I can't believe it. My 07 TCH which I have maintained METICULOUSLY is burning oil at a little over 60,000 miles. I have owned a Honda Accord in the past and it never used oil at even over 150,000 miles. I never had to top it off.

I am currently using Valvoline Syntech and is uses around a half quart every 5,000 miles or so. What a bummer. Now I feel like I have gone back in time to when you would have to check the oil every time you stopped at the filling station.

I know that this is all well within Toyota tolerances, blah blah blah. But have any other owners discovered the same thing? I'm sure there are no leaks.

 

Well, actually, I can't actually know for sure I have no internal leaks. There's no leaks from the oil pan onto the floor. I'm not aware of any internal leaks on these vehicles but who knows. Seems like Toyota quality isn't what is used to be.

 

half a quart every 5 000 miles? so does mine. prolly, every one else's too. it's normal. it is said that 1/2 qrt per 3 000 miles is considered normal.
trying to think.... we owned 19 cars since 1993, old, beat up, newer and new. only my wife's lexus is virtually taking no oil, but even that one takes some for 5-6 000 miles, just much less than any other car. and does not burn oil either. Amsoil is only honey caramel at 10 000 miles on it.

Why Engines Burn Oil

By Tom Torbjornsen [Learn More]

This article was inspired by many listeners, readers, web-surfers, and TV viewers posing the question to me: "Tom, why does my car or truck burn oil?" Generally, engines burn oil due to a few reasons.

Bad valve seals

Worn valve guides

Pressurized crankcase (oil pan) due to a clogged PCV valve or breather system

Blow-by from worn piston rings

Bad valve seals: The valves are located in thecylinder head above the combustion chamber. Oil is pumped at 50 to 80 psi of pressure into the top of the head, lubricating the valve-train; the valveshave seals on them to stop the flow of oil down into the engine when the valve is open. If the seals fail, oil is allowed to flow down into the combustion chamber and is burned.

Worn valve guides: The valves are guided by a small cylindrical chamber called a valve guide. These guides wear over time causing eccentricity (or slop); the excess gap allows the flow of oil down the valve stem into the combustion chamber to be burned. What about the valve seal you say? Well, the gap is too great for the seal to stop the oil flow, so down it goes to be burned.

Pressurized crankcase due to clogged PCV or breather system:The car's engine is a giant pump, consequently it must breathe. The PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) system does just this, allows the engine to exhaust the excess pressure build-up (which is a natural phenomenon of the internal combustion engine). Carbon build-up is a by-product of an engine and can build up in the PCV system, clogging the breathing passages. This in turn pressurizes the oil pan and pushes oil up into the fuel delivery system, where it is fed into the engine and burned.

Blow-by from worn piston rings: The pistons in your car's engine have seals around them in the form of rings. These rings do two things:

Seal the combustion chamber so the precious power developed from the firing of the cylinder is not lost.

Provide vital lubrication to the cylinder walls.

When the rings wear out, the pressure from combustion reverses down into the oil pan, pressurizing it and forcing oil into the valve covers, through the breather system, back into the fuel delivery system, and into the engine to be burned.

You may ask yourself, "What can I do to stop this from happening?" Keep your oil and filter changed every 3,000 miles and keep the air filters changed every 12,000 miles!! This will keep sludge and carbon buildup down to a minimum. Understand that you can't stop mechanical wear, but you can slow it down!

Now a word about new cars. People notice the engine in their new vehicle seems to be burning oil. They contact the dealer and are advised that using oil is a "normal condition." I agree, however there is a difference between "burning oil" and "using oil." We just discussed how oil is burned. In contrast, today's engines operate at higher temperatures and compression ratios, causing oil to be used. Higher temperatures and compression ratios achieve two things:

Lower exhaust emissions

More power out of smaller engines

However, along with these benefits comes the side effect of using oil, due to the increased friction and heat. As a result, the oil is evaporating or being broken down while doing its job. In other words, the oil is being used. It is not going out the tail pipe as it does when it is burned.

