Oil burning

[dcloz]

Has anyone experienced an oil burning condition with their FH?

 

I was driving at 50 mph on a 2 lane highway and had my first opportunity to pass. When I punched the gas pedal the engine rerved up and the car moved swiftly up in speed. As I was passing i noticed in my rear view mirror a cloud of blue smoke back where I punched it.

 

I'm a little worried and was wondering if anyone else had this same thing happen.

[Grey]

No.

 

You do not provide enough detail regarding mileage on the vehicle, oil type and weight used, how was the engine broken in, etc. Is the crankcase overfilled? Did you switch to a full synthetic before the rings seated? Are you using oil at a rate greater than 1 quart over 3,000 miles? Have you done modifications to the vehicle (cold air intake)?

 

Hard to diagnose over the internet.

[oldschool1962]

Personally and just my opinion................I don't believe it to be so much of an oil burning situation as much as it is crap in the system....especially the exhaust.

 

I'm a firm believer that if you don't generate any significant RPM's from time to time ...all that low rpm driving leaves the system with carbon and other things building up. This is typical for any car. Personally, I'd just drive it like ya stole it on the rare occasion or use the Hwy and rev it up to merge....again on the rare occasion........ and clean out the system. If it continues and you see a significant increase in oil usage.....take it to the dealer. Again........ Just my humble personal opinion

[Grey]

Blue smoke means oil. It gets into the cylinder past the piston rings or around the valve guides.

[oldschool1962]

It has been my experience that most will mistake the cloud of smoke from accelerating to oil burning. When I worked in a sevice station years ago this was brought to our attention frequently. Most often from those who were very light on the pedal and used the car most frequently around town. Plus........ It's difficult.....at best........ to see what color the smoke is when you are in a hard accelleration moving away from the cloud at hwy speed. It really had to be one heck of a cloud if that's the case.

 

Understand though.........I'm not doubting the poster but chances are it was just carbon build up. Especially since the poster stated that this was the first opportunity the car has been used in a passing situation. If the blue smoke appears when the ICE first cranks over after starting the car after a long wait or sitting over-night or it appears under any form or sort of accelleration....... then I would have to agree it is oil.....but not after one single hard acceleration.

 

There is the rare chance that there is a bad valve seal or possibly the rings didn't seat properly and more likely if the car was beat on from the start or the oil was changed too soon but that would have to be almost immediately after purchase. If the guid;lines of even 3000 or 5000 miles were used instead of 10,000........ the rings should still have seated properly. As far as break-in.......per the manual there is no real break-in period other than not running the car at constant speed during the first .....I think.....1000 miles....or maybe it was 600. I don't have the manual in front of me at the moment so please excuse me if I am mistaken.

 

Let me add this too. If you are burning oil and are with-in your warranty period ....get it to the dealership immediately. Heck.....don't take our word for it and just take it in anyhow to dismiss any doubt you may have. Just don't buy one of those oil additives. They can do more harm than good.

[Noel]

Has anyone experienced an oil burning condition with their FH?

 

I was driving at 50 mph on a 2 lane highway and had my first opportunity to pass. When I punched the gas pedal the engine rerved up and the car moved swiftly up in speed. As I was passing i noticed in my rear view mirror a cloud of blue smoke back where I punched it.

 

I'm a little worried and was wondering if anyone else had this same thing happen.

 

This comes from the idiot Ford service dept, in my experience, overfilling the oil level w/ oil changes. It's happened twice to me. I asked them to remove oil the first time, the second time I never bothered to double check their work, and after the following near disaster happened I discovered the oil was filled to an estimated 1/4 qt past the max fill line.

 

This exact thing happened to me, and when it happened, I lost power as the combustion chambers got oil dumped into them. This is a dangerous condition as it will happen as you say when you step on it, and if you are passing, this isn't good. This IS NOT from carbon build up. The blue smoke cloud is substantial and will generate a service engine light as well, transiently.

 

The solution, which I proved to myself, is to never fill the oil up beyond the max full line for sure, but better yet, adopt a practice to only fill it to 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to max on the dip. When I took the car to the dealer, the SM told me: "Ford tells us to put 4.8 qts in, then not bother to check the dip [presumably to save time?!]" I've since stepped on it with no blue smoke since adopting this practice.

 

Noel

[kirkster57]

I just discovered the same thing myself today. First time I have had to "puch it" and the smoke billowed out. I got to another stretch of raod and punched it again and the same thing happened. The second time the check engine light came on. It went off on it's own. I checked the dip stock and eitehr it is too full to tell on I just dont know how to check the oil. The dip stick is hard to read. I will call the dealership tomorrow.

