Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

I have posted this on a couple of Honda forums so apologies if you have read it elsewehere - I just want to take some advice as widely as I can.


I have had my 64 plate Honda 2.2 I-DTEC Auto for around 4 months now and as part of my weekly maintenance check, I have been keeping an eye on all the fluid levels.

On checking today I note that the car has used approximately half the tank of oil in just over 3k miles since I bought it (probably a tad more but difficult to be precise). Car is used mostly on motorways and never thrashed though I do regular (weekly) runs of 60 and 90 mile return trips.

I bought the car with 20300 miles on and it's just touched 24k miles.

I am aware that some cars use a little oil between services but that to me seems a lot. If I fast forward 3 months until its next service then it will have used the entire tank in little over 6k miles - I have never had that on any car I have owned before and I have owned many cars and all diesels. There are no leaks.

Is this normal or something to be concerned about?

Would appreciate advice please.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - gordonbennet

Are we talking about the points between max and min levels on the dipstick? or the sump contents, say 5 litres so you've added 2.5 litres to keep it up to around the max mark?

I suspect 1 litre at the most would take it from min to max, so if you've used half a litre of engine oil in just over 3000 miles you have absolutely nothing to worry about, if you've added 2.5 litres in 3k miles then you do have something to worry about.

Edited by gordonbennet on 17/07/2017 at 13:11

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

Thanks gb. The measure I am using is the dipstick which was absolutely at 'Max' when I bought it and, as stated, is now a tad below half full.

So I assume if the max is 5 litres then I have used 2.5 litres?

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - gordonbennet

Thanks gb. The measure I am using is the dipstick which was absolutely at 'Max' when I bought it and, as stated, is now a tad below half full.

So I assume if the max is 5 litres then I have used 2.5 litres?

No, if the sump is say 5 litres capacity, then the min mark on dipstick would be at roughly 4 litre point, so 1 litre would take it from min up to max, it would not be advisable to have such little oil in the engine as half its max capacity, cornering or steep hills could easily see no oil being circulated if so low, a bad thing...though some people have been known to only top them up when the oil pressure light comes on, we've had them posting here ruining perfectly good engines in the process.

I would suggest you have used around half a litre of oil in 3k miles, and all is good.

Up to you if you top it up now, i would but its not essential, if it takes any more than 0.5 to 0.7 litres to bring it back up to max i would be very surprised.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - SLO76
The 2.2 DTEC and earlier CDTi are known for relatively high oil use but this does seem a bit too high to be normal. Did you check it was full when you picked it up? When was it last serviced? And was it an approved used Honda from a main dealer with full Honda service history? Use of the incorrect grade of oil can increase oil usage and decrease the lifespan of the turbo and timing chain on these so you should only buy with a full main dealer history.

It's not a bad effort as far as modern turbo diesels go and it was Honda's first try at diesel but it's not as robust as the firms petrol engines and the later 1.6 diesels are to date showing no reliability issues or signs of heavy oil use. I haven't had to top ours up in 35,000 miles to date despite the commander in chief having a heavy right foot.
Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - gordonbennet

SLO, i'm always a little concerned about a Diesel, especially the modern ones saddled with the devils work the DPF, using no oil at oil.

All engines in my experience use a small amount over several thousand miles, even if its just a cupful, what would concern me on a modern Diesel is that unburnt fuel is replacing oil due to incompleted regens as Mazda Diesels are well known for, but hardly alone.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - SLO76
"SLO, i'm always a little concerned about a Diesel, especially the modern ones saddled with the devils work the DPF, using no oil at oil."

There's no reason to believe it should use any oil at all though I wouldn't be concerned if I had to top up from time to time. My DPF equipped 1.2 TDi Polo barely uses any either, really just moving off maximum to above three quarters between services @ 12.5k miles.

Edited by SLO76 on 17/07/2017 at 13:39

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

Yes it was 100% full on collection from a main dealer and it has full Honda history. I am not an expert and gb's advice is that it's within normal tolerances. Again, the only thing I have to compare with is/are my previous vehicles and none have ever used as much as this one.

