About David Scott Expertise Questions or advice regarding Suzuki 4wd vehicles as regards repair or modifications for offroad use.
Experience Been a professional mechanic over 30 yrs I've owned and modified 2 Sidekicks, and 3 Samurais, one of which I still have, and ocasionally drive, when my kids let me.
Expert: David Scott Date: 3/26/2004 Subject: oil useage on a 2002 tracker
Question About 5 months ago, I purchased a 2002 Tracker SUV 4wd with 18000 miles on it for my daughter. It has a 4 Cyl. 2.0 liter engine.I recently noticed it was using oil, a qt in less than 1000 miles. It was a presently has 27000 miles on it.There are no obvious leaks or tell tale smoke from the exhaust. The vehicle runs well. The dealer's service rep stated that they will run an oil consumption test. Do you have any ideas of whats wrong and what I should be watching out for? Do you know if this engine has a history of using oil?
Answer My guess is that the oil rings are somewhat clogged/stuck due to low mileage and probable short trips and not changing the oil sufficiently often.
I have had excellent luck with the following procedure:
Acquire two each cans of BG Products "Quik Kleen" and "MOA". When the oil level drops approximately a quart low, add one can of each product, and drive the vehicle an additional 500 - 1000 miles, keeping the oil level up as necessary. At that point change the oil and filter, using Mobil 1 5w-30 and the other two cans of the BG quick kleen and the MOA. Drive another 2500 miles and do another oil change. This has been sucessful in reducing oil consumption on well over 60% of the vehicles like yours. The cause of the problem is that a short trip/low mileage vehicle needs the oil changed at least every 3000 miles or 3 months, whichever occurs first. Remember that the maintenance recomendations from the manufacturer come from people who have a patently obvious interest in selling you either a new vehicle, or lots of parts to maintain a vehicle that's wearing out faster than necessary. By using the 3000 mile oil change interval, I drove both of my sidekicks more than 350,000 miles before it was necessary to overhaul the engine. I currently have 192,000 miles on my Samurai engine rebuild and it still doesn't consume oil. This is the same way the big trucks exceed 500,000 miles between major engine repairs.