 

This comes from the idiot Ford service dept, in my experience, overfilling the oil level w/ oil changes. It's happened twice to me. I asked them to remove oil the first time, the second time I never bothered to double check their work, and after the following near disaster happened I discovered the oil was filled to an estimated 1/4 qt past the max fill line.

 

This exact thing happened to me, and when it happened, I lost power as the combustion chambers got oil dumped into them. This is a dangerous condition as it will happen as you say when you step on it, and if you are passing, this isn't good. This IS NOT from carbon build up. The blue smoke cloud is substantial and will generate a service engine light as well, transiently.

 

The solution, which I proved to myself, is to never fill the oil up beyond the max full line for sure, but better yet, adopt a practice to only fill it to 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to max on the dip. When I took the car to the dealer, the SM told me: "Ford tells us to put 4.8 qts in, then not bother to check the dip [presumably to save time?!]" I've since stepped on it with no blue smoke since adopting this practice.

 

Noel

[lolder]

I just discovered the same thing myself today. First time I have had to "puch it" and the smoke billowed out. I got to another stretch of raod and punched it again and the same thing happened. The second time the check engine light came on. It went off on it's own. I checked the dip stock and eitehr it is too full to tell on I just dont know how to check the oil. The dip stick is hard to read. I will call the dealership tomorrow.

See pages 275-276 in the Owners Guide, especially about the car being level and off for 15 minutes. The dipstick is EASY to read. Wipe it off completely, reinsert, remove and look with good light. The high and low marks are readily visible as is the oil level. If the whole stick looks wet, it is grossly overfilled. My vehicle burns an unmeasurable amount in a 10,000 mile interval.

Edited September 13, 2010 by lolder

[kirkster57]

Thanks for the info. the owners guide is pretty clear. Car is going back to the dealer anyway, so they can figure it out. I will have to make a mental note for them to check the fill level everytime I get the oil changed now. Thank god for these forums. I was really starting to freak out after that happenend.

 

See pages 275-276 in the Owners Guide, especially about the car being level and off for 15 minutes. The dipstick is EASY to read. Wipe it off completely, reinsert, remove and look with good light. The high and low marks are readily visible as is the oil level. If the whole stick looks wet, it is grossly overfilled. My vehicle burns an unmeasurable amount in a 10,000 mile interval.

[kirkster57]

I took the car back. It's not the oil level. Tehy have not seen any servcie bullitelns from Ford about the issue either. I have to bring the car in next week and leave it for the whole day. I'm not having a good feeling about this.

[10 Fusion-Hybrid]

Keeping the oil level a bit low is the answer. Yes, I'm 4 years later than you guys dealing with this problem but after 3.5 years of excellent fuel economy and performance with our 2010 Fusion Hybrid I had my first experience with the oil smoke a few months ago when needing to accelerate hard on a freeway entry ramp. Couldn't believe it came from my car at first but then it happened again a month later. A big blast of grey smoke left behind. It's definitely oil and had me concerned the engine was losing it's piston ring sealing after only 36,000 miles. After reading this blog I changed the oil and filter and only put in 4.5 qts. with the dip stick reading half way up the OK range. A couple of full throttle trials and no smoke. Thank you much, Noel, for providing this answer. It alleviated my concerns and avoided taking the car in to the dealer for a cylinder leak-down test.

[lolder]

This is really a minor design defect in the 2010-12s. Cars shouldn't do this even with oil at the top mark and spirited driving. It's not something that can be fixed as it's related to the dimensions and shape of the engine block and the recommended oil level. It appears to only happen with a high acceleration right hand turn such as an older freeway on ramp. Having the oil at 3/4 full seems to almost eliminate it. It can briefly turn on the check engine yellow symbol. It apparently doesn't hurt the engine and the light will go out. Be vigilant about over filling the oil during changes. These hybrids call for 5 qts. and regular fusions call for 5.3 so there's the temptation of shops to put at least 5.3 in all of them. Tell them to put 41/2 qts. in and buy a qt. to keep in your car to top it up to 3/4 full as necessary. Nobody has reported any significant oil consumption in 10,000 mile change intervals so far so don't worry about even being 1/2 qt. down from the full mark.

[murphy]

The Owner's Manual for my 2013 calls for 4.5 quarts of engine oil.

[hybridbear]

The Owner's Manual for my 2013 calls for 4.5 quarts of engine oil.

These posters are talking about the first gen FFH.

[acdii]

Holy old thread Resurrection!