I may have a chat with the dealer about it but suspect I'll get the message that all is well.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - gordonbennet

If i didn't have to add any oil to a Diesel in say 5000 miles i'd be sending an oil sample off for analysis and fully expecting to find excess fuel in the results leading to an immediate oil change.

Purely out of interest the 12.5ish litre (i think) engine in my DPF'd lorry is just about to top 670,000kms, it used 3 litres a month when i first got it new and it uses 3 litres a month now.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - SLO76
"If i didn't have to add any oil to a Diesel in say 5000 miles i'd be sending an oil sample off for analysis and fully expecting to find excess fuel in the result"

You're being overly paranoid. Some diesel do use oil, some don't. It doesn't point to impending doom either way as long as usage isn't excessive. I've yet to hear of a single failure on a 1.6 DTEC diesel and there's loads of them locally including a Civic taxi which was closing in on 150k (without fault) last time I spoke to its owner. When I see him again I'll querie its oil use.

Edited by SLO76 on 17/07/2017 at 13:54

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - RobJP

I'd agree with SLO on this one. Nothing to be overly concerned about. You've used approximately 0.5 litres of oil in 3k miles. Whilst it might not be ideal,it's nothing to panic over.

Incidentally, I'd not top it to the 'full' marker, but would only ever top it to halfway - so when it drops to close to the 'min' mark, top it up. The last thing you want is if excess diesel from a DPF regen made its way into a full sump, and you had an uncontrollable engine runaway. Becasue that's be a new engine, and would slmost certainly NOT be covered by the warranty.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Stanb Sevento

There are two main routes where oil can get used, down the valve stems and up past the pistons oil control ring. Particularly on diesels there is a third and it can be significant, high cylinder pressure pushes a lot of gas past the rings and into the crankcase, this gas is fed back into the inlet manifold, this gas contains a lot of oil vapour. Most engines have some sort of trap to catch most of the oil but if this is blocked with gunk in any way the oil goes into the engine and gets burnt. Dont know the engine so cant tell you what to look for.

Burning oil in a DPF engine is a bad thing, it clogs up the EGR valve by making the soot sticky and it adds to the ash loading in the DPF shortening its life. Fuel in the oil is a disapearing problem, every make has its own strategy but in my car and thats not even the latest techknowledgy the fuel is injected on the exhaust strike so it gets blasted straight into the DPF and the car shuts off this extra fuel anyway if your speed drops too low so fuel in the oil is very unlikley on newer cars.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Manatee

Kewsea it is still not fully clear to me that by "half full" you mean halfway between the Max and Min marks, which should be no more than about 15mm apart, or something else.

However there is no need to go to the dealer if the above is what you mean. If the level has gone down by no more than the distance between the marks, it is fine.

Read the manual, it will reveal all, complete I am sure with a picture of the dipstick. And put oil in to bring it to the Max mark, and take note how much you have to put in. It might only be half a litre. Then you can work out your oil consumption.

It's not strictly necessary to top up if it is above the Min mark, but it will do no harm unless you overfill.

On the other hand - if by "half full" you mean halfway from where it started to the bottom of the stick, you might have a problem. Have any lights come on? If the oil gets very low then I would expect the oil pressure light to flicker on bends. If that happens, top up immediately if not sooner.

I don't see a problem with filling to Max. I don't think this engine does dump diesel into the sump, but if it is so designed it will have a X or other mark higher up the dipstick. The level must never be above the X. My Mitsubshi and its predecessor work this way but neither has ever got anywhere near the X.

In future, check the oil every couple of weeks. Running with low oil (below Min) WILL kill your engine. By checking it you would also see whether it goes above the Max too, and can deal with that if it happens. The Mazdas that blew up from excess oil/diesel in the sump were presumably driven by people who never checked the level (which these days is most people).

Incidentally, I wasn't aware that these cars had a reputation for using oil. I ran a CRV i-CTDI (not CDTI) to 95,000 miles and it used very little, so maybe the i-DTEC doesn't necessarily use much either.

Edited by Manatee on 17/07/2017 at 15:10

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

Manatee - thanks for taking the time to reply. I am, however, equally confused by your question as the dipstick doesn't have 'min' and 'max' marks on :-). I'll try to explain more.

