Dull Men's Club

Not dull enough, I need more of this information! So where do I find explosion drawings and diagrams for my beautiful Opel Corsa A? He was eating a lot of oil. Doing strangely well since somebody overfilled the oil. The mechanics I've asked don't want to fix, if they had time, they would replace piston rings (not enough mechanics around here).

I want to keep the Corsa on the road, it's such a good car. I wish it was only an oil separator - or better, if only I could keep ignoring the problem till doomsday as I have done so far. Inspection end of this month will tell how bad it all is I guess.

The times that you didn't need to fill probably just means that the valve sometimes worked well enough to perform it's job. Oil-related systems are like systems exposed to exhaust and combustion, they take a beating and fail much more often than systems that aren't exposed to them.

Congrats on solving your problem!

Wait, you don’t just pour oil on the engine?

That’s one thing that will do it. There’s a couple people who have hydro locked with bad oil separators.

Since your car was previously abused (but even if it hasn't I recommend this greatly) start using "Valvoline Restore and Protect" engine oil in it.

It slowly cleans your engine and removed carbon buildup and sludge and frees up piston and oil rings. That brown staying on your oil dipstick will even go away. The shit is magic in a bottle. I started using it three years ago in my Gen 2 Prius that was burning a quart of oil every 1500 miles. Now it burns a quart every 3500 to 4000 miles. My Prius has 290,000 miles on it.

You can check this stuff out on any forums or YouTube videos or all the analysis stuff done by Motor Oil Geek or anywhere else. Not really a negative thing to be found about it. I just buy it from Wal Mart for $30 for 5 quarts. It likely would have eventually even freed up the sludge from your oil separator without you needing to find and replace it.

*Edit: I added some video links in a comment below.

You didn't ask for an auto troubleshooting tip?

No, but I'm happy to receive it! My dad never was much of a mechanic or handyman, so there's a ton of things he didn't and couldn't teach me. The intricacies of cars are part of that, and I never have the nerve to sit down and proper learn it. I know a bunch of the necessities I had to learn for my license or picked up along the way. I just can't make myself commit to a longer learning session.

Thing like this are a small, digestible slice of understanding, delivered during my morning commute when I'm both receptive and have the time. It fits in my attention span -> curiosity window.

This is the perfect way to learn. I'm very glad you posted it!

Not all cars have oil separators, but a blocked PCV valve can cause the same symptoms of oil being sucked up from the crankcase into the air box/intake/throttle body, and thus rapid oil consumption. This happens especially on cars that are neglected in terms of oil change intervals and hence sludge up.

The PVC valve is one of the items that need periodic replacing or at least cleaning (and if cleaning subsequent thorough drying before reinstalling). Also, check the associated lines aren’t clogged too, a weed wacker line is a good tool to poke through the lines to check. The PCV valve is almost never mentioned in service booklets as routine service item, it borders malice by the manufacturers and grinds my gears.

The amount of people I talk to about a PCV valve being the cause of their oil consumption and who never heard about, or know what it is, is too damn high.

Before you pay a mechanic thousands for open engine surgery replacing stem seals or oil control rings, check your PCV valve, gents.

When I see that happening on a diesel, I start looking for fuel pushing past rings and getting into the oil.