Few weeks ago, after stopping the car (2010), low oil notification appeared. I check the oil from time to time, and didn't notice it dropping down, so that was a complete surprise.
I checked the dipstick and it was empty. Had to add 1 liter so it would be in between low and high (checked new level 5 mins after stopping the engine).

Until now the car didn't burn oil, maybe topping it off max 1 liter between changes.

When changing the LCA bushing few weeks ago, was told that the rear crankshaft seal might need to be changed.

Any ideas how to investigate what might be the issue. Can OBD show the exact oil level, I am thinking to check different driving scenarios and checking the level with OBD.

 

First step is to thoroughly investigate for a leak. If you need a rear seal, that is most likely the issue. Then you have to decide if you want to keep adding oil or get it repaired. I recommend repair.

If it’s burning oil, that is a more difficult issue, and I will let the smarter members comment on next steps. How many miles does it have?

 

It has 66k miles. I pushed it a bit a while ago with some donuts and some drag racing. Checked the oil after, and it was unchanged. There is some white smoke when starting up, have to check if it's vapor or burned oil.

 

White smoke is vapor. Blue smoke is oil. I would just monitor the oil level for a couple of months and see if it is burning consistently. Sometimes these engines will consume more oil if driving really hard ( drags, donuts, etc.) If normal driving is not effecting the oil consumption you're probably good to go.

Not sure if too many people have experienced rear main seal leaks. 66k miles is not a lot of mileage. Did the car sit for an extended period of time?

 

Yes, it must have sat for some good time. I bought it not long ago so I don't know details, but I guess it could be ~1 year.

The smoke must have been vapor, I started a few times after letting the car sit, and there was no smoke.

 

If you want to be unquestionably certain, have a leak down test done. If it passes a leak down test and you have no external leaks, something else happened, but you're very unlikely to be burning oil. No blue smoke is usually a good sign, but if you have cats, they can clean up a surprising amount of hydrocarbons in the exhaust before they start blowing out clouds of blue.

If nothing else, monitor the oil level carefully.

 

Will get back to this thread after some time monitoring the oil level. Thanks guys!

 

So it was one of those strange occurrences that happens only once. Didn't have any more issues with the oil level.

 

I get this notification on my car all the time but it only happens when I'm sitting there idling for a few minutes. I'll drive to work and get there like 20 minutes early and sit in my car and rock out to music before I go in and always after a few minutes of idling the notification comes up and then goes away after like 10 seconds. I check the oil here and there to make sure everything is good and the car isn't burning any oil so I figured its just a weird bug that happens now that my car has 120k miles

 

Just got my rear main seal done two days ago. $1600 labor, parts $47