The dipstick has two dots on it only and this, I assume, is the min and max fill level. When I bought the car the oil level on the dipstick was absolutely at the max (i.e. the dot above) level.

Today, 3k miles later, the oil level on the dipstick is just over half way to the 'min' level near the bottom of the dipstick. So whatever the measure between the max 'dot' level is and the bottom of the dipstick, I'd say it's used just over half of that.

Hope that clarifies and thanks for the help so far - much appreciated to all who replied.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Manatee

The dipstick has two dots on it only and this, I assume, is the min and max fill level.

Correct. The marks are usually lines, or sometimes dots/holes on a flat dipstick. As others have said, you are probably only 1/2 a litre or so below the Max which is not a problem and well within normal behaviour.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - catsdad
Earlier CRV was a litre between min and max on the stick. I assume later ones would be same.
No car i've had in the last thirty years has needed oil topped up between services, including an Accord with this engine. However manufacturers tend to set a "normal" oil consumption rate to protect themselves from warranty cllaims that is well in excess of (ie worse) than what most owners will see.
I'd bet that Honda will say this CRV is well within limits.
Some engines burn more oil if they were run too gently in their early miles. I am not sure if you can remedy this by gunning it occasionally now. As a matter of routine I used to take my diesels up towards the redline once a week or so. I think HJ used to recommend this? I might be mistaken but as long as the engine is warmed up and you don't hit the limiter it wouldn't do any harm to try it and see if oil consumption levels off.

Edited by catsdad on 17/07/2017 at 16:31

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

There seems to be a pretty equal split in terms of people who think it's normal/within limits/nothing to worry about, and those who are (like me admittedly) of the view that cars shouldn't burn oil unless they have an issue.

I'd call the dealer but I know what they will say....

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - focussed

My experience with the 2.2 Honda diesels is that on the original oil spec of 5w - 30 fully synthentic they hardly use any oil at all.

Honda then changed the oil spec in around 2008 to 0w -30 to improve fuel consumption - so they said, I found that they then use a little oil, especially when driven hard - can't remember how much, didn't bother recording it.

Try to start thinking of oil consumption as a percentage of fuel consumption.

More than 0.5% is excessive according to most manufacurers - especially considering emission performance.

I suggest that the OP reviews his method of checking the oil - the recomended way is to run the engine for 10 minutes or so until the oil is warm, stop it and wait for 5 minutes, and then check the oil level.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

There's so much conflicting information so it's hard to know what to rely on to be honest. 3 dealers today insisted I only check the oil when the car has been stood overnight.

As a result, it's difficult to ascertain what's an issue and what not. I think I'll go with my experience that cars shouldn't use that much oil. In my lifetime I have owned around 20 and none of them has ever used oil at all. They're my own statistics.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - RT

There's so much conflicting information so it's hard to know what to rely on to be honest. 3 dealers today insisted I only check the oil when the car has been stood overnight.

As a result, it's difficult to ascertain what's an issue and what not. I think I'll go with my experience that cars shouldn't use that much oil. In my lifetime I have owned around 20 and none of them has ever used oil at all. They're my own statistics.

Parking overnight on level ground and checking first thing in the morning before the engine is started is the most consistent way of checking oil level - I've done it that way for decades - pull the dipstick out, wipe it, dip and pull out to read the level..

Most makes use 1 litre per 1,000 miles as the boundary between acceptable or not - most petrol cars in good condition will do a litre per 10,000 miles or better, so only dropping from Max to Min over the oil change cycle - diesels are known to use more oil because the internal pressures are higher - both my Hyundai and my VW need 0.5 litre adding during the 10,000 mile oil change interval.

IMO cars that don't use oil are exceptions.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - grease monkey

Hi,if you read the owners manual that comes with the car I think you will find that Honda says that oil consumption of 1 litre every 625 miles is deemed to be acceptable, so in your case , using approx 1/2 litre over 3000 miles is ok. I would be much more concerned on this engine if you had a rising oil level indicating oil dilution caused by the dpf regenerating as you are driving around
Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

You are correct, it does. So my first action will be to fill it up and see how much it actually uses - thanks for the tip off as I hadn't seen that.

A litre of 0W-30 cost me £22 today. I do around 18k miles a year so by my reckoning that's around an additional 29 litres of oil I'd need to add in every year if that turns out to be the usage.

That's £638/year in additional oil, give or take that it may be cheaper elsewhere.

That won't be happening.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - skidpan

You are correct, it does. So my first action will be to fill it up and see how much it actually uses - thanks for the tip off as I hadn't seen that.

A litre of 0W-30 cost me £22 today. I do around 18k miles a year so by my reckoning that's around an additional 29 litres of oil I'd need to add in every year if that turns out to be the usage.

That's £638/year in additional oil, give or take that it may be cheaper elsewhere.

That won't be happening.

How did you work that out?

You are using 1/2 a litre every 3000 miles thus 3 litres in 18000 miles. Even at an extortionate £22 a litre that is only £66 which is a tiny cost.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - gordonbennet

£22 a litre! is that made from unicorn tears.

A £45 (absolute max you should pay) 5 litre can of good quality oil should give around 30,000 miles worth of top ups at present usage rate.

Edited by gordonbennet on 17/07/2017 at 23:44

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

You are correct, it does. So my first action will be to fill it up and see how much it actually uses - thanks for the tip off as I hadn't seen that.

A litre of 0W-30 cost me £22 today. I do around 18k miles a year so by my reckoning that's around an additional 29 litres of oil I'd need to add in every year if that turns out to be the usage.

That's £638/year in additional oil, give or take that it may be cheaper elsewhere.

That won't be happening.

How did you work that out?

You are using 1/2 a litre every 3000 miles thus 3 litres in 18000 miles. Even at an extortionate £22 a litre that is only £66 which is a tiny cost.

I stated 'if that turns out to be the usage' (i.e. 1L per 625 miles as per Honda's calculation).

I suspect my car will be somewhere around needing a litre per 3000 miles.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

If it is burning oil use 5/30 instead of 0/30 that should stop it, I used to check my Civic 2.2 diesel first thing in the morning and it only dropped once just before its 100.000 service, first and only time it lost 1/2pint oil

I gather from other owners these do burn oil on rare occasions and there is no specific time limit between when it happens, excluding Type R. but usually approx 2-3 years it may happen But Honda are not worried about it as a friend found out

his CRV did it once but its not happened since, so apart from keeping an eye on the level I see no reason to worry about it

Ps if the level drops to min the low level warning light/gong goes off and wont stop untill level is restored,if you overfill they automatically burn off the excess oil untill its bach to normal my 1.6 9th gen diesel has not used a drop of oil in 22k miles so far

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - RT

If it is burning oil use 5/30 instead of 0/30 that should stop it,

Not a good idea if it's burning oil although it may help if it's leaking oil - use the oil grade specified by the car maker

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

If it is burning oil use 5/30 instead of 0/30 that should stop it,

Not a good idea if it's burning oil although it may help if it's leaking oil - use the oil grade specified by the car maker

I wouldn`t have suggested it if Honda did not recommend it, plenty on the internet about this problem.

I checked it out after my 2.2 lost a cupfull of oil as its not usual for Honda engines to lose oil/burn so I got in touch with Honda, that was reply both oils are recommended for that engine

the first 2.2 diesels suffered oil burning due to bore problems so recommended 5/30 oil which cured it. theyve been recomending it since. the 1.6 diesel afaia are 0/20

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - skidpan

I stated 'if that turns out to be the usage' (i.e. 1L per 625 miles as per Honda's calculation).

That is not Honda's calculation, its Honda's specified maximum permitted usage.

I suspect my car will be somewhere around needing a litre per 3000 miles.

Others on this thread with experience of your engine have told you that it takes 1 litre to fill from the bottom dot to the top dot on the dipstick. In 3000 miles you tell us it was halfway between the 2 dots meaning it has used 1/2 litre.

