Ford Repair: Possible leak, 2000 mercury cougar, mercury cougar

Question
My 2000 Mercury Cougar has been repeatedly low on oil and I have not noticed any oil on the ground where I have parked for extended periods of time. I have also noticed that I get about 6-8 less miles per gallon than I normally get while driving on the freeway.  I have also smelt a burning rubber smell occasionaly and when I took it in to be looked at, the belts were fine, but there was a possible cam seal leak.  They couldn't tell because they did not have the equipment to do so.  Can you make any sense of this?  Thank you so much,

Veronica  

Answer
Customers regularly come in for service, describing a burning rubber or plastic smell.  We usually find that the engine oil is leaking.  The oil will not always leave spots on the driveway or garage floor, it can bulid up on the engine block, oil pan, cylinder heads, or front timing cover.  The engine will have to be inspected, and any oil build up will need to be cleaned off.  After running the engine or driving the vehicle, the fresh oil can be traced back to the source of the leak.  Sometimes, fluorescent dye is added to the oil to trace down the leak.  I would recommend taking the vehicle to a Ford or Mercury Dealer for services like these.

As for the drop is fuel economy, an oil leak wouldn't have anything to do with this.  If your vehicle's emissions light has not come on, there probably isn't anything wrong with your engine that would effect its fuel economy.  Fuel economy can be effected by a lot of things, most likely is the changing weather and that fuel refineries change there blending for colder weather.

I hope this helps,
Dave