Hey All,

With repsect to the fact that it's probable that all older engines will burn oil... I just wanted to get a basic consensus on who's engine burns oil, and if so.. how much? Are you topping off every day, week, or monthly? What's an acceptable amount of oil consumption and what's not?

Outside of rebuilding the engine, what would be simple ways to prevent or slow oil burning?

Lastly, after reading the "master" post about the Montero, I think I may also have an inhibitor switch issue, but found that the pictures posted by one of the members that shows the removal and cleaning process to be removed. Anyone have pictures of what that switch looks like? And where exactly along the center console it could be found?

Thanks for all your help.

What engine do you have?
my 89 lwb has about 80k miles on the engine and it burns no oil. Sometimes after like 2500 miles into an oil change I will have to add a tiny bit, but it's still within the two lines on the stick.

I recently switched to royal purple synthetic oil and still don't have any problem with oil leaks or burning.

Someone else can chime in with a fix for yours.

Oh, and now that I said that I'm sure tomorrow morning I will go out to find it's completely out of oil. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

God, I keep forgetting to put what year and engine down for everyone to reference. I think I just have to put it in my sig. Sorry about that.

I have a '91 Monty with a 3.0 V6, and in the short time I've had the truck, the dipstick measured in between the two notches, but in the 1400 miles I've driven it (approximately) the dipstick showed that the oil was below the "low" notch. Quite a bit of a loss... (it can be of course me reading the dipstick wrong, but I don't think so).

There is a slight smell of burnt oil every time I drive the truck and get out of it.. but no smoking of the tailpipe, at least grossly visible. There have been moments where the exhaust seems a bit too visible to the naked eye than I would think... but that could be my own personal opinion and it was a very subtle thing.

I'm considering at the next oil change to document and check regularly my oil levels to see if in fact that I am burning a considerable amount of oil.

Any thoughts on what could be the cause if in fact I am burning too much. Leaky gaskets? Cracked block? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Only time will tell I suppose... but at this point, it's still manageable.

I assume you mean a Gen I (up to 1991) Automatic Transmission inhibitor switch?

Here's the illustration from the FSM (Factory Service Manual).

HTH.

To access it, you need to remove the black bezel covering the upper view of the perimeter of the shifter mechanism.

edit: ahh... added the year/model info. while I was putting together my reply <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Welp,

I took off the center console to examine the inhibitor switch, to find that it's not connected to anything. Is it supposed to be connected? The plastic female end was sitting there with 2 wires cut (a yellow and a white one) and nothing else.

I'm not sure if the previous owner disabled it or whatnot, but I'm not sure if that's the cause of my problems now.

At 206000 I have no noticable oil consumption from oil change to oil change. It also stays almost new looking. Strange since it is lower on power then it was when I first put on my 33's but still acceptable. Up to 30 it still leaves most vehicles behind at the stop lights.

Unless your truck has had unusually bad maintenance or extremely high mileage, I can almost guarantee your oil consumption has to do with the valve seals. This is very common on the 3.0 V6 engine. If you do a google search, you'll get lots of info.

My 91 LWB LS had 93K miles on it when I picked it up last fall and she was burning. I mean smoking up quite a bit at a stop light, I was sick thinking it needed new rings or whatever. I put the no-smoke gunk in there with some 20w 50 oil to get it to pass emissions. When I had the cash I had my mechanic replace all the valve seals at the cost of around $700 with a few other maintenance issues and I now run 10w 40 with absolutely no oil burning. I'd look into it anyways.

I believe the only function is to stop you from starting the car when it's not in park or neutral. I can doublecheck the FSM when I get home.

Great, thanks for the heads up. When I too have enough cash to do a valve job... I'll have that looked into.

Yeah, I hear ya. I recall on the uber-post with all the general information about the Montero's that it was a common problem for the inhibitor switch to be faulty or crusted up causing the car to inadvertently not start. My car sporadically doesn't start (not even the starter engages) every now and then... so I'm trying to isolate the problem.

If anyone can get me a photo of what the actual inhibitor switch should look like and how it should be connected that would be really helpful. The illustration doesn't quite show how it should be connected.