Car consuming oil? Possible solution

[BJ#1 0]

OK, I know people come to this site to sometimes look for help and solutions with their cars. So I'd like to provide some. I have a 2002 Nissan Altima. Had the car since 02 and always kept up on the maintinence. Well at 85k miles I noticed my car started consuming oil heavily. To the point were I would change the oil and at about 1,000mi I would be down 3 quarts. Totally baffled me because there was no noticable oil leaks. Took it to the dealer and they told me I was leaking from my valve cover. So I changed it myself. rather than having the dealership rape me for a simple job. Problem persisted. A friend recommend changing the seal in the oil pan. OK another easy fix did that too, but still no good results. As time went on I noticed my car getting slightly louder and losing power. Took it to a mechanic who said I had a bad catalytic converter. Would cost me about $100 bucks for the part alone not including install, cause I can't weld. But luckly in Fl we don't have emmisions testing anymore, so I had another mechanic cut it off for me and run a straight pipe. I watched him cut it off and it was so bad that water was biulding up in my exhaust and he showed me the cat. when he cut it off and it was filthy nothing was getting through. Think that would be the end but no. Took it back to first mechanic and explained that I was still losing oil. Turns out I had a bad pollution control valve(PCV). He replaced it for free and I'm no more oil consumption. So I hope that helps anyone who needs it. I know how expensive car repair can get. Helpful advice is to learn from repair experiances. You'll be shocked at how easy majority of car repair is and how you can DIY if you've got the right tools or know someone with the tools

[Isaac 0]

Good job. Glad it worked out for you.

[Wally 0]

PCV valve is actually "Positive Crankcase Ventilation" valve. Sounds like you spend a heap on unecessary parts and labour. The cat would probably have dried out once your exhaust temp returned to normal.

[Kevin Firth 0]

Good post I agree with you about the last 2 sentences.

[BJ#1 0]

PCV valve is actually "Positive Crankcase Ventilation" valve. Sounds like you spend a heap on unecessary parts and labour. The cat would probably have dried out once your exhaust temp returned to normal.

 

The water biuld up wasn't actually in my cat, but rather behind it in my baffles. When I say there was a lot of water I mean a lot. I mean I didn't gather it up and measure it but looked like 2-3qts. It was well needed because it was causing my exhaust fumes to come back to the front and was escaping at the tail end of my header. Even tried tightning it down before cutting of the header, but was a no go. $60 vise $600 doesn't sound to bad to me.

[metroautoshop 0]

hey this is cool thanks for letting us know.

[margaretB 0]

Cool. Good thing it worked out to your car.

[AVS 0]

Sometimes people use mechanics for the easiest fix that could be done at home... If you do a little research, you could save yourself a lot of money in the long run!

Sites like this are a great help before going to a garage