hi i have a mondeo st24. i have noticed that the oil level seems to need topping up every month by about 1 litre of oil.
i do not have an oil leak and im not loosing any water.

any ideas?

 

rings?

does it smoke? does it smell like burning oil at all?

 

I had an st24, had an issue with head gasket, it did not go in the normal way but slowly lost oil, apparently design fault at rear head bank the head gasket goes between waterway and cylinder and leaks from cylinder to water, may not be your problem, but the first thing i noticed was oil usage,water temp did not go high or boil, water exp bottle started to show oil in it eventually, but not straight away, was a few years ago now, so memory not great, but it had only done 60 k and i did not hammer it, i hated to get rid, as i liked the car, but practically an engine out job to fix as you cant get the head off in situ, hope this is not your problem but just thought id mention it, I got rid as it was a case of when, not if,the gasket blew on the duratec v6 engine as was the forums diagnosis at the time

 

no there is no noticable smoke.the header tank does look very dark and dirty but the water dont look to bad. any way i can home test to see if it is head gasket?

 

thats how mine started, was using oil, then tank got dirty then oil showed up in tank, hope it isnt as it is a big job to fix

 

how long after the dirty tank before the car started having problems?

 

ok drained coolant out today to have a good look and it wasnt oily. just a drity old heade tank. ran the water through my fingers and didnt feel oily or anything. but i did find an oil leak under the car at the back of the engine and dripping off drainage cap. any known common oil leaks on these in that area?

 

it was a long time ago so i cant remember, just know that on mondeo forums back then gasket was the main problem that and the interior fan speed resistor for 2nd speed burning out,, apart from that i cant remember, get the header tank checked with a gas analyzer any mot garage will do it takes minutes to check if it picks up any gasses your gasket is gone,,

 

cheers mate but it ain the head gasket. its an oil leak. now just gota find the leak lol