Scotty,
My sister in law in Atlanta has a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe with 100K miles, V6 engine, auto. She said the engine started to make noise and check engine light went on while on a trip. She checked oil and it was below the dipstick. She never checked oil level manually before. She added 2 qts and the check engine light went off. Checked during trip and it was burning a quart per 1000 miles. Bad! Said bad engine noise ceased when oil level returned to normal, and ceased for the remainder of the trip. I was worried she blew the engine.
Later she had serviced by dealer, who supposedly added an oil treatment that removed carbon from engine (their description). They say they ran the engine with the cleaner, then flushed system and refilled with new oil. Now, oil consumption appears to be at less than 1 qt per 3000 miles. They want her to return and do again.
1) is this cleaning process BS or for real?
2) is it possible they changed to a different oil that isn't as impacted by GDI issues of oil dilution?
3) can you recommend an independent shop in the Atlanta area to help her find the root cause?
4) with this info, do you think the engine is shot and she should get rid of the vehicle before catastrophic engine failure in the future?
Thanks for your help. I can send you a copy of the dealer invoice showing the service work, but I'm not sure they disclose much. Just charged a few hundred dollars for this service.
I know that on some of their engines they have a process to remove deposits from the cylinders with special fluids, but that isn't oil additives.
You can always ask the dealer. I didn't find any service bulletins on the 3.3GDI so whatever oil they're using is probably one of the official supported ones as written in the manual.
3) can you recommend an independent shop in the Atlanta area to help her find the root cause?
Well, everyone can tell her that the issue is a worn engine.
Oil consumption of that scale is super common on GDI engines...
What I would recommend is cleaning the intake valves as these GDi engines really like to carbon them up.
4) with this info, do you think the engine is shot and she should get rid of the vehicle before catastrophic engine failure in the future?
It would be a good idea to replace the vehicle, the engine is definitely wearing out.
No one knows if or when there'll be a catastrophic failure, but dumping it now would be a good bet (if she plans on buying new / can wait sometime until the market comes back down because prices on used cars are insane)
She said the engine started to make noise and check engine light went on while on a trip. She checked oil and it was below the dipstick
One of the most important things, In my opinion is how quick was her response to the noises. How long has the engine ran without proper lubrication and how much damage has been done during that time...
