I hoped I'd never need to pick your brains again, but I knew inevitably I would.

Today I got to work and after I shut off my car I noticed out of the corner of my eye a message flash on the instrument panel. "Low Eng Oil ..." it read. I looked up similar messages in my manual and realized it must have said, "Low Eng Oil Level." Thus I checked the oil and wadda ya know it's low. What strikes me as odd though is that the light only came on for a few seconds when I shut the car off (manual describes this as how it works), but after restarting the car (b/c the manual says it'll come on when you start the car and you'll get chimes) I saw nothing. I also saw nothing when I shut the car back off.

All that aside, I was wondering if anyone could have any ideas as to why my oil could suddenly be low at just under 50k miles on a car that is in pretty good shape. Now my oil is going on about 8k miles which is a ton, I know, and I usually change it around every 4k or so, BUT I figure since the car is supposed to tell you when it needs changed 8k should not be a problem, just less than ideal. Speaking of that, surprisingly the oil is not black yet. It's dirty of course and needs changed but I really expected to see complete blackness when I checked it.

The winter drive has been brutal but I haven't hit anything. The only thing that I can even think comes close is that yesterday in the process of our 13"-14" of snow the snow was deep enough to drag along the bottom of the car, but it was soft and slushy snow, not hard pack (or at least I think).

Any ideas as to why my oil level could be low all of a sudden? Are there any known issues that start to happen around 50k that I don't know about?

Thanks guys!

 

um yah 8000 miles...not good. u could have jsut burned up that much oil by now. change it and c if it happens again. jsut watch it closely

 

Stealership has looked at it and found 2 leaks.

1) Valvecover Gasket
2) Oil Cooler Lines

Ok good, we've found the problem. Now comes the GM 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. One would think engine issues such as these would be covered. They are telling me no. and they want $360 to fix it. However, when one looks here: http://www.gmcertified.com/certified...al_details.jsp one will notice both valve covers and gaskets listed as covered. So how is it that a valve cover gasket isn't covered?

I've talked to GM and they did list the oil cooler lines as not covered, but there is still this question of the valve cover gasket not being covered. Doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm going to call another dealership and ask them about it and see what they say. If I have to I'll play the, "I'll take it somewhere else to fix it," card.

 

Talked to another dealership who told me valve cover gasket is covered.

Called back dealership where the car is and after some initial "confusion" got them to understand that it should be covered and they will not be charging me for the valve cover gasket replace; on paper at least. Bill knocked down $130 for not having to pay for the valve cover gasket.

It sucks when you have to do the administrative work yourself.

 

100,000 mile warranty on your year? I thought that started in 07.

 

The 100,000 mile powertrain warranty for new cars did start with the 2007 model year. The warranty that Endo is referring to is for GM certified used vehicles.