Please, someone out there help me out with this: I just bought my '02 Z28 one month ago from my father, who had it in Maryland. I am in California. When it got here, it had 14,000 miles on it. I have driven it to 15,000 miles. He religiously took it in for dealer service at 3,037 miles, 6050 miles, 8970 miles and 12,031 miles for oil/filter changes and servicing. He had told me that the Oil Change light was coming on, but hadn't reset it because he didn't really understand how the system worked. When the car got here, I read about the system, looked at the dipstick and figured the car was in the operating range for oil quantity and decided I would take it in for an oil change at 15,000 miles or thereabouts and then reset the system. Well, this morning with 15,056 miles on the odometer, the Low Oil light illuminated. I pulled into the gas station and checked the dipstick, and the oil was below the operating range approximately 1/4 to 1/2 an inch. I thought this meant there was less than a quart of oil in the engine and I started worrying about it. I checked the oil filter to make sure it was on (it was), looked for any leaks in the engine bay (a little seepage out of the right valve cover. I then drove it slowly back home about 2 miles and parked it. I then called the Roseville, CA Chevrolet dealer, since my dealer in Yuba City is closed Saturdays. After getting him to admit the LS1 was essentially the same engine in both the Z28 and Corvette, he told me that the normal acceptable oil consumption for the LS1 is as high as 1 quart per 800 miles. WTH?! In other words, if you drive 4800 miles with 6 quarts of oil, you could be bone dry! How is this acceptable? He also told me that the area between the hatched marks on the dipstick represents 1 quart of oil which is the normal range (he didn't tell me what the normal quantity of oil is for the LS1), so I probably wasn't down that much oil in the engine if I was indicating 1/4 to 1/2 inch below the hatched area on the dipstick. He did tell me, though, that I would need to bring the car in right away to see if I had an abnormally high oil consumption (he wouldn't be able to tell just on the phone) and that he wouldn't even drive it with the Low Oil light illuminated. What do you guys think? Is this normal, and how often and how much oil do you guys burn in your engine between changes? Is it possible that the short trips and around the town driving that my dad did for 2,000 miles consumed that much oil? I normally will drive about 12 miles twice a day with about 8 miles being highway and 4 miles through town to work. Finally, this is ridiculous if nothing is wrong with the car. I don't want to have to park the stupid thing every 3,000 miles until I get it into the dealer for an oil change (which can take a couple of days) for fear of seizing the engine and voiding the warranty. This is my daily driver!! I drove my '94 Z28 for 9 years, changing the oil every 3-5,000 miles with absolutely no problems like this! I just sold it, now I wish I hadn't! Would Vette owners stand for this?! I'm not happy about this at all, so if you guys could help me out, that would be appreciated, because if this is normal, I feel like selling this thing.

Steve

 

Yeah, I check my oil like every two to three days!!! And i've noticed that so far since I switched to Mobil 1 10W-30 instead of Mobil 1 5W-30, it hasn't had any oil consumption like it used to (knocking on wood!) It used to go through about a half a quart to a quart between oil changes, so we'll see what happens when I get closer to having to change again.

 

So,

Let me get this right; you both experience oil consumption with the LS1 engine, so much so that you both put oil in it at least once a month. I'm sure that the car had not been previously serviced with Mobil 1 oil, probably just bulk oil. I guess I'll try switching to the synthetic to see what that does to consumption and maybe change the weight to 10W30, since it never gets below 0 degrees here in California. I guess I'll go put a quart in right now to see what that does and talk to the Yuba City service people to see if their version of the story jives with what the Roseville dealer told me. I'm starting to suspect it's probably in the normal consumption range. If anyone else reads this, I'd appreciate any other thoughts on your concerns to more accurately poll what the real case is. I sure am curious to know if anyone out there does not experience oil consumption, what kind of oil they use and if that affected consumption. I would also appreciate any comments from LS1 equipped Vette owners.

Steve

 

LS1's as well as LT1's will consume some oil and adding up to one quart between oil changes (3-4K miles) is really nothing unusual.

Later!

TS

 

bobistheoilguy

 

Dude, what's your problem? Settle down. Just add oil so it's stays in the x-hatched area of your dipstick. Even if oil didn't register on your dipstick at all, there probably would be about 3 quarts in the engine. This is definitely enough not to seize up your engine. My 2002 SS burned 2 1/2 every 3000 miles. Take it to the dealer and have them do an oil consumptive test. They did this on mine, saw it went through way to much oil and replaced the rings. A small percentage of 01-02 LS1's had oil consumption problems. Mine was one and so may be yours. Check your tailpipes for black soot. It took the dealership 3 days to fix my engine. Now it goes through about 1/2 quart every 3000 miles.

