I have posted here from time to time about my lowly Kia Soul from 2015. We’re currently at 91,450 or so in mileage. I just found out thanks to a helpful Valvoline tech that we’re burning oil at an accelerated rate. Apparently, my stupid behind doesn’t know how to properly check oil, because when I checked it 2 weeks ago it appeared to be full. However, yesterday the guy said the oil was barely registering on the dipstick. There’s absolutely no sign of leaks, so this mother freaking GDI engine has to be burning what’s missing.
This is all backed up by the fact that towards the end of an oil change interval, I’m getting a periodic knock on acceleration. It appears that this was my poor 2.0L engine starving for oil. After the oil change, there’s magically no noise at all. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that the noise sounded like sucking too little fluid through a straw, and it seems like that’s very close to what was happening.
I have an offer in hand from CarMax from an appointment yesterday, and they’ll give me $5,500 for my current car.
This leads me to go looking for alternatives. I’m trying not to have a huge payment, so I’m trying to stay under $10,000. That prevents me from considering any Toyotas or Hondas unless they are very old or very high mileage.
Looking around, I found a 2015 Ford Fusion hybrid ( titanium edition) with 115,000 miles for $11,000 from a local Honda dealership that I trust. I also found a 2017 Ford Fusion hybrid at a Ford dealership that I do not know about 40 miles away at $9,880 with 109,000 miles.
I know Fords are not generally well regarded these days, but all my research points to Fusion hybrids being reliable, lasting up to 250,000 miles or more. Given that I’ve put less than 92,000 miles on my Kia in 10 years, it seems like either of these might be a good buy for me that would be well within my budget.
With all that said, I invite you guys to play: Is it better than my 2015 Kia Soul?
Not sure where you’re located but for that price you’re gonna end up buying a car with similar issues if not more. Just do more frequent oil changes and top it off every now and then. Don’t let the oil get low enough to knock anymore. You’re killing the engine. Gonna break a piston rod or something.
Make sure the engine is cold and car is on level surface. Pull the dipstick out and wipe it clean. Insert it and check. Sometimes dipsticks are hard to read. Ur looking for oil level on any side of the stick. Take a look at the level after an oil change to know what to look for.
You can learn to do your own oil changes and save at least $100 per change if you’re doing synthetic. Just need an oil catch pan, ratchet and the right socket for the plug, possible something to unscrew the filter cuz people be putting that on too tight, and some jack stands. Do not be afraid of harbor freight or amazon to get this stuff cheap, unless you’re trying to boycott these types of places.
When I checked it, I made sure it was on level ground, because I’ve made the mistake of checking it in my driveway (which has . I pulled the dipstick and wiped it before reinserting and pulling it. It was wet all the way to the top of the target area when I did that, but I had been running the engine within the last 5 minutes, so it seems like I sabotaged myself. I’d always thought that if you ignored the reading when you first pulled it and then re-dipped it, you would get a good read. Apparently I’m a damned idiot.
The recommended oil change interval is 7,500 miles. I’ve been trying to do it at least every 5,000, but I’ve effectively been doing it every 3,000 in the last two oil changes.
I’ve heard the knocking before, but I thought that issue had been resolved when I had my catalytic converter replaced. What I didn’t recognize is that I had an oil change around the same time so it’s entirely possible that when I stopped hearing the noises it just had enough oil. The symptoms I had for the catalytic converter failure were more serious-- severe power loss and such, but it looks now like the knocking I would hear sometimes was likely unrelated.
I would change my own oil, but my driveway is on a pretty significant angle, and I’m concerned that if I change and the only place that I really have to change it, that the angle will make things not drain properly or lead me to overfill or underfill. I’m also fairly afraid of messing up and trashing the car.
I do try to do things that I feel confident about. I do change the air filters, both engine and cabin. I’ve changed the PCV valve, though it played merry hell on my nerves when I couldn’t get the original off easily. I eventually was able to loosen it and get it off without damage, and I installed the replacement without issue, but I’m always worried about doing something stupid.
When I was younger, I was bold enough to change my own brake pads on a Nissan hardbody truck, but I later got myself into trouble when I tried to replace the distributor on that same truck and had to have it towed. Since then, I’ve been cautious about what I would do for myself. I really wish there was some sort of damn class I could take. At the very least, I’d feel a hell of a lot better if there were Haynes or Chilton manual for my car, but apparently that’s not a thing with some automakers these days.
Sorry to hear about the cat. Hopefully you didn’t need a CARB compliant.
Yeah it was cuz you had recently run the engine. Now you know. I would just keep checking it now and then and do the 3K intervals with synthetic if you can. If there’s nothing else wrong with the car, I wouldn’t be too concerned. Some engines are just known to burn fuel but might be worth doing some research to find out if there’s something causing it. Maybe do valve cover gaskets if it’s not a bitch in that model/year. Good luck!