coverage on your behalf for the necessary repair. Being so close to the end of your factory warranty and original owner, you are a prime candidate for goodwill assistance for an engine replacement if required. (Actually, any powertrain repairs at 102k.) It may take a little time but Kia may likely pay for a replacement engine if needed or at least offer to cover a high percentage of the repair. These engines are tough to get though and you could end up waiting months for an engine once approved. If you don't want to hassle with that, fill it with oil and take it to another dealer and trade it if it runs and you have the means. Your code is not likely related to your engine being low on oil. It's a lean code. I would imagine there's another issue other than oil consumption causing that.

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[White SX]

Question for those better acquainted with KIA policy: I have a 2020 Telluride, I purchased Sept 2019 new. I purchased the extended warranty (please no judgement). I have faithfully followed the maintenance schedule using a local KIA dealer and a local auto shop near my office. All service is documented in Carfax. I have 96,000 miles. Last oil change, the local shop stated the vehicle is suddenly burning oil. It was recommended I contact KIA as there is a TSB on my issue. I do like this Telluride, and I have really kept it in good shape, intending on keeping it for another 100k. Question: Would KIA own up to their faulty engine and repair under the 10yr 100,000 power train warranty? Or would I get the runaround and finger pointing?

I could trade it in and probably get a fair number. Then it would be KIA's problem. I'm sure they would cover if it benefited KIA.

P.S. - here is my comment on extended warranty and why I'd never buy it again. "The finance manager blows smoke up your skirt and tells you what warranty will cover---- the service team uses the same energy telling you what it won't cover. And there is a 100 deductable each occurance. I broke even in the end, but the aggrivation outweighed the benefit. No more extended warranties.

 

[barwick11]

Question for those better acquainted with KIA policy: I have a 2020 Telluride, I purchased Sept 2019 new. I purchased the extended warranty (please no judgement). I have faithfully followed the maintenance schedule using a local KIA dealer and a local auto shop near my office. All service is documented in Carfax. I have 96,000 miles. Last oil change, the local shop stated the vehicle is suddenly burning oil. It was recommended I contact KIA as there is a TSB on my issue. I do like this Telluride, and I have really kept it in good shape, intending on keeping it for another 100k. Question: Would KIA own up to their faulty engine and repair under the 10yr 100,000 power train warranty? Or would I get the runaround and finger pointing?

I could trade it in and probably get a fair number. Then it would be KIA's problem. I'm sure they would cover if it benefited KIA.

P.S. - here is my comment on extended warranty and why I'd never buy it again. "The finance manager blows smoke up your skirt and tells you what warranty will cover---- the service team uses the same energy telling you what it won't cover. And there is a 100 deductable each occurance. I broke even in the end, but the aggrivation outweighed the benefit. No more extended warranties.

I don't know for sure what they would do, and don't know if this would even benefit, but I would get it documented (by the dealer) and keep all the receipts before the warranty runs out. I'd tell them the engine is burning X amount of oil per oil change, and that number has drastically increased since the last oil change as stated by your regular oil change mechanic.

I'd ask them to repair or replace the (oil control rings?) and other wear components internal to the engine that could be the cause of excess oil consumption. Get it documented, and show them that the problem has already started BEFORE the warranty was up. If you can get them to do an oil level test at 1k or 3k miles to verify it is in fact burning excess oil, then do that as well (but they may question it and say "yeah that's normal...")

Then continue to keep your maintenance records and document how much oil it's burned per 5k mile oil change interval. If/when it gets worse and needs to be repaired/replaced, in theory they should cover it because you told them about the problem while it was under warranty. No guarantee that'll actually happen though.

 

[White SX]

I don't know for sure what they would do, and don't know if this would even benefit, but I would get it documented (by the dealer) and keep all the receipts before the warranty runs out. I'd tell them the engine is burning X amount of oil per oil change, and that number has drastically increased since the last oil change as stated by your regular oil change mechanic.

I'd ask them to repair or replace the (oil control rings?) and other wear components internal to the engine that could be the cause of excess oil consumption. Get it documented, and show them that the problem has already started BEFORE the warranty was up. If you can get them to do an oil level test at 1k or 3k miles to verify it is in fact burning excess oil, then do that as well (but they may question it and say "yeah that's normal...")