 

I have a 99 z28 with 36,000 miles on it and i use Mobil 1 10w 30.I change the oil every 4000 to 5000 mi and normally never need to add any oil,so maybe there is some difference in consumption between 5w 30 and 10w 30 although i did have the low oil light come on once when the oil level was just below full but it went out the next time I drove it so it must've just been a glitch.Maybe I'm just lucky that I don't have that problem.Good luck.

 

My v6 has had the low oil light on for about a month...is there any way to turn it off? It comes and goes as it pleases......

Also, if you have TOO MUCH oil, will the light come on?

 

yup mine loves to eat oil

 

Update: I changed the oil and filter myself this weekend with Mobil 1 synthetic 5W30 (5 qts). I will closely monitor the consumption over the next 3000 miles to see just how much it really does consume, since most LS1 owners seem to add about a qaurt between changes. I'll see from there if any further action is required (heavier weight, take it to dealer, etc.). Thanks for the help.

Steve

 

Weird.. I guess I am just one of the lucky z28 owners since I just changed my oil 2 weeks ago and I put 3000 miles on it prior to that and it did not even use but maybe less then 1/8 of a quart of oil, since I bought it.. I am using Carquest 10w30 (Valvoline) Non Synthetic Oil and it is fine... I decided to use 10w30 since I can just buy a case of oil and a filter for my camaro and my 68 Project and run the same oil in both... Does anyone know if these LS1's are using Forged Pistons ??? I basically have Piston Slap when I first start up my z28 and it goes away after it warms up...

 

the main reason you hear of the oil light comming on is improper oil changes. simply saying people don't know how to check the oil on these things. If you say you changed the oil youself and added 5 qts, i garantee you will not see the damn light till your next oil change. read your manual it provides you with proper information on checking/adding oil to your engine, and it's fluid capacities. In fact 5 qts of oil puts the level exactly 2 hairs above the cross hatch area of the dip stick. When i first started working @ the dealership, I was ignorant and would ignore, basic maintinace directions, the service manual provided. Till I got chewed out by a customer, saying i was an idiot, he brought the car a week fresh from an oil change with the low oil light on. someone checked it it turned out to be 3/4 of a qt low---> and then got lectured by my SM about what he can expect of me if i can't even get oil levels right.

If you read your manual it tells you u will get incorrect readings if the car's been sitting overnight or a while, just shut off and @ normal operating temperature. It tells you to add oil start the engine then shut it off wait, about 2 or 3 minutes and check the oil.

Btw i have never had any type of consumption problems with my ls1, my exhaust can't get cleaner, with nutting but a stream of water shooting outta there early in the mornings.

 

Steve, that amount of oil is not normal, neither of the 2 new chase cars do that, noe does mine. If you have some spare time tomorrow swing by the Transportation shop and I can look at it for ya.
Tim
Oh by the way, we found you guys 2 more 02 mobiles

 

From what I've heard, M6 cars use more oil. Especially if you like to downshift. When I drive my car hard and downshift it uses more oil than it normally would. But I only add about a quart every 5,000 miles normally. 2 if I've been flogging it a lot. I use Amsoil 10W30 and just switched to 5W30. I used to have a 97 MonteCarlo Z34 that used 2-3 quarts every 4,000 miles of normal driving. The dealer told me it was within acceptable limits. Just keep extra oil at the house and check it every couple weeks. You should check your fluids a couple times a month anyway. A good time to do it is when you wash the car. You're spending hours on it anyway. Just take an extra 5 minutes and inspect all the fluids too.

 

yeah, what 2002Z28SSConv said about the downshifting and also, just dribbling along at 3,000 rpm in a light load situation will eat up the oil as well.

The automatics tend to use less oil because they will shift up into a higher gear, thus dropping engine rpm.

I normally drove around with the engine singing away at 3,000 rpm, sounded nice and had lots of torque on demand ... but my oil consumption was about 1 qt per 1000 miles. I tried driving around in higher gears for a while and sure enough oil consumption did go down ... but it isn't as much fun, so I'm back in the high rpm light load situations again ... just a chewing through the oil ...

Hope this helps

LWM