My friend bought a Rio at CarMax and has just now (that it’s out of warranty and lemon law) discovered it runs out of oil every 1K miles. Not a leak (at least no evidence of one) and the interwebs is telling us these cars just do that sometimes: they burn through the oil.

Is this fixable? Is this just how this car is going to be? She does put a LOT of miles on it, and driving around with a case of ool sounds prohibitively expensive. Help, please!

  • ismellpoo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m not sure what the spec is with Kia, but with GM, the oil consumption is 1qt per 2k miles. Your friend needs to do a better job at changing the oil and keeping the oil level checked. The level should be checked every time that every fuel fill up.

  • uBlowDudes247@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Not sure about this specific model / engine but I know Hyundai / Kia from this generation burn a shit load of oil and if I’m not mistaken there’s a recall but I’m not 100% on that.

    I’m sure someone else with more info will pop in

  • JustAnotherDude1990@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    “Runs out of oil every 6.8k miles” means what, exactly? The low oil light comes on?

    Assuming it is a 5ish qt capacity, that is about 1qt per thousand miles if it were completely out and destroying the engine by the end. Burning that amount may be annoying, but is within the realm of what most manufacturers consider ok and is also why you should regularly check your oil level and top it off when needed.

  • Itisd@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    The engines in these are very well documented for being complete pieces of junk. These engines burn huge amounts of oil, and also seize up and throw Rods without warning. It does not matter if maintenance was done properly it not, these engines are defective in design and will fail regardless. Your friend might be able to get in touch with Kia to see about recalls which might get your friend a free replacement engine.