theonlyguy

I have a 1996 Mustang GT with 84k miles on it. I was on my way to town and my low oil light came on, so I went over to Schucks and got a quart of oil. I went back to my car and started it up without checking the oil level and the light was off. so I finished up in town and went back home a couple days later I was gonna go to town again and the light came on again so I turned off the car and turned it back on and the light was still on. so I poped the hood checked the dipstik and the oil was only on the tip of the stick so I added oil until it was in a good range on the stick. (I added about 3/4 of a quart)

Then I saw that the oil is supposed to be changed every 3k miles or 6 months which ever is first the oil had less than 1.5k on it but was 6 months and 2 weeks old. so I went to town picked up 6 quarts of Castrol Edge and a mobil 1 filter and changed the oil.

so I have a couple questions. 1. has this happened to anyone else? 2. should I be concerend that the oil was so low? 3. since it was only 2 weeks past 6 months would the oil dissapear and burn that fast? if you have any advice or tips please share them.

SCCAGT

Look for the oil pressure sensor. If it has ANY oil on it, the sensor itself is bad. It is allowing oil to seep past it and throw off its readings making the ECU believe the oil is too low.
As far as changing it every 6 months if mileage isnt up to 3k, thats up to you, and also depends on conditions. Driving conditions can vary greatly from one person to another.
The normal 3mo or 3k miles rule of thumb is not set in stone, and is for most people, much sooner than necessary. It should be considered as cheap insurance when its done at that interval. Nothing was hurt, nor was an extended oil change to blame for excessive consumption in YOUR case. See if you can find ANY leaks. A slow leak from a valve cover could easily get burned off the exhaust and not hit the ground. If absolutely no leaks are found, then the engine is probably starting to use oil. Nothing you can do for that without spending some money.

theonlyguy

thanks for the reply. ok so I went under the car with a flashlight and I was checking every where and I've never seen any drops of oil on the ground so I looked up at the valves and near the back above where the headers and my X pipe meet I saw some fresh oil not tons but enough for there to be oil dripping on the exaust. so i poped the hood and was checking the valve cover and around where the last two cylinders are and back around where the blcok and cover meet it was a bit wet. I'm almost positive that's where the problem is coming from cause the other side of the engine is totally dry. (the leaky side is thedrivers side)

so my question now is. what should I do to fix it?

FlamingoGT

may just need new cover gaskets. or even check and make sure the cover bolts are torqued right first.

theonlyguy

alright I'm pretty sure it's the valve cover gasket cause it's leaking from between the cover and the block. but that's a good idea to check the bolts first. i'll give that a try, thanks