I have been noticing that my Santa Fe 2001 has been losing about half a quart to a quart between oil changes. I only use Mobil 1 synthetic. So I looked around today and found the drain pan slightly moist. I wiped it down thoroughly and will take a look at it in a couple days to see if its wet again.

The more concerning thing though is that I noticed oil right next to the seals of the valve cover in front. To clarify, after removing the engine cover, right next to the front spark plugs, right by the bolts that hold the front valve cover in place, there was a decent amount of black oul sludge right by the place where the cover clamps down. I checked the rear valves in the same area and did not find sludge.

So a couple questions -
1) How serious an issue do I have?
2) I am thinking this is a valve cover gasket issue. Am I correct? How hard is this to fix?
3) My warranty is almost up - 97K miles. Would this issue be covered under warranty? I have been doing my own maintainance for a while, so I'm not sure if Hyundai will try to pass it off as my issue, or even whether this is considered a regular maintainance issue vs. warranty work.

The car is otherwise running ok... acceleration seems to be a little less than normal the last 10K miles or so, but not overly so.

 

Do you replace the crush washer on the oil pan drain plug every time you change the oil? My guess is your 1/2 quart loss is a slight leak at the oil drain plug because of a used washer and your engine is probably burning a slight amount of oil because you are near 100k miles. A 1/2 quart to a full quart over 3000-5000 miles is not an issue in an engine with 100k miles and an oil capacity of 5 quarts. I would just get a new crush washer and check the oil level more.

 

Thanks much. So a couple things - I always replace the crush washer each time I change the oil. I usually buy the crush washer from Advance Auto Parts, and the oil filter is a genuine Hyundai. The cush washer they supply is a metal type.

Should I be worried about the sludge from the valve covers? Would it help if I uploaded a picture?

Thanks again for your help.

Oh and the mileage is 97K right now.

 

Yeah, it a metal wasger. Some Hyundai oil filters come with them in the box, others don't. I buy them in packs of 10 usually. And while I have reused them before, they can be the source of a leak of not replaced so I change them everytime now.

The sludge on the front valve cover was a very slight leak at one time and then all teh road dirt that passed through the radiator and grill sticks to that film of oil to look like sludge. Most engines look like that unless you wash your engine regularly.