Hey everyone,
I got a 04 Cts-V and today I was driving to get my hair cut and when I got there my change oil warning light came on and said that I was only at 1%... Which I thought was strange concidering that fact that I just changed my oil about 3 weeks ago. I took a look at my engine and it looks like the oil may be coming out of my heads. Is there any other possibilities of where it could be coming from??

 

pics???

 

Is it above or below the head itself? If it is above I would look at the valve cover gaskets, below look at the head gaskets. If it is the head gasket you would probably notice a power loss and also there may be oil in your coolant reservior or coolant in your oil.

Look for white goo on the bottom of your oil cap and also look for bubbles on your dipstick.

 

Also, Did you reset your oil change meter to 100% when you did the oil change?

Is the oil around where the fill cap is? Maybe you just spilled some and forgot to reset the meter?

 

I have the jeopardy music stuck in my head waiting for an answer...

 

It looks like its coming from the bottom of the head honestly. There also was lots of bubbles in the powersteering fluid when all this took place. Tomorrow im going to take off the engine cover and I'll take some pics. And yes I did reset the oil and it stayed at 1% then I poured in roughly 4 1/2 quarts and it said it was back at 100%. And no its on the opposite side of where the oil cap is.

Thanks alot for the help everyone

 

The power steering fluid would not have anything to do with the oiling system for the motor. If you lost 4-1/2 qts and it's a head gasket then its probably REALLY bad and there will be oil in the coolant. Is there any knocking or ticking? Almost sounds like a cracked head/block.

 

^ I agree, it would be EVERYWHERE...plus I would think with there would be tons of smoke from it leaking on the exhaust.

Get some pictures!

 

Just a guess but - make sure the oil filter is tight and not leaking. Statistically, that is the most likely cause of a major oil loss following an oil change. The oil high on the engine may be a messy, but minor leak from a valve cover gasket that has little to do with the major oil loss.

 

The oil % displayed on the DIC and how much oil is in your engine are in no way related to one another. The % is life left for the oil in the car. Say instead of changing the oil every 3k like in the olden days, you reset the meter to 100% when you change the oil and when you get back to 0%, you change the oil again.

I cant really help you on your oil loss anomaly and the relation between putting in 4.5qts and it going back to 100%. Sounds like operator error. I would double check the drain plug, double check the filter, do a once over on the valve covers, check the front timing cover. DO NOT USE THE % GAUGE IN THE DIC TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH OIL IS IN THE ENGINE!!! Use the dipstick and verify that the correct amount of oil is in the engine. You should have roughly 6qts of oil on a full oil/filter change. If you lost 4.5qts of oil, I'm sure you would have no doubt were the leak is coming from because thats a **** ton of oil and it would be everywhere!

 

Are you sure you got the oil change message and not the low oil warning? I can't believe you would be 4.5qts low and not get a low oil level warning!

 

No.1 - I'd avoid driving it / running the engine any more than is necessary to diagnose the problem.

No.2 - are you using Mobile 1 5w-30 full synthetic oil and a good filter?

No.3 - any oil smell or puddles under your car?

No.4 - the other suggestions, drain plug and oil filter tightness are good leads. I'd also check to make sure the correct filter is on ... with a gasket. On a rare occasion, a filter might not have come with a gasket or one that is properly seated and prepped.

Good luck. Hopefully this issue has a simple fix and doesn't turn into an expensive one.

 

i highly doubt its a head gasket, my guess is valve cover or drain plug. or u drained the oil and filled the power steering reservoir with oil .

 

Didn't even think about that...but now that you said it.....

 

 

hey guys thats for all the responses... I have contacted the vette doctors over in amityville but the problem is that they might not accept my warrentee service. Is there any other good mechanics that are on long island that specialize in these cts-v or corvettes??

 

Ok first off, DO NOT DRIVE the car! Second, as said previously, there is not a oil level indicator that would specify that you had only 1% of your oil left in the engine. That is the oil life indicator and would indicate that you need an oil change. If you already changed the oil and then you put another 4-1/2 quarts in because you misinterpreted the read out, then you have grossly overfilled your engine with oil and could explain why some is leaking out. ****, you could have oil all the way into cylinders with that much overfilling. Have your car towed to a shop and let them tell you what is the issue.

 

Well, at least we know we can put 12 quarts of oil in the V without it spilling out the filler neck...