2AZ-FE motor oil burn off or oil consumption???

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I have a 2007 Scion tC bought and owned since new of December '06 and I started to notice oil consumption of some kind back in Jan '12. I pretty much stick to 4,500 - 5,000 mile OCI's regardless of which oil I put in it. 9/10 years I've only used full synthetic Mobil 1 and Pennzoil (1st year during break in was the free dealer change). Every time I change out the oil I usually drop out 1.5 - 2.0 qts. when I put 4 qts. of new oil. I have roughly 95K miles on the car right now after owning it for 10 years. I know motors can consume oil as they age and I have already taken it to the dealer twice for TSB oil consumption tests (passed both times).

Just a little run down of my driving habbits, oils used, conditions of the vehicle, etc.;

Vehicle: 2007 Scion tC
Current Mileage: Roughly 95,000 miles
Misc Engine Conditions:
- No leaks
- No issues
- Runs fine
- PCV valve was not clogged (replaced with new OEM PCV two week ago around 94,500 miles)
Oils Used at 4,500 - 5,000 mile OCI:
- Mobil 1 Full Synthetic 5W-20
- Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5W-20
- Mobil 1 High Mileage Full Synthetic 5W-20 (used once back in summer of 2015)
- Pennzoil Platinum 5W-20
- Pennzoil Platinum 0W-20 (only used once for 4,500 miles)
Oil Filters Used:
- Mobil 1 Extended Performance
- FRAM Ultra Synthetic (used only once with Pennzoil Platinum 0W-20)
Driving Habbits:
- Lots of short distance driving in the city with about a 5 minute drive on the high way usually totaling around 20 - 30 miles a day on average.
- Rarely go on road trips that are around 1,500 miles one way. (Only done that about 7 times)
- I do not have a lead foot and the only time I punch it is when I'm at a yield/stop sign intersection trying to get on the main road when cars are flying passed you at 45 - 50 mph.

I know Toyota changed to 5W-20 for CAFE reasons during the time period my car was sold because the previous years the manual stated to use 5W-30 instead. Then again they say the '07+ has minor engine tweaks that I cannot confirm (just word of mouth). Anyways, my issue is I seem to burn roughly 2 - 2.5 qts, of oil when I mainly do city driving. I figure it might have to do with the type of oil I'm using or worried that I actually have some kind of oil consumption the dealer might of missed during the tests. From their results they said I barely burned a 1/4 of a qt. of oil within the 1,200 mile tests which seemed odd.

I was thinking of switching to Amsoil as they are actual synthetic oil compared to the group III Mobil 1 and Pennzoil full synthetics are mostly comprised of. Also, even though my car has used full synthetic oils practically it's whole life, should I change to high mileage oils even though I don't see any types of leaks on the outside of my engine or driveway and is it safe to go back and forth between high mileage oils and regular full synthetic with car being 10 years old?

If anyone has any kind of tips or insights to which might be causing this then by all means post up. I'm still learning about oils so bare with me.
 
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Try using 5w30
smile.gif
 
Is it same 2.4l as was in the camry that year? I know someone who had excessive consumption and the dealer did a test to measure how much loss and had part of engine fixed under warranty. Im unsure of the specifics but id check TSB's and recalls.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Is it same 2.4l as was in the camry that year? I know someone who had excessive consumption and the dealer did a test to measure how much loss and had part of engine fixed under warranty. Im unsure of the specifics but id check TSB's and recalls.


Yes it's the same 2.4L motor the Camry used during that generation and I've already stated that I took my car into the dealership to do a oil consumption test based off the TSB twice and passed both times according to the dealership.
 
No oil will solve this. If it is only using a quart per 4800 miles, you wont get anywhere with them. If your consumption is 2-2.5 quarts per 5k miles, it still doesnt meet their guidelines, however, id bet that if you pushed the subject and pointed them to the data on the web, that you could talk them into doing the proper repair. Have them redo the test and if usage is higher than previous you can tell them its getting worse and you want it dealt with. Go to corporate and push the subject. Thats what id do.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
No oil will solve this. If it is only using a quart per 4800 miles, you wont get anywhere with them. If your consumption is 2-2.5 quarts per 5k miles, it still doesnt meet their guidelines, however, id bet that if you pushed the subject and pointed them to the data on the web, that you could talk them into doing the proper repair. Have them redo the test and if usage is higher than previous you can tell them its getting worse and you want it dealt with. Go to corporate and push the subject. Thats what id do.


As far as I'm aware I'm now out of the extended warranty anyways. It was either less than 150K miles or no more than 10 years old. A lot of people actually pushed this up to the top for a few years now because of this. Some people failed miserably by burning 1 qt. of oil at 600 miles. Those were the ones that had their motor rebuilt or replaced. As per Toyota, burning up to 1 qt. every 1,200 miles is acceptable. Pretty shi**y isn't it?
 
If you're only draining out 1-1/2 to 2qts. at an oil change, you need to be checking your level and topping it off way more often. You've done what you can to preserve it by your choice of good oils and filters (I doubt that changing over Amsoil will improve your consumption issue), but your engine is an oil-burner, and you need to keep more oil in it continuously. My '02 Camry has the same engine in it (maybe less problematic than the same 2.4 engine from the '07-? years?) and has gone 263K miles without rings or valve work, but it only gets about 1200 miles out of a quart of oil. Keep a 5-qt. Jug and a funnel in your trunk, use it as needed, and drive it. Otherwise, it's 20 hours of labor to do a ring job on that engine.
 
