Toyota Corolla very low oil level. Damaged?
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Originally Posted By: KingCake
Usually the first thing to suffer in that kind of situation is the top end. Most likely the valves guides took some wear which will lead to even more oil consumption.
Yep. It was smoking a bit on start-up starting last year and I strongly suspected the valve seals.
Usually the first thing to suffer in that kind of situation is the top end. Most likely the valves guides took some wear which will lead to even more oil consumption.
Yep. It was smoking a bit on start-up starting last year and I strongly suspected the valve seals.
I use 10w30 in my Prizm (same as corolla). It eats less than half a quart in 5K miles. But I drive the S out of it
I've had some fun learning about oil consumption after I got my used 2008 Scion xB with 138k on the 2.4 2AZ-FE motor. This all came thanks to some moron who decided that red octogons don't apply to him and used a Chevy Cruze to take the engine and transmission in my bought new 2013 Corolla with 12k miles and push it about 6-8 inches towards the passenger side and put a 3inch skull deep gash in my head last December. I also learned that airbags do deploy quickly and taste nasty. I digress.
The 2AZ-FE, not saying that is your engine, is notorious for eating oil all day due to coked oil return holes in the pistons. So it's the one lame dog in the Toyota stable...and I got it LOL. She eats varying amounts based on average speed and how old the oil is in its run. She basically changes the oil by herself. I changed the pcv with a factory new one from the Japanese mainland (aka OEM). No avail. So unlike your situation OP, this is a terminaly case for me. There is a service bulletin but you have to eat so much in a certain mileage window to "fail" the test (and get free pistons) plus about $1,000 which you pay out for assorted uncovered parts and labor. So its not a sweet deal.
I am wondering how long a catalytic converter can go with an engine burning oil at my rate. And what the first code will be when it throws one for the converter.
These seem to be some tough little suckers.
In your case, you could probably run it at 2 quarts for a whole oil change interval, sell it to another college kid, he'd run it for three years, then sell it to a high schooler who would put a booming stereo in and rattle can spray paint it lime green and drive it 25k more miles, then let it sit for a year with ethanol gas and then make a "run dry till it blows" YouTube video and it run for 10minutes straight totally dry with a brick on the gas pedal. And after cooling..... it'd still restart and idle a bit.
The 2AZ-FE, not saying that is your engine, is notorious for eating oil all day due to coked oil return holes in the pistons. So it's the one lame dog in the Toyota stable...and I got it LOL. She eats varying amounts based on average speed and how old the oil is in its run. She basically changes the oil by herself. I changed the pcv with a factory new one from the Japanese mainland (aka OEM). No avail. So unlike your situation OP, this is a terminaly case for me. There is a service bulletin but you have to eat so much in a certain mileage window to "fail" the test (and get free pistons) plus about $1,000 which you pay out for assorted uncovered parts and labor. So its not a sweet deal.
I am wondering how long a catalytic converter can go with an engine burning oil at my rate. And what the first code will be when it throws one for the converter.
These seem to be some tough little suckers.
In your case, you could probably run it at 2 quarts for a whole oil change interval, sell it to another college kid, he'd run it for three years, then sell it to a high schooler who would put a booming stereo in and rattle can spray paint it lime green and drive it 25k more miles, then let it sit for a year with ethanol gas and then make a "run dry till it blows" YouTube video and it run for 10minutes straight totally dry with a brick on the gas pedal. And after cooling..... it'd still restart and idle a bit.
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It'll be fine. If it was damaged you'd be able to hear it. Change the oil using a good 10W30 high mileage oil.
The engine in that car is a known oil burner and sometimes sludger. The problem tends to be much worse with high speed highway driving. Nevertheless, it's a tough engine and can last a long time, but it will eat oil, for the same reason SumpChump mentioned. I agree 5/20 is too thin. I kept my 01 going a long time with 10W30 Max Life. It still burned it though and eventually killed the cat. Engine was still running strong though.
