ok, when you guys check your oil every so often, how many times do you have to add more oil, also how much oil do you have to replace?

i changed my oil and cchecked it a week later, i was a quart low. so i replaced it and a week later it was gone again. its not leaking, because it would be on my driveway, and theres none there. can someone please give me an idea as to where i should start looking...PLEASE!!
thanks

 

If your Not leaking it, your burning it. If your Burning a Quart a week it should be obvious. Go Rev up the car and watch the Exhaust, look for Blue smoke, thats Oil. Check around on 3si, there are lots of threads about the motor burning oil.

How many Miles on the car?

 

I check my oil everytime I fill up in both cars. My TT uses/burns about a quart between oil changes. My NA uses about 2-3 quarts between oil changes. There are 2 things that are common for oil usage on these cars, one being ring wear. A compression check or leak down test will confirm this. The other is the valve stem seals.
Do you ever notice your car smoking after you sit and idle for a long time? If so, that is a good indicator of wore out VSS's. The oil leaks past the seals into your combustion chamber and burns off, causing the bluish/white smoke.

 

the car has about 85k miles on it so the engine shouldnt be too too bad yet, but i gues not

um and yes the car does smoke when it idles, but it hasn't been all that warm out the past week so it could be the weather. i have noticed that there is black sut on my rear bumper every so often, so im guessing that it is in fact smoke that is coming out.
thanks guys.
ok so another question. if the engine is in fact burning and the seals are gone, do you think it is worth it to fix the problem? will it be very expensive? instead of fixing the engine, should i try to find a new one?

 

I had a long post all written up...but it was ate by the server...

Valve stem seals are cheap. Labor is what's expensive. Still cheaper than new/rebuilt heads.
Do a compression test to make sure it isn't ring wear.

 

ring wear is non-existant unless the car has been terribly neglected.
valve seal/guide wear is quite common.
let the car idle for 15 minutes, and see if it starts to smoke.

 

yeah like i said, its hard to tell if it is smoke from oil or smole from the cold. i will have the car looked at this week by a guy who used to be employed by mitsubishi and worked on the cars. hopfully he can work his magic.

thestealth: how often do you change your oil on your NA 3s? isn't that your daily driver as well?

 

If it is oil burning off...you should be able to smell it.

I change my oil every 3k miles. Keeping the oil fresh helps quell lifter tick.
I would say I drive both cars equally, but in rainy weather, I normally drive the NA. In snow and ice I prefer to drive the TT. AWD is great, I just make sure to wash it frequently in the winter to get the salt off of it.

 

yeah i usually dont wait that long to change my oil since i dont do that much driving and it can take me a couple months to get that many miles.

usually i wait until the lifter tick becomes stronger. the oil in my car usually is always fresh. and i try to keep the car clean durring the winter being that its white. lol. its hard though, any dirt shows.