We bought this van new in November 2000. The car burns about 1 quart of oil every 1500 miles. It started burning oil at about 20,000 miles. The dealer measured the oil every 500 miles and told us that 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles is normal. The garage always has this burned oil smell after we drive the car in.
Other problems we have had are: air conditioner turns on by itself while driving, back door fails to open often, driver window would not go up specially in hot weather,
An oil leak at the base of the filter adapter, right rear door opened by itself once, front brakes started vibrating early on due to rotor uneven wear, annoying noise out of the steering column that started at about 7,000 miles.
We have spent money getting car rentals while the car is at the dealer because car rental is not covered after 1 year for most of repairs including some that are covered by the warranty. Other than the excessive oil consumption and the steering column noise the dealer has been able to fixed the problems.
Now we have ~27,000 miles in the car and we are getting 14.5 miles per gallon in the city and 20.9 in the freeway. We also can notice the loss of power more likely related to the oil consumption.
Besides all the reliability problems, this car drives great.
What is causing the steering noise? How can they say it is normal to burn 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles??? Why won't they repair it??
With burning 1 quart of oil every 500 miles I bet I know why. Did you read your owners manual, for the first 300 miles of city driving you are suppoused to be hard on the engine, not like squeal tires, but get up to speed fast. That is to seat the piston rings for one and many other componets of the engine.
I bet your oil is being consumed in the piston rings because they wernt set in properly.
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