Mobil1 in my wife's RAV4. Bone dry after just 3k miles. Advice needed

[JohnBrowning]

Have your dad do a compression check and a vaccum check on this engine!!!! SOmething is not right!! THeir is no mechanical or chemical reason that 3 quarts of synthetic would just evaporate out of the crank case or was burnt in 3000 miles! I would also check the coolant for signs of oil residue! Check the air filter for signs of oil damage as well!

Loseing roughly 3/4 of your oil over a 3000 mile period is serious. Since you Dad added 3 quarts of oil to this engine I would not touch the filter or anything else! I would drive it myself as the man of the house over the next 3000 miles and check the oil daily. If after this time all seemed fine I would let the wife drive it again.

IF the compression check and vacum test do not turn anything up and visual inspection does not either I would consider Auto-Rx. I would probably just use one treatment for the extended 1500 mile prtocol and finish with the dino oil rinse. If you see an improvment after the first treatment then consider the second one.

A combination of bad PCV, stuck rings, carboned up valve seals and high speed driveing could cause some consuption issues but you would see the smoke comeing out of your tail pipe and performance would be way down with this much oil consuption!

Keep us informed of the out come!!!

 

[Dave]

FWIW, one of my co-workers drives a '96 or so RAV4 and has almost 100k miles on it. He beats on it pretty good and never lets it, the valve guides are worn as it burns a spews a good amount of oil after cold starts. Seems like valve guides go out pretty commonly once you start getting close to 100k on Toyota's higher mileage 4 cyls, but I doubt that it would cause the type of oil consumption you saw.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

---

more like a major seal failure if it lost 3 quarts in less than 10 days. I doubt that would be the oil's fault.

---

Well, is this 10 days ...or 17 I wonder? That is, I check the oil every Saturday ...missed one ..type thingie.

On my Caravan I've got a 3000 mile oil fatique limit. It doesn't matter whether it is Mobil 1 or el cheapo discount oil ...NO consumption until 3000 miles and then it consumes it rather well. This is from new. Now I have the added factor of leaking valve seals ...so there is some consumption early on ..but it accellerates at the 3k mark.

 

[DavoNF]

Check the oil filter for tightness.

 

[ZR2RANDO]

Probably a common sense suggestion here, but try checking the spark plugs to see if all cylinders are looking the same or if there is one or two noticeably worse than the rest. Check for blue smoke only at startup, or also after motor is warmed up? Normal troubleshooting stuff here..
check real good for any drips/leaks,
good luck
Rando