Car oil usage, low mileage Ford Escort

[zebra]

Hi, can anyone help, only have a 1998 R reg Ford Escort encore 1.3 but it is immaculate, one prev owner before me (oct 07 I got it) only 46,000 full service history etc, but it uses a lot of oil, no leaking from what i can tell, nothing on drive, no smoke or anything obvious in engine and I have been told the engine is really clean. since i have had it i have had to have new alternator and that is it. when i check oil, it has appeared a bit low so i top it up but twice oil light has come on and it has taken a 2litre of oil to get back to right level ( inbetween min & max) runs lovely so I am a bit stuck, but don't want to be missing something and making a problem worse! Any ideas, Thanks if you can help.

[ToxicHamster]

....you drive an escort.....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

[tamborine]

take no notice of toxic - bet he drives a skateboard

[zebra]

yes i do and so what? it gets me and my two kids to school and work and is better than 6 buses a day that i did before I got it.

Had nice motor, great house but had to leave a sad control freak of a husband, so would rather be driving that than the 4x4 i had with that idiot....not that it matters, or i could sit on my backside claiming benefit.......Not! So if you have nothing helpful to say, dont bother!

[ToxicHamster]

Bl00dy hell zebra, talk about not being able to get a word in egdeways. Regardless, let me answer your question. If your car is loosing oil it is for one of two reasons, either it's leaking it or burning it. If it's leaking that much you would know it so my guess would be it's being burnt, either through worn rings or ******** valves. Get the thing compression checked asap and PLEASE, chech your oil level daily, if the light comes on it's usually too late as this indicates low oil pressure, not just oil level and you may already have done some damage.

[Teddio]

The mileage is quite low but if its burning oil it's probably worn cylinder bores, pistons, rings or valves. It would be prohibitively expensive to repair these on such an old car. I would suggest you regularly top up with a cheapish mineral oil such as Castrol GTX.

[zebra]

Thanks a lot for all your advice,sorry for sounding off toxic but you were winding me up lol!

Not meaning to be dumb but if it was burning oil, wouldn't there be obvious signs, smoke, smell etc??? I think I can safely say its not leaking oil ! for its age it runs great. Will check oil more often as I know its dodgy for oil light to come on, but I can manage to top it up myself and my tyres and water lol, even the screen wash...clever me!

Cheers for help. Z

[Wak]

Donkey's years ago I used to use Duckham's oil in an old car.
Duckham's is a green coloured vegetable oil and doesn't burn like an ordinary mineral oil.
You could try a can of that?? I assume it's still available?