2006 ford focus 2.0 petrol......wheres the oil gone
 

so I have a 2nd car which I bought in jan this year, its a 2.0 petrol duratec ford focus with 99k on the clock. the oil and filter was changed on 4-01-18 with 5w30 fully synthetic.

I have covered around 400 miles in it (short trips) since owning it. I am taking the car to leeds tomorrow so I was checking the levels today and to my horror there was no oil in it,not even a slight trace on the dip-stick. my drive way is level and the car had been stood for around 6 hours so was stone cold.

I started her up and let her run for a few mins,switched her off then re-checked and still no oil was showing. so I re-dipped around 5-6 times turing the dip-stick around etc but still no oil. I have a white gravel driveway and there is no oil marks indicating a leak anywhere.

I shot down halfrauds in the scoob and picked up 1L of Castrol 5w30 and dumped the lot in,ran it up for 5 mins and re-dipped..............STILL no oil was showing.

do I keep adding oil until it shows? where could it have all gone?

:freak3::freak3::freak3:

Is dip stick sitting right home?
have you got a a oil warning light?
is car burning oil...exhaust smoky?

who changed the oil?

dipstick sitting fine

no warning lights or strange sounds

no smoke or leaks/drips

guy who sold it me changed the oil, I dipped it the day I bought it on his driveway and it was bang-on

Maybe just cant see level on dipstick cos its clear

with 100k on the clock I cant imagine it would be crystal clear and bone dry

has the dipstick tube worked lose held to block by bolt.

post wire down (coat hanger) see if it registers anything!

Must be , cos it would have blown up by now with no oil !

it feels pretty solid so I'm not sure

As everything seems ok, i'd go with topping the oil up, keeping a check on the dipstick till it registers something!.

just concerned where a full engines worth of oil has gone in 3 months and less than 500 miles

Have you ever checked the dipstick before and seen oil on it?

If not, are you sure it's the right dip stick for the car that's in there? These things car get misplaced and it's possible it was just replaced with another that was lying about which is actually too short.

yeah I have checked the dipstick before and there was oil on it.

baffled I is :wonder:

Just been scouting about and found a few threads with this problem mentioned. Nothing solid by way of a mechanical cause or solution, but there is a recurring theme in that these engines can need to sit for 10 hours or more to get a true oil reading, but this was followed by a contradictory post saying that a warm engine can be dipped a couple of mins after switching off.

So I'm not much help really. Try dipping it in the morning again and see what it reads.

thanks for having a look, been searching myself but no luck. will check in the morning.

its going to my local ats 1st thing to have the aircon re-gassed so will get them to have a look around the dip-stick area etc

Dipstick only shows the top 1litre.

So you can have 3litres in the sump and it shows up dry on the stick. Just keep topping up until it shows between max and min( max is a limit it does not need to be a target). Holds about 4.5litres in total IIRC (including filter).

They do have a habit of drinking oil. They won't smoke unless really bad as the catalyst burns it off before you have chance to see it, but you may get the odd puff after going downhill on overrun then reapplying the throttle.

Cause? Rings/bores most likely, oil separator issue in the breathers possible, less likely valve guides. Blocked breathers can also knacker piston rings causing a viscious circle.

Best thing to do is top it back to the max. Make a note of the date and mileage, then recheck every week. Only topping up when it drops to or below the minimum marker, making a note of the date, mileage and quantity added.

That way you should have an idea of oil consumption. 1 litre every 1000 miles is not great but acceptable. A litre every 100miles or less needs urgent attention.

thanks for the advice. I will see what ats say and then put some more oil in.

So update......

I took the car to my mate at ats yesterday morning, we had it on the ramp and checked it thoroughly underneath, bone dry. No leaks/drips/oil filter is dry, sump is dry, dip stick tube is secure.

They put 3/4 litre of oil in it which bought it up to just below max so with the oil I put in on Friday night it's had 1 and 3/4 litre of 5w30 fully synthetic.

Off I went to Leeds to watch Europe's strongest man, 110 miles there and 110 miles back, car ran as usual......faultless.

Checked the oil this morning...........AND THE DIPSTICK IS BONE FEKKING DRY AGAIN.........AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH.

really really baffled with this now. I think my next option is to drain out the oil ( if there is any) and replace the filter and put the correct amount of oil in it and then check it.

If that doesn't cure it.............I'm gonna fekking smash it with a large hammer.

Just to add...there is no smoke from the exhaust on start up, when warm, when under load or on tick over.

They put 3/4 litre of oil in it which bought it up to just below max so with the oil I put in on Friday night it's had 1 and 3/4 litre of 5w30 fully synthetic.

As read on the dipstick ?


Maybe just get a container of oil lol

yeah basically after checking the underneath of the car they added oil in small quantities until it started showing on the dipstick, it took 3/4 litre to bring it up to just below max.

my mrs has just been out in the car and ive checked it upon her return and its still bone dry, surely after running the car there would be oily residue on the dipstick from it running.

Baffling

It's burning it. As I said, the only obvious sign you'll see is a very brief puff of smoke in the mirrors after coasting down a long hill (in gear).


Another possible indicator is piston slap (Sounds a like scoob with forged Pistons) meaning excessive piston/bore clearances.

Our works Golf used to use a litre every 100 miles or so. It didn't smoke. In the end had to strip the engine and throw some new piston rings and valve guides in. It should have had Pistons too as the Teflon had worn off, but that would cost more than the cars worth. Doesn't use any oil now, but slaps like a forged Scooby :lol1:

So on our way to London we were driving along around 20 mph on the clogged motorway, I looked in my mirror and there was a fair bit of smoke, this was 100 miles into our journey.

I looked again a little later and there was none. I'm guessing either rings or stem oil seals, if it's the latter then I would probably get them done as it won't be mega expensive. If it's the rings I will just keep topping it up until it gets so bad that I have to scrap it.

Disappointed as the car is mint and only covered 99.5k

well as ALI-B has said...........piston rings are shot.

picked the car up from the garage who have done a compression test on it and checked the pcv valve.

only had it 11 weeks and cost me £1400, I'm just gonna use it until it blows up,the mot runs out in jan 2019 so if I can make it last until then that will be ok.

just gonna keep chucking cheap ass Halfords oil in it.might change to a slightly thicker oil to see if that prolongs the life of it

Yup piston/rings common indication of burning oil.
I had it on my Audi tfsi, but it was a common design fault on them so had a whole new crate engine fitted under warranty.

hi

yes a buddy of mine had this issue on the tfsi, its the 2.0 lump isn't it? he did have the 1.8 bam engine in his leon previously which was bomb proof then upgraded to the 2.0 tfsi and regretted it.

Yes, I think from 2008-2011 it was effected on the 1.8tfsi and 2.0tfsi engines.
Tbh it's only a minor fault in the size/design of the pistons but a lot of labour to rectify, easier and costly to replace block. A lot of audi centres blagged customers to pay a contribution towards it but of course I blagger it for free, my car wasn't even under warranty lol, but that how they put the job through.
The car still drove perfectly but was abnormal for a car to drink so much oil so I armed myself with too much knowledge of it before I had it out with them.
Not used a drop after I got it back though, sold car now though, will miss it, was a beautiful car to drive.

My focus uses more oil than petrol lol

Lol, sell it as it becomes very annoying, and being a car guy like myself it's just always on your mind, and you don't need that.
I'm guessing it's your daily which is even more worryingly annoying

I use it every other week same as my Impreza. Not gonna sell it mate as it's now worthless and I'm not the type to rip people off.

Use it until it dies is what I will do :D

May be worth trying: