My 2000 dodge 1500 w/ 5.9 liter is using 1 quart of oil in about 300 miles
Asked by Milestoneman Mar 27, 2016 at 08:17 PM about the 2000 Dodge RAM 1500 SLT Quad Cab 4WD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
My daughter just purchased a 2000 Dodge 1500 back in January with 136,000 miles.
The engine runs great and is very clean. No leaks. We're using 5w-30. It is using a
quart of oil in about 300 miles. We took it to a local shop to do a smoke test to see if
they could figure out where it's going. They couldn't see anything wrong. They said
that the plugs were clean. No indication of oil consumption. They changed the oil
since we had just bought the vehicle and weren't sure of the service history. It's been
about 250-300 miles and it's down 1 quart again. A few days before we took it into
the shop for the smoke test, I put in a quart of Lucas High Mileage Treatment. When
they changed the oil, they just put in straight 5w-30.
9 Answers
You do not notice any blue smoke out the exhaust? Also look in the radiator to see what the fluid looks like. See if oil is present. Also I would say that 5w-30 is a bit light for that motor. I would say it would take at least 10w-30, and to run even 10w-40 in it wouldn't hurt it at all. And try some high mileage oil.
When you check the oil do you check it when it has sat overnight before starting?
Well I'm sure you know as well as I do that this does not make sense. Not burning it and not leaking the oil. I don't know. I'll be thinking about this one. And so the exhaust does not smell like burning oil? No abundance of exhaust coming out?
Milestoneman answered 8 years ago
The exhaust smells normal. I'm reading now about TSB 09-05-00, a bad gasket on the intake manifold. We have a 97 Dodge 1500 w/ a 5.2 that this happened to a few years back. It's worth looking at.
Could be on that, but all I can go off of is you saying that there are no oil leaks, and it is not burning out the exhaust. The oil has to be somewhere. Might as well check it out.
Same issue with my 1998 Ram 1500 5.2 (155.000 miles). Oil is disappearing. No smoke, no drips and radiator is clean. I do know that Honda lost a class action lawsuit some years back and had to extend everyone's warranty 8 years. The issue was oil disappearing, no smoke, no drips etc. Turns out it was finding its way into the catalytic converter with no sign out the exhaust. Destroying the converter at a very high cost. Wouldn't know how to check for that though...