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
I've had some fun learning about oil consumption after I got my used 2008 Scion xB with 138k on the 2.4 2AZ-FE motor. This all came thanks to some moron who decided that red octogons don't apply to him and used a Chevy Cruze to take the engine and transmission in my bought new 2013 Corolla with 12k miles and push it about 6-8 inches towards the passenger side and put a 3inch skull deep gash in my head last December. I also learned that airbags do deploy quickly and taste nasty. I digress.
The 2AZ-FE, not saying that is your engine, is notorious for eating oil all day due to coked oil return holes in the pistons. So it's the one lame dog in the Toyota stable...and I got it LOL. She eats varying amounts based on average speed and how old the oil is in its run. She basically changes the oil by herself. I changed the pcv with a factory new one from the Japanese mainland (aka OEM). No avail. So unlike your situation OP, this is a terminaly case for me. There is a service bulletin but you have to eat so much in a certain mileage window to "fail" the test (and get free pistons) plus about $1,000 which you pay out for assorted uncovered parts and labor. So its not a sweet deal.
I am wondering how long a catalytic converter can go with an engine burning oil at my rate. And what the first code will be when it throws one for the converter.
These seem to be some tough little suckers.
In your case, you could probably run it at 2 quarts for a whole oil change interval, sell it to another college kid, he'd run it for three years, then sell it to a high schooler who would put a booming stereo in and rattle can spray paint it lime green and drive it 25k more miles, then let it sit for a year with ethanol gas and then make a "run dry till it blows" YouTube video and it run for 10minutes straight totally dry with a brick on the gas pedal. And after cooling..... it'd still restart and idle a bit.
Got a co-worker with a 2.4 Matrix with this problem that eats oil like no tommorow.
Buys jugs of whatever is on sale and checks it every 2-3 days.
I've had some fun learning about oil consumption after I got my used 2008 Scion xB with 138k on the 2.4 2AZ-FE motor. This all came thanks to some moron who decided that red octogons don't apply to him and used a Chevy Cruze to take the engine and transmission in my bought new 2013 Corolla with 12k miles and push it about 6-8 inches towards the passenger side and put a 3inch skull deep gash in my head last December. I also learned that airbags do deploy quickly and taste nasty. I digress.
The 2AZ-FE, not saying that is your engine, is notorious for eating oil all day due to coked oil return holes in the pistons. So it's the one lame dog in the Toyota stable...and I got it LOL. She eats varying amounts based on average speed and how old the oil is in its run. She basically changes the oil by herself. I changed the pcv with a factory new one from the Japanese mainland (aka OEM). No avail. So unlike your situation OP, this is a terminaly case for me. There is a service bulletin but you have to eat so much in a certain mileage window to "fail" the test (and get free pistons) plus about $1,000 which you pay out for assorted uncovered parts and labor. So its not a sweet deal.
I am wondering how long a catalytic converter can go with an engine burning oil at my rate. And what the first code will be when it throws one for the converter.
These seem to be some tough little suckers.
In your case, you could probably run it at 2 quarts for a whole oil change interval, sell it to another college kid, he'd run it for three years, then sell it to a high schooler who would put a booming stereo in and rattle can spray paint it lime green and drive it 25k more miles, then let it sit for a year with ethanol gas and then make a "run dry till it blows" YouTube video and it run for 10minutes straight totally dry with a brick on the gas pedal. And after cooling..... it'd still restart and idle a bit.
Got a co-worker with a 2.4 Matrix with this problem that eats oil like no tommorow.
Buys jugs of whatever is on sale and checks it every 2-3 days.
Tell your son what my dad told me. Screw the engine up, and you'll be doing all the heavy lifting and dirty work when it's time for a rebuild.
Teach offspring to check/top the oil and drive on.
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I agree with the thicker oil idea. My choice is Rotella semi-syn 10W-30 truck oil. PCV is a good idea too. I had an old Chevy 350 in a 1974 p/u truck that had an intake manifold gasket leak and it sucked through a quart every 300 miles on the highway, so a bad PCV is a possibility, although it shouldn't suck up much oil I wouldn't think.
