Help! car eating a lot of oil.

Your car is consuming oil at an unusually high rate. Loss is either by consumption or leakage. Did Charley's inspect the spark plugs, cooling system, inside of tail pipe, emissions test, inspect the O2 sensors, ect.? Do you notice any sign of oil where the vehicle is parked? Do you notice any on the ground after running the car parked at operating temperature? Adding five quarts in twelve hundred miles is quite a bit IMHO, there will be a clue somewhere as to where the oil is going.

Now, most of my experience with Toyotas involves 80's models, but I did have this happen on three Toyotas.

Check the engine bay and underneath the car for oil spray. What had happened to three of my Corollas was the oil pan bolts worked loose, and the engine would spray oil under operating conditