bison1973

Bought an 06 Malibu Maxx SS. Had only 32,000 mi on it. It's out of warranty. It uses about 1.5 qts of oil every 3,000 miles. This is really annoying. It now has about 40,000 miles. Anyone ever heard of this and what might be causing this on a low mile car? It has the 3.9L V6.

Thanks for your help!

x1080x

Have you noticed any leaks at all? I know it's a dumb question bit I have to ask. Also, have you noticed any discoloration in the exhaust? If the exhaust looks like it has a blue tint then it could be bad piston rings. I'm not a professional mechanic at all just trying to narrow it down.

bison1973

No apparent leaks, no blue exhaust smoke either. I just think this is way out of the norm for the miles on the car.

chevytech

general motor say that it is normal operating conditions for a car to use/burn a quart of oil every 1200 miles so according to the factory it is alrite altho it does seem odd to u

bison1973

Seriously??? Every 1200 miles it's "normal" to use a quart? Even in today's modern engines. I've had high milelage cars that didn't use this much oil.

x1080x

I'm not so sure it's "normal" to burn through 1 quart every 1200 miles... My buddy has had the same truck for over 20 years now with almost 800,000 miles on it and it still doesn't burn through 1 quart in 3000 mi.

bison1973

So should I just chalk it up to having a poor GM engine that just uses oil or... is there something actually wrong with the engine? And it should be looked into further?

Malibujack

I have 2 Malibu`s. A '99 w/3.1 uses 1 pint every 3000 miles @153,000 miles and a '05 w/3.5 that uses 1 qt evry 3000 miles @126,000 miles. go figure