How much oil does the VHPD engine use?
I have a S1 Elise Sport 190 and I seem to be going through half a litre in maybe as few as 300 miles, which seems excessive. Could this a warning of an imminent rebuild needed?
Can’t see any leaks and there doesn’t seem to be any blue smoke from the exhaust either on startup, when revved or on the overrun, so I’m at a bit of a loss.
Any ideas?
probably best to get it compression tested
How many miles has it done?
With normal road use I’ve never had to top it up between services. With hard track use, managed to use about 1/4 litre.
What oil are you using?
It had Castrol RS from the last service, but I’ve been topping up with Silkolene fully synth stuff, so decent oil is going in.
It’s done a little over 28k miles. 1000 of those in my ownership, one track day since I bought it but likely several in it’s lifetime (came on A048s so it’s likely to have been a track toy).
Mark - mines gobbing Castrol 0W-40 at a hefty rate probably not as bad as that though? I was going to go for something a bit thicker at the next oil change to see if it made a difference?
I’m on track at Croft in the next couple of weeks and am a bit tense as it’s done 43k !!! and a rebuild at the moment would see it off the road while next year!!!
What I’ve found out is that the K uses oil always if revved hard.
If you use yours for commuting for say a couple of tanks (meaning not revving past 6K more or less) does it still drink? (should not)
On trackdays can drink oil at the rate of about 1L each 200 (of track) miles!
K’s don’t use oil, its an undocumented oil change feature. Basically you don’t have to get your hands dirty letting the old oil out of the sump, the engine naturally gets rid of the old as you put in the new!!! Its all good!!!
K’s don’t use oil, its an undocumented oil change feature. Basically you don’t have to get your hands dirty letting the old oil out of the sump, the engine naturally gets rid of the old as you put in the new!!! Its all good!!!
That must be it then, nice of the Rover engineers to think of us like that…
Seriously, in 1000 miles I would say it’s used 1.5 to 2 litres of oil, as I say there is one trackday and a few spirited drives. I haven’t done much commuting but…
What brought it to my notice was that the last week I was working in Prague and flew from Birminham airport - before I went I topped up the oil (with the last of the Castrol I had) and drove the 120 or so miles to the airport, a few days later I drove home - this was late at night and I guess there was nearly 2 hours of motorway driving at pretty sustained high revs (thanks to following a Bentley down the M40 at speed) of maybe 6k rpm or so - when I checked the oil again on Saturday it was at the second last ‘x’ on the dipstick. So maybe 250 miles of high speed m’way driving used 700ml or so of oil - seems high to me but I’m not used to the engine yet, hence the question.
I think the only way I’ll be sure is to take it for a compression test at the garage in the next village (unless anyone’s in Wiltshire and has a compression tester I could borrow) - so next question is…what compression should I see on the guage?
To use 1 litre of oil per 1000 miles is not unusual. However, as you say, your car appears to drinking too much of the liquid gold!
So maybe 250 miles of high speed m’way driving used 700ml or so of oil - seems high to me but I’m not used to the engine yet, hence the question.
That equals 2.8 litres per 1,000 miles. I had an ever increasing oil consumption issue and when it finally got to using 3 litres in 1,000 miles, Lotus agreed it was time to rebuild the engine for me even though it was out of warranty
Mine always used to use approx 1 litre per trackday.
Thanks for the replies.
I think I’m going to change to fully Synth Silkolene this weekend, then see exactly how much I’m using over the next few weeks (another trackday included).
If it seems excessive, then compression test at the local garage and (gulp) rebuild/refresh if necessary.
K’s don’t use oil, its an undocumented oil change feature. Basically you don’t have to get your hands dirty letting the old oil out of the sump, the engine naturally gets rid of the old as you put in the new!!! Its all good!!!
LOL - thats what I used to say about the Elan before I got the Exige. That little sod gobs it down as well.
I have another 20 odd L of cazzy left, I got it for a great price so I can afford to see it go up in smoke as long as its doing it’s intended job before it’s turned to smoke!!!
Mark
I topped up about a litre after Donington on Saturday - that was around 220miles of track time + 300ish miles down on Friday - so i reckon if you are giving it the message most times when you drive it, then your consumption is common. Mines doesn’t use much if i potter around (commute) under 5k revs.
The fact that I have always added about 0.5 - 1 litre every trackday and also the fact that it needs topped up following road miles (never really measured how many miles per litre - just check it regularly) alway made me feel comfortable not doing oil changes between 6k services (like Sean says, its a bit like an undocumented oil change procedure )
However, personally, i’d be unhappy with topping up using different brands… i’ve always like to stick with a good oil and not change it for anything else - never trust that they will be properly miscible.
so i reckon if you are giving it the message most times when you drive it, then your consumption is common.
Rox - you are comparing your track use with Mark’s road use, and then he has mentioned high speed M way use - not sure he will be using the same rev range there and can’t see spirited road use coming close to track use.
so i reckon if you are giving it the message most times when you drive it, then your consumption is common.
Rox - you are comparing your track use with Mark’s road use, and then he has mentioned high speed M way use - not sure he will be using the same rev range there and can’t see spirited road use coming close to track use.
agreed… but he did sound like he said 1000 miles at mostly 6k revs… so i think that would be an okay comparison… if i heard him properly.
It was about 250 miles of late night m’way driving, you know the sort of thing, plonk yourself behind the fastest thing that goes past and cruise at high speed (around 6k) - seemed to use about 500-700ml.
I don’t use the car for commuting, and really it’s only run as a toy, so evening blats around Wiltshire A and B roads and the odd trackday.
I decided to use the car as an everyday car this weekend and we did about 150 miles and practically zero oil use, so I’m guessing that I don’t have too much to worry about at the moment.
I’m going to need my own personal tanker to get to Le Mans in June though
Thanks for all the replies, I’m still a relative newcomer to Lotus but I’m absolutely smitten with the thing…
Is that 6000mph or kph?
Thought you might like an update;
Compression test showed 2 cylinders significantly lower than they should be, so took it in for a refresh at Sportomotive.
Worn rings on 2 and 4 IIRC, thanks for all the advice, she’s now back and sounding sweeter than ever.
If mine lasts Cadwell next month I will be getting it titivated over Winter