I have just looked on the Opie Oils site and a 5 litre container of the correct Shell Helix Ultra 0w 30 for your car is £35. If your car is using 1/2 a lite in 3000 which calculates as 3 litres in 18000 miles (exactly as I stated above) it will cost you £21 a year. Even if its 1 litre in 3000 miles it will still only cost you £42 a year.

Honda are going to do nothing since oil usuage is well below their max stated permitted amount. If you are not happy your only option is to sell the car and loose £1000's. And even then there is no garantee the replacement will not use oil.

Your call.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

I stated 'if that turns out to be the usage' (i.e. 1L per 625 miles as per Honda's calculation).

That is not Honda's calculation, its Honda's specified maximum permitted usage.

That's being pedantic - you know what I meant. I was using the figures Honda provided to come up with the numbers. Whether that's a 'calculation' or 'maximum permitted usage' the point stands that owners who suffer that extent of oil loss can expect to pay that cost.

I suspect my car will be somewhere around needing a litre per 3000 miles.

Others on this thread with experience of your engine have told you that it takes 1 litre to fill from the bottom dot to the top dot on the dipstick. In 3000 miles you tell us it was halfway between the 2 dots meaning it has used 1/2 litre.

I have just looked on the Opie Oils site and a 5 litre container of the correct Shell Helix Ultra 0w 30 for your car is £35. If your car is using 1/2 a lite in 3000 which calculates as 3 litres in 18000 miles (exactly as I stated above) it will cost you £21 a year. Even if its 1 litre in 3000 miles it will still only cost you £42 a year.

Honda are going to do nothing since oil usuage is well below their max stated permitted amount. If you are not happy your only option is to sell the car and loose £1000's. And even then there is no garantee the replacement will not use oil.

Your call.

I'll agree on that one. But consider that there are an equal number of 2.2 owners who have commented, elsewhere, that theirs uses none.

I actually did some digging yesterday on the value of the car. Whilst I'd lose some it won't be £1000's but your point is valid that it's a risk.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

Are you really going to selll the car because it burnt oil on one occasion?, I think and correct me if wrong the 2.2 engine holds 6 litres of oil or 5.9 to be exact or 6.2 with oil filter

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Dingle232

Are you really going to selll the car because it burnt oil on one occasion?, I think and correct me if wrong the 2.2 engine holds 6 litres of oil or 5.9 to be exact or 6.2 with oil filter

No - I don't tend to rush into decisions like that. As I have stated throughout this thread what I am trying to ascertain, with the varying advice I am getting, is whether it's an issue or not - only then will I make that call after careful consideration. The first thing I need to do is to look at EXACTLY how much it's using rather than guesstimates from the dipstick.

I'll take my time with that one.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

Yes, some decisions can be tough

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - RT

Car reliability, like other things, can be measured as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) - as cars get more reliable, as they have, what happens is that the chance of an issue gets less - so EVERY make of car may have a particular issue, just not necessarily every example.

So the fact that many examples of a particular car don't use any oil is irrelevant if yours is one of the handful that does use some. It's just bad luck.

In the OP's case, I'd suggest the following action - measure the usage in a consistent manner - if it's it's outside Honda's threshold then just buy oil in a sensible quantity at a reasonable price and keep the oil level in the middle between the Min and Max marks.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - skidpan

I stated 'if that turns out to be the usage' (i.e. 1L per 625 miles as per Honda's calculation).

That is not Honda's calculation, its Honda's specified maximum permitted usage.

That's being pedantic - you know what I meant. I was using the figures Honda provided to come up with the numbers. Whether that's a 'calculation' or 'maximum permitted usage' the point stands that owners who suffer that extent of oil loss can expect to pay that cost.

Not being pedantic at all. Max permitted use and calculated use are totally different.

Even if it was using a litre every 625 miles your annual top up cost would be just over £200 at Opies price which is still far less than swapping the car.

