My Oil Choices delivering pizzas

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OK I bought a 1999 Corolla back in February and have since put on more than 16k miles. It currently has over 206k and runs very well. The one problem is I'm burning a qt of oil between 1000-1250 miles. It has a 4 qt sump and I add 2-3 qts in between my 5000 mile oil change.

I'm currently using MaxLife 10w30, high mileage oil seems to help a bit, I usually just buy whatever oil change special there is at Autozone.

My question is should I just keep doing what I'm doing or switch to an expensive synthetic. My problem with synthetics would be adding a qt every 1100 miles or so, also don't want to change a synthetic every 5-6 weeks either.

I drive about 800 miles a week about 3-4 miles at a time. My gas mileage varies between 29-31 gallons. Our zone is suburban, rural but we do get the 5 o clock traffic jams.

OK I am rambling.
Should I just use whatever name brand high mileage and add oil as needed and keep with 5k change? Since at about 1250 miles I add a quart can I extend my OCI?

or

Use the cheapest oil and filter available? If so what OCI

or

Upgrade to a synthetic? If I still have the same consumption maybe top off with a good dino and change my OCI to about 7500 miles?


Of course I want to do whats best economically feasible, if synthetic can extend my OCI or improve gas mileage it may be worth it. I'm just looking for opinions as I'm hallway thru my OCI. I do want the car to run, I know its a "beater" but its excellent for delivering pizzas for sure.
 
Originally Posted By: AvoidTheNoid
Use the cheapest oil and filter available?


There you go. Cheapest on sale or cheap rebate oil you can find. Definitely don't need synthetic. Wal-Mart Supertech is good for everyday price oil.

7500 mile changes will be fine with your consumption. The oil will be fine since you are adding so much make up oil. Use a Fram Tough-guard or similar, they are affordable and good for 10K miles.
 
Put in a fram ultra filter and extend your oci. You are adding 2-3 quarts every 5k miles..so the oil is getting rejeuvenated. I would not go with syn in your case. I would try a different HM 10w30 and see if the usage lessens.
 
I'd run supertech 15w40. This car has low tension rings and will burn oil no matter what.
 
Use whatever name brand dino that is on sale and call it a day.
I wouldn't spend the additional cash to put synthetic in an oil burner.
 
Don't those cars have a problem with ring coking? I imagine pizza delivery has to be real bad for coked rings ...

I'd try to run a synthetic in it since it's super extreme operating environment.
 
I had a Suzuki Esteem Wagon that I really racked up miles on. It had well over 200K and burned some oil naturally. I used Castrol 5w30HM and alternated 10W30HM in the Summer time with 1 quart of makeup half way between changes. By the time the 5K OCI came around it was down a quart again. I also used an oversize PL3001 oil filter to increase capacity slightly.
 
My Vibe consumes oil as well... 1/2 qt every 1k miles, it's an 03 model , but was purchased April 2002 new by the previous owner. I'm planning on running Rotella T5 10W30 next oil change and run it 5k miles as well. See if anything changes.It's 50/50 mix of highway and short trip driver. But past 5 years it's all been trips of 5 miles or less.

oh and
welcome2.gif
 
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It's a 15 year old econobox with over 200k miles on it. Considering how good even cheap inexpensive oils are nowadays, there is no need whatsoever to use synthetic in that oil-burner. With that much consumption, I'd find the largest Fram Ultra that would fit and do 10k OCIs with whatever dino is on sale, and buy it by the case!
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
Stay w MaxLife - if you have to keep adding 2-3 qt every 5k, just change oil & filter at 10K.




+ 1, this is good advice.
 
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I would look for the dino oil deals at the parts stores. In particular, I really like the 5 qt jugs and filter for $10 (Checker and autozone both do them from time to time). I stocked up about 25 of those jugs to keep me moving for cheap.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Don't those cars have a problem with ring coking? I imagine pizza delivery has to be real bad for coked rings ...

I'd try to run a synthetic in it since it's super extreme operating environment.


^^What he said. It is worth a shot for a difference of $5 to maxlife synthetic.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2529856

A few people in this thread solved the problem in this engine, the problem comes from the piston oil return holes plugging up with sludge, because toyota originally suggested 7500 mile OCI and that in combination with dino oil caused the piston return holes to plug up with sludge. Once you clean the holes and use synthetic oil, the consumption issue goes away.

If you can resolve the issue so it consumes less oil and switch to synthetic with 10k OCI's it will be cheaper in the long run.
 
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Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
It's a 15 year old econobox with over 200k miles on it. Considering how good even cheap inexpensive oils are nowadays, there is no need whatsoever to use synthetic in that oil-burner. With that much consumption, I'd find the largest Fram Ultra that would fit and do 10k OCIs with whatever dino is on sale, and buy it by the case!

That's what I'd do. If it gets worse and you don't want to fix it, I'd do what I did for a neighbor of mine years ago. I was an oil change fanatic changing oil every 3,000 miles, I'd give him my synthetic waste oil. I drained it into a clean container bottled it in clean jugs. He ran it through a paint strainer inside a funnel right into his Chevy van. He did this for a long time, he saved money and resources.
 
Perhaps a piston soak? GM had a procedure for doing this with the Saturns that have a similar (but not exactly the same problem).
 
Too much consumption to think much about it; I have a 1-1.5K mile/qt consumption; I just keep pouring rebate/sale oil in.

OT: if you have an automatic, you might want to change the fluid on that.
 
Originally Posted By: AvoidTheNoid


I'm currently using MaxLife 10w30, high mileage oil seems to help a bit, I usually just buy whatever oil change special there is at Autozone.



Did you just recently change over to Maxlife or have you been running this for a while? If ML seems to be helping your problem, keep using it, at least for the time being.
 
Originally Posted By: 2sld3kf2bt
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Don't those cars have a problem with ring coking? I imagine pizza delivery has to be real bad for coked rings ...

I'd try to run a synthetic in it since it's super extreme operating environment.


^^What he said. It is worth a shot for a difference of $5 to maxlife synthetic.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2529856

A few people in this thread solved the problem in this engine, the problem comes from the piston oil return holes plugging up with sludge, because toyota originally suggested 7500 mile OCI and that in combination with dino oil caused the piston return holes to plug up with sludge. Once you clean the holes and use synthetic oil, the consumption issue goes away.

If you can resolve the issue so it consumes less oil and switch to synthetic with 10k OCI's it will be cheaper in the long run.

The only real fix is engine disassembly and cleaning out the piston holes, maybe even drilling a 3rd. Once they are gunked up, no amount of cleaning products or piston soaks will cure it. You can maybe reduce consumption a tad, but you sure aren't going to fix it. Just feeding it oil until it dies is usually the most cost-effective and certainly least labor-intensive thing to do.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
OT: if you have an automatic, you might want to change the fluid on that.

This. ^

Not sure about the '99 but my wife's '02 has a drain plug on the transmission pan. Forget a filter change because the 'filter' is more of a screen so it's not worth the effort. I think the 4 speed auto in hers took something like 3.5 quarts per drain/fill. I dumped hers during every oil change for three changes. So probably 2/3-3/4 of the fluid in there is new MaxLife Dex/Merc and it shifts great now.
 
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