Originally Posted By: Anies
No synthetic yet until you know or feel you've cleaned it. Even after wards I don't see a need for it until you can lower the consumption(if its an issue).
It could have developed sludge prior to that missed oil change, if the PCV was never serviced etc. MMO + a good quality Dino oil(mostly anything out there) for a few OCI's would clean up a majority of the contaminants and possibly reduce consumption(no promises).
First before investing in more oil, just hit up your local Toyota dealer, spend the $11 or less for a new PCV valve. Replacement is simple(5-10 minutes). Once that is done, you can ask any of us to help with MMO to your house.
I know you don't want to mix it since you used Regane but its much different beast than Regane. MMO in the oil will slowly break apart sludge. You can add 1qt MMO to a 5qt sump(replace 1qt oil, with 1qt MMO) and run it for a 3k OCI). After 2 or 3 of these oil changes, you can run MMO only for the last 500 miles as top off. Or you could use MMO now as top off towards the end of your OCI and don't have to worry about a heavy mix of additives.
That was also the year range the engines were known to slap oil around like a person slapping you in the dead of winter. It stings, and yes he made you his .....! Just careful maintenance to bring her back
Also,
These guys here won't lead you wrong, they have helped me out a number of times with my Xterra and my G6.
The PCV valve is ordered (through the local dealer, none in stock). Its only $10 bucks and change. They said they`d have it in within a day or two. As soon as I get it I`ll swap it in.
Even though mine`s an `oil burner`, it typically consumes very little oil - less than a liter every 5,000 km. I consider that reasonable for a 10 year old car, and for this model in particular (a liter of oil is less than $5). That`s provided I keep close to the speed limits; when I push it hard (which I no longer do), oil consumption goes way up. No leaks, just consumption, or burn off.
With not much more than a 1,000 km on my current oil change, I still have a while to decide what to do. I`m in agreement that the PCV valve is suspect, and after 10 years of service, its worth replacing at this point anyway.
I can`t get MMO here, but I can get Seafoam, and I`m leaning toward seafoaming the crankcase about 500 km before that next oil change.
I still prefer to switch to synth. If oil consumption was a serious issue I`d stick to dino (and probably go the HM route). Where it isn`t, and weighing the benefits of switching to synthetic over sticking to dino (and taking any alleged cleaning ability of syn out of the equation), I think the benefits are worth the extra cost.
And maybe its partly a novelty thing; having never tried it, I`m curious to see if it lives up to the claims of its proponents. If after a switch to syn I don`t find the benefits are worth the extra cost, I have no issues with going back to the dino oils I`ve always used in the past.
-Spyder
