(T) Oil Horror!

Looked at the oil level and it was dry. It took 3 litres + to get the level up again. I can't believe this happened. This means the 2.4 engine was running on 1.5 litres and I had been loading the engine. The engine didn't sieze and I didn't get a oil pressure warning, but I did get a engine system failure alarm and the car now feels rougher. What kind of problems can I expect?
I don't know why so much oil was lost. There must be an oil leak, but I am yet to investigate.

Not knowing the details of the car you have (age, mileage etc) it is difficult to say why the engine is using oil. Some oil use is normal, oil usage increases when an engine gets used in a different way to its usual use. For instance if you potter around town for 50 weeks a year and then go on a long high speed trip (say on holiday). Oil usage will increase during your long journey and for a period after as the engine settles down again., the more cylinders the more oil the engine tends to use. Because engines are running alot hotter internaly than say ten years ago (due to emission rules etc) oil quality and cooling has become more important. Always check your engine oil level with the dipstick at least every fortnight, (also coolant) and before and after going on any longer journeys. NEVER rely totally on oil level sensors, they are an indicator and can show the wrong reading if faulty, so always check manually.

James I too have the Abarth. I set up in the little mini colour display by the rev counter and speedo with what I thought was the oil temperature and level. However, after a month or so I decided to check the oil manually and found it half way down the dip stick. Funny as the oil "level" was showing full!!

It was at this point I found that the "level" gauge was actually the oil pressure gauge!!

Now you have filled it up with more oil I would suggest an oil and filter change asap. The little bit of oil that has been present has been doing a lot of work and may very well have degraded. A filter and oil change is much cheaper than a new engine. Any API SL oil will be ok (as long as the correct viscosity that is!). Castrol Magnatec seems popular on here. I use Halfords semisynthetic.

Hi James,

This happened to my Abarth after its first service when the oil seal around the filter that had been changed failed. I too got the engine warning and the engine cut automatically. Like yours the engine never seized and luckily I always carry at least a spare litre of oil in the car for emergencies like this so I put that in and drove the couple of miles to the dealer to get it rectified.

I have done quite a few k since this happened the engine feels stronger than ever and I am not aware of any lasting effects. So as long as you get the cause of the rapid drop checked out asap there should be nothing to worry about.

To be honest modern cars (even Fiats)!! are built to take some unbelieveable punishment and the Stilo obviously has a fail safe in that the engine shuts itself down before the engine seizes.

As long as you get the cause investigated and any problem sorted, I wouldn't loose any more sleep.

Could it be that you just aren't checking the levels regularly enough? If your Abarth is anything like my one it does enjoy a good drink of the black stuff.

If your oil is black you should get your car checked?! It should be a nice syrup colour!

My 1.8 Dynamic is losing oil too. In 2,000 miles it lost around 3 pints of oil. I had a full oil & filter change done about 4 weeks ago (at my local friendly garage - shhh don't tell FIAT warranty) and the level was perfectly in the middle of the two marks on the dipstick after they had done it.

I looked a couple of nights ago and the level is almost down to the lower mark on the dipstick now... no oil leak that I can see, the engine is very clean and there's no drips on the driveway or on the tray covering the underside of the engine either.

All I can imagine is that the oil is being burned. I know that when I put my foot down there is a visible cloud behind the car... which is odd because the car's only done 20,000 miles on a 52 plate. Confusing...

if you give the abarth some stick on a regular basis then expect to use around a litre per 1000 miles ish!!

should check oil every week tbh!!

If you put your foot down and there is a cloud behind it then you've got a problem! Clearly a decent amount of oil is finding its way into the engine! Not only will you be damaging the engine, you'll be damaging the cat too.... not to mention killing performance a bit!