If an engine burns 1 quart a week / 4 quarts a month, how often do you change it?

[NiceGuyEddie]

More of a curious question as a new car will be in the family soon...

My fiance's 2016 Mini Copper recently had head work - all new valves, guide seals, O2 sensors, etc. 95K and gently driven.

Anyway, it's burning about 1 quart per week, or after 2 weeks the oil level looks half-full. No smoking, and the engine runs perfectly, even at cold idle. No leaks and the engine bay looks perfect. The chrome exhaust tip isn't blackened, although on the days where moisture comes out of the tip on startup the water is blackened & chalky. That part might be from driving to the shop with the engine light on. It ran a wee rough and burned gas fast!

Anyway, I'm just curious what you guys would think about changing the oil say every 3K or 3 months until we get a new car.

[bishes]

My wife's 97 civic went through a lot of oil too, about a quart a week too with 100 miles of driving per day. We just kept it topped up with oil and I changed the filter occasionally with a full oil change like once a year. Eventually sold it off to someone looking for a project.

[Dgc333]

If you aren't going to fix it why bother changing the oil at all. Using 1 quart per week is basically an oil change every month.

[ggunter]

How much oil did it burn before the head work. A quart a week is a lot! It might have a mis installed valve seal.
If it's actually burning that much it won't be long before the catalytic converter will be plugged and that's another issue.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Depends…is the car driven 100 miles in that week or 1,000 miles?

Jeff

[Al_C]

You would never have to change it, assuming you are adding oil every week. Even as you do that, the oldest oil in the pan is no more than 5 weeks and 4 days old. (assumes 5.6 quart max capacity)

[Ford & Jeep Fan]

A properly working catalytic converter can hide oil burning.

[jfrissora]

That is massive consumption indicating a real problem. Don't let it go more than a quart low and I would take it back to where you had your work done... unless it was burning that all along. You really need a fix or get out of that thing.

[Shamilton289]

You say driving 100 miles per day, so figuring a 5 day work week you are going through a quart every 500 miles.
That’s a lot. I think anything under 1,000 miles shouldn’t be consuming that much oil. My 2020 F150 3.5L turbo doesn’t use a quart in 5,000 miles and it has 91k miles on it.

[Skuzzy]

Is that Mini an 'S' with the turbocharged motor? Is it the 1.5L 3 cylinder engine or the 1.6L four cylinder engine?

If it is turbocharged, that could be the source of the oil disappearing.