I had a 1.6 Hillman Avenger in the 1970's. From day one it used oil and it worked out at about a pint every 250 to 300 miles, not much different to the max permitted by Honda. The garage would do nothing since it was within the permitted figure. But the car was an absolute flyer, way quicker than any other similar 1.6 car I had been in upto that time. On one early Sunday morning run to Grantham on the A1 I cruised at 90 mph (6000 rpm on the rev counter - 4 speed box in those days) and when I parked up there was a smell of oil. When I opened up the bonnet most of the oil was outside the engine. A quick look showed that the oil ways in the head gasket were leaking on the OS of the block so I topped up and carried on as normal, it did not affect the cooling at all. Changed head gasket and took the opportunity to look at the bores which were perfect and at the head which was perfect. Changed the valve guide oil seals while it was apart. It made no difference. Car carried on driving perfectly and eventually sold it to a work colleague of my mothers who used it for towing his caravan for another 9 years. Continued to use oil but never missed a beat.

Just enjoy it and put oil in as necessary. Some cars use oil, its a fact.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Manatee

I think the take away from all this is that there is nothing wrong with it, at least not on the basis of oil consumption. And I don't mean going by Honda's "acceptable" limit, yours appears to be much lower.

Don't fill it to the top mark - halfway between marks is fine, and it might lose less. I have in the past had a car, I can't remember which one it was, that would use half a litre in short order if filled cold to the top mark. But I noticed that once it had dropped to halfway, it didn't use anything measurable. So I just stopped topping it up. I did wonder if it had the wrong dipstick.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - madf

"But I noticed that once it had dropped to halfway, it didn't use anything measurable. So I just stopped topping it up. I did wonder if it had the wrong dipstick."

BL had a series of engine failures on the B series engine as used in MGBs etc.. in the late 1960s. Analysis showed the failures were mainly with owners who topped up teh oil to Max on the dipstick. Turned out the dipsticks were incorrectly marked and at Full the crankshaft was hitting the oil .. hence engine failures from oil cavitation...

I digress:

To the OP.

DFon't worry.. it's normal. I too would suggest topping up to half way mark between the two levels..

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

I too would suggest topping up to half way mark between the two levels

Be carefull doing that, the sensors are quite sensitive on the 2.2- mine flashed up at around halway point, and stayed on untill it was at top mark, if its overfilled it burns it off anyway so as long as sensors are fine then theres no worries

But again, it doesnt happen very often

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Manatee

At least it has a sensor, I assume you mean for level. I have come across enough people who top up when the oil pressure light comes on to believe it's quite common.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

At least it has a sensor, I assume you mean for level. I have come across enough people who top up when the oil pressure light comes on to believe it's quite common.

Yes a level sensor, first 2.2 diesel I bought about 3 1/2 years ago I drove away from garage and road smothered in blue smoke, me thinking something wrong so took it back to garage

It had been serviced morning I picked it up but they overfilled the sump( 2006 MY) 80k on clock, blue smoke died off and when oil level was checked it was spot on, they compensated me a full tank diesel because of that, had it serviced at indy every 10k and 100 miles before 3rd service 100k oil level light came on

I checked it and it was between holes min/max, it needed 1/2 pint to max level, though at the time wasnt sure how much it needed and put oil in bit at a time then checked if light had gone out, it wouldnt till level was dead on max

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Manatee

I had a 2006MY CRV diesel from new. If I knew it had a level sensor, I've forgotten! Mine certainly never came on.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Bolt

I had a 2006MY CRV diesel from new. If I knew it had a level sensor, I've forgotten! Mine certainly never came on.

If you check on the CRV forums some people ask what the flashing oil can is for

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - Robbie

I have a 2013 CR-V 2.2 I.DTEC that I've had from new and have never used oil between services. I tow a caravan and have recently retrurned from France having covered over 1300 miles towing and no perceptible amount of oil used. Before this I had an accord Tourer 2.2 i.CTDI, from new, and that never used oil between services.

Honda CR-V - Oil Consumption - SteveLee

Towing a caravan will put the engine under a reasonable amount of load helping the rings bed in, a lot of people still think they live in the 1960s, treating new cars too gently causes bore glazing and subsequent high oil consumption. With any new car or bike I own, I'll find a nice stretch of clear road, rev it to just under the redline (but not full throttle) in 3rd, then lift off allowing engine braking to slow me to 30mph or so - repeat a couple more times. Never had oil consumption issues with an engine I've run from new.