Then continue to keep your maintenance records and document how much oil it's burned per 5k mile oil change interval. If/when it gets worse and needs to be repaired/replaced, in theory they should cover it because you told them about the problem while it was under warranty. No guarantee that'll actually happen though.

Thanks for the feedback. The shop owner is a friend, so I caught him privately. He also agreed, get it in KIA service to be documented, track consumption, and we can evaluate from there. I know the increased consumption is since the last oil change. This is the benefit of using the same shop.
Now that I'm researching I see many comments from Telluride owners stating similar circumstances.

 

[LGF]

Welcome. Just letting you know that I moved this topic out of the community lounge and into the main Kia Telluride forum...

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[LGF]

Welcome. Just letting you know that I moved this topic out of the community lounge and into the main Kia Telluride forum...

Ever since reaching 60k miles, I have had exactly the same dry dipstick problem....Dealer says it's normal. Now at 83k miles still same issue. Dealer says contact corporate, report it on consumer affairs, tell the media....
Corporate has not been helpful...
Conclusion: After numerous complaints of the oil consumption, Dealer finally started a case report with corporate. They check as per corporate orders, the spark plugs to see if there is oil carbon build up. It was confirmed!!...Now Kia Dealer has ordered a "new / refurbished " engine and will install it in about 1 month and will provide a loaner during the days of the replacement. What a disgrace that i went through to get to this point. Outcome??
I don't know yet but to all TELLURIDE Owners I say, get ready!..Your oil consumption issues and complaints will be endless...Solution unfortunately?
Get Rid of your Telluride before the 100k 10 yr warranty expires....

 

[ronniebell]

I plan to get rid of my 2026 Telluride S trim, likely this year, when the new Juniper Model Y is introduced. Although I have had no issues, based on what I read in this forum, I'm expecting some. Also, I'm getting tired of spending so much money on gasoline (see Fuelly stats below.) We purchased it new on June 18, 2021 and have spent $10,048.45 since that time on gasoline. I asked ChatGPT-4 how much would electricity cost driving a Model Y the same number of miles (about 61,000), with about 70% charging at home @ $.12/kwh and 30% at Superchargers @ an average of $.35/kwh. Below is its answer. Also, no oil changes, no transmission fluid, differential fluid, etc, changes.

The total electricity cost for driving 61,000 miles in a Tesla Model Y with 70% home charging and 30% Supercharger charging would be approximately $3,228.12.

 

[WD80PD]

I have just under 40,000 miles on my 2021 SX-P. I’ve been reading this thread and went to go check. I know I’m due for an oil change. Last one was in August around 35,000 miles. I check my dip stick today and I’m a little bit above the L. Not in the middle and certainly no where near the F.

What is considered normal oil consumption?

 

[OldPilot]

I plan to get rid of my 2026 Telluride S trim, likely this year, when the new Juniper Model Y is introduced. Although I have had no issues, based on what I read in this forum, I'm expecting some. Also, I'm getting tired of spending so much money on gasoline (see Fuelly stats below.) We purchased it new on June 18, 2021 and have spent $10,048.45 since that time on gasoline. I asked ChatGPT-4 how much would electricity cost driving a Model Y the same number of miles (about 61,000), with about 70% charging at home @ $.12/kwh and 30% at Superchargers @ an average of $.35/kwh. Below is its answer. Also, no oil changes, no transmission fluid, differential fluid, etc, changes.

The total electricity cost for driving 61,000 miles in a Tesla Model Y with 70% home charging and 30% Supercharger charging would be approximately $3,228.12.

Some thoughts: (1) A career in high tech has taught me that the guys out front are the ones with arrows in their chests. I wouldn't consider buying the first year of anything with significant mechanical or technological changes. YMMV (2) What you read here is a heavily skewed sample. Kia is producing 2,000 of these cars a week. There are bound to be a few with issues and a few more purchased by crybabies. Also note the dates of the first post in each thread. In many cases it is several years old, so it is not just current problems you're reading about. Again YMMV. (3) $10K on gas, OK. The depreciation you've eaten on your current Telly is probably more than that and you'll be starting the depreciation clock over again with a new "Y." Probably interest cost on a new loan or a lease will also be those kind of numbers. Bottom line is that buying a new car of any make is almost never going to be a financially rewarding decision. Yet again, YMMV, but your proposed change will almost certainly be going financially backwards vs actually saving that gas money.