Originally Posted By: Garak
Tell your son what my dad told me. Screw the engine up, and you'll be doing all the heavy lifting and dirty work when it's time for a rebuild.
That's kind of unfair, since the Toyota is burning oil and the son is being blamed for not already being an expert on Toyota oil burning. He's likely to believe that of all cars, the Toyota shouldn't burn oil because of Toyota's hardcore and dazzling marketing campaigns pumping the ideology of 'superior' reliability into the skull of the consumer. Some people do check oil at reasonable intervals and some engines burn oil at very unreasonable intervals.
1.3 quarts is fine for any engine to survive.
Tell your son what my dad told me. Screw the engine up, and you'll be doing all the heavy lifting and dirty work when it's time for a rebuild.
That's kind of unfair, since the Toyota is burning oil and the son is being blamed for not already being an expert on Toyota oil burning. He's likely to believe that of all cars, the Toyota shouldn't burn oil because of Toyota's hardcore and dazzling marketing campaigns pumping the ideology of 'superior' reliability into the skull of the consumer. Some people do check oil at reasonable intervals and some engines burn oil at very unreasonable intervals.
1.3 quarts is fine for any engine to survive.
Sounds like our former baby sitter and her Corolla college car. she was in town after driving 300 miles home. I always check the kids air psi in the tires and oil and coolant levels whenever they stop over. Sure enough...she ended up being 2.5 quarts low. I think the car made it to 270k before they traded it in. I did fill it with Rotella t5 10w30 though because I knew NOBODY would check it again.
Originally Posted By: PeterPolyol
That's kind of unfair, since the Toyota is burning oil and the son is being blamed for not already being an expert on Toyota oil burning.
He is being blamed for not having the level of personal responsibility required for paying attention to the maintenance of his vehicle. Which is a common misconception among those who simply can't bring themselves to touch the dirty "thingy" under the hood. These are the same type people who believe you have to be an "expert"to check the oil on a Corolla. My guess is that you only need a 5 minute instruction once you are at least 8 years old.
Many of these people are the environmental activist types who complain about fossil fuel use...then fail to check their oil and damage the engine turning it into an oil burner thereby quadrupling their carbon footprint.
That's kind of unfair, since the Toyota is burning oil and the son is being blamed for not already being an expert on Toyota oil burning.
He is being blamed for not having the level of personal responsibility required for paying attention to the maintenance of his vehicle. Which is a common misconception among those who simply can't bring themselves to touch the dirty "thingy" under the hood. These are the same type people who believe you have to be an "expert"to check the oil on a Corolla. My guess is that you only need a 5 minute instruction once you are at least 8 years old.
Many of these people are the environmental activist types who complain about fossil fuel use...then fail to check their oil and damage the engine turning it into an oil burner thereby quadrupling their carbon footprint.
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Originally Posted By: Doog
PeterPolyol said:Many of these people are the environmental activist types who complain about fossil fuel use...then fail to check their oil and damage the engine turning it into an oil burner thereby quadrupling their carbon footprint.
I don't know about that. People that don't care enough to check basic maintenance items tend to not care much about anything else either, or at least not anything of any importance.
Originally Posted By: PeterPolyol
That's kind of unfair, since the Toyota is burning oil and the son is being blamed for not already being an expert on Toyota oil burning.
Checking oil was ingrained on me at a very young age. Of course, my first car burned oil copiously, so while I learned to check oil before I could legally drive on the farm, I had plenty of practice with my first car.
That's kind of unfair, since the Toyota is burning oil and the son is being blamed for not already being an expert on Toyota oil burning.
Checking oil was ingrained on me at a very young age. Of course, my first car burned oil copiously, so while I learned to check oil before I could legally drive on the farm, I had plenty of practice with my first car.
Get the vehicle on a high mileage oil, repace PCV, educate kid to keep an eye on the oil level - after all it his mode of transportation. May also help do the next service with him to encourage the kid and take the fear of not knowing some basics of maintainence.
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