The rate of oil use depends on how much the vehicle is used and, more importantly, under what load. For instance, a 3/4-ton pickup truck used for hauling will use more oil than a small passenger car. For those experiencing a higher rate of oil use, I suggest using synthetic oil. It has a higher resistance-to-viscosity breakdown and will do a better job than standard oil.

 

I would suggest a compression test to test the rings ability to hold compression. I have no idea how you could do this on a hybrid engine that only starts after 5 seconds. Sitting still it may be possible but never seen a comp. test done with the engine running at idle.

I'm assuming you change your oil and filter ever 5000 miles using Dino oil. Could be something simple like a PVC valve mentioned in the other post. A good engine after driving for a while, the inside of your exhaust (engine off) should appear gray. If black or very dark could be due to oil consumption. At half quart in 5000 mile I doubt you could see other than gray inside your exhaust.

This reminds me of me fixing up my wife's trusty '92 Dodge Shadow. Great car and ran great with lots of power for a 4-cyl engine. We were at a dodge dealer buying wiper blades. I spotted a mechanic and ask, why does her good running dodge use a half quart of oil at 5000 mile oil changes. He looked at me then said, well if you would read your manual in the glove box, it says change the oil and filter at 3000 mile intervals. He was right that stopped the oil usage..

 

I'm no mechanic, but if you replace oil every 5000 miles and you're "only" down half a quart, is that really a big problem? If the car is running smoothly and the red (idiot) light isn't illuminating, is this really a concern? Cars can run nicely down a half a quart, no? As it is, the car won't last forever and there are natural signs of aging, this might be one of them.
Serious question, assuming the decline was gradual and only reached half a quart at the time you need to replace it...is there a (real) problem?
Again, I'm not a mechanic, but not sure if it's something worth worrying about, is it?
Of course, if the rate of decline speeds up or you are running with dangerously low levels, that's another story, but for now, you're okay, no?

 

did you guys even look at the article I posted? nothing's wrong with his engine. it's normal oil consumption. it's not a ricer, and it's not oil burner. it has well withing tolerance oil consumption just like explained.

 

IMO, it's a problem and needs to be fixed. The recommended interval for oil change is 5k for this type of engine. There were lots of issues with 2002 Corollas having this particular problem. Check carcomplaints.com, some of them considered it to be a time bomb for the engine. Was looking for a used one one but found out that this is a common issue (there are still people honest enough to tell the issues)

 

I don't remember any oil consumption complains on the 2007 TCH other then this one were talking about. I did a google search and did find a few years of RAV4's engines that had a oil consumption problem. Come to find out that the heads valves were larger then the ones that supposed to be in the engine. The toyota shop that found the problem had already replaced the RAV4 engine with new pistons and sleeves. The problem still existed till they found the valve size problem.

I do my own oil changes and install 4 1/4 quarts with a new filter. I tried 4 1/2 quarts which puts it slightly above the normal mark on the stick. A good idea to have the car on a level surface and a cooled engine (or sits a hour) when checking the oil level.

It will be interesting if toyota considers a half quart usage at only 60K miles to be normal. The '94 Corolla I had didn't use a half quart at 5000 mile changes till it was over 175,000. I would consider that more normal for a toyota or honda engine.

 

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Toyota/...ption.shtml#10

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Toyota/...sive_oil.shtml

 

A half-quart of use during a normal oil-change interval of 5K miles, is not a problem. All gasoline engines burn some oil. It is only a question of how much per what distance. A half-quart over 5k miles is not unusual, and is not too much. That's part of why they put 4 1/2 quarts in to start with. If there is still 4 quarts left at the end of an oil-change interval, that is more than enough to keep things lubricated.

All engines use a little more oil as they get older. Pistons, rings, cylinders, valves, and valve guides all are subject to wear. As the wear increases the gap between parts, the oil usage gradually increases, and the friction between parts decreases.

If you start seeing several quarts used during an interval, or if the idiot light turns on, then it is time to do some diagnosis, and to consider repair or replacement.

Until then, recognize:
1. You can buy a lot of oil for the price of a new engine.
2. The carbon produced by burning a kilo of oil is not really any different from the carbon produced by burning a kilo of gasoline.
3. As the mechanical gaps increase, the engine actually has less friction, and is likely to use less gasoline.