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You need to keep the oil levels up between changes no matter what. Oil is a primary coolant too.
Wasn't that long ago getting 100k out of a engine was great and oil consumed was ok if quart per 1k. Short tripping doesn't do well with motors as it don't let them expand to help with sealing things up. Keep it full of oil and when it has other issues think about having it rebuilt to go another 100k +
 
The poor engine design (oil hole in piston clogged up, ring issues) is why you have the oil consumption. Tends to start happening around 60,000 miles.

Some have decreased consumption some by going up in weight and/or switching to a high mileage oil.

Just check your oil and add as needed. So long as the oil level is fine, the engine will last 200,000 miles or more.

I hope my xB does not start to consume oil (although I am doing similar to the OP, sticking with a 5000 mile OCI with synthetic), but if it does, I will just add oil as needed.
 
My Camry doesn't use a drop and I had a "CAR51 brew" of QSGB SAE 30/DELO XLE 10w30 in for lil' more than 5k and it did just fine.

After this run of leftover VWB/Synpower; I'm sticking with my ole standby: DELO 10w30
 
Yup try any decent cheap 5w30 and check every 1000 miles or so until you get a gauge on consumption.

If you are losing 1.5-2quarts / 4500 miles. check every 2000 miles and add a quart or so.

No need for expensive oils if your burning it like that. Adding fresh oil boost "freshness" of the oil for the second leg of the OCI so the oil doesn't need to be a miricle worker.

At 5K OCI any good oil would do even if you didn't burn a drop.
 
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Have a Camry in the family with almost 200,000 miles with the same engine. It uses about 1/2 a quart in a 5000 mile oci. Mostly ran 5w30.

If you know your car is burning oil, why not top it off between oil changes? Letting it get to half of what it normally holds is almost neglect. I would try thicker oil for one change and see if it helps.
 
I have the same motor using a quart about every 1200 miles. I could probably push and get Toyota to rebuild the motor. I just add a quart every 1200 and stretch out my OCI's to about 8000. My reasoning is, at 5000 miles, I basically have replaced all the original oil with new oil. No oil is going to fix this.....it's a design issue.
 
Originally Posted By: crazy_raccoon
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
No oil will solve this. If it is only using a quart per 4800 miles, you wont get anywhere with them. If your consumption is 2-2.5 quarts per 5k miles, it still doesnt meet their guidelines, however, id bet that if you pushed the subject and pointed them to the data on the web, that you could talk them into doing the proper repair. Have them redo the test and if usage is higher than previous you can tell them its getting worse and you want it dealt with. Go to corporate and push the subject. Thats what id do.


As far as I'm aware I'm now out of the extended warranty anyways. It was either less than 150K miles or no more than 10 years old. A lot of people actually pushed this up to the top for a few years now because of this. Some people failed miserably by burning 1 qt. of oil at 600 miles. Those were the ones that had their motor rebuilt or replaced. As per Toyota, burning up to 1 qt. every 1,200 miles is acceptable. Pretty shi**y isn't it?


I agree, completely unacceptable to me in this day and age. I know some will disagree with me on that, but my car doesnt use any oil (not noticeable on the dipstick at least) at 150k miles and will expect the same with a new car too. I think 1/2 quart per mfr OCI is acceptable.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: crazy_raccoon
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
No oil will solve this. If it is only using a quart per 4800 miles, you wont get anywhere with them. If your consumption is 2-2.5 quarts per 5k miles, it still doesnt meet their guidelines, however, id bet that if you pushed the subject and pointed them to the data on the web, that you could talk them into doing the proper repair. Have them redo the test and if usage is higher than previous you can tell them its getting worse and you want it dealt with. Go to corporate and push the subject. Thats what id do.


As far as I'm aware I'm now out of the extended warranty anyways. It was either less than 150K miles or no more than 10 years old. A lot of people actually pushed this up to the top for a few years now because of this. Some people failed miserably by burning 1 qt. of oil at 600 miles. Those were the ones that had their motor rebuilt or replaced. As per Toyota, burning up to 1 qt. every 1,200 miles is acceptable. Pretty shi**y isn't it?


I agree, completely unacceptable to me in this day and age. I know some will disagree with me on that, but my car doesnt use any oil (not noticeable on the dipstick at least) at 150k miles and will expect the same with a new car too. I think 1/2 quart per mfr OCI is acceptable.


I agree with you on that too. My other car is a 2007 Honda Accord LX coupe that has about 113,000 miles and it only burns 1/2 a qt. every 5K OCI. Honestly, if I ever knew about this back in 2006 when I got the Scion I would of looked into getting a different car. Technically it's a eco car and there's no excuse to be burning oil like this. I blame Toyota for being complacent and not issuing a full recall.
 
OP,

Few weeks back I had a forum topic on this motor in a Toyota Highlander for oil consumption. I did a piston soak and that cut oil consumption in half.

I used LC20 and MMO. Soaked for about a week. I added fluids to the cylinders everyday after I rotated the motor with the starter and let sit overnight till the next day.

Will be using pp 5w-40 long term with rislone concentrate or lc20 in oil. Going to use FP Plus or similar in fuel as well to try to keep the oil consumption at bay.
 
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Originally Posted By: crazy_raccoon
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Is it same 2.4l as was in the camry that year? I know someone who had excessive consumption and the dealer did a test to measure how much loss and had part of engine fixed under warranty. Im unsure of the specifics but id check TSB's and recalls.


Yes it's the same 2.4L motor the Camry used during that generation and I've already stated that I took my car into the dealership to do a oil consumption test based off the TSB twice and passed both times according to the dealership.


Same dealership? You may want a third opinion from another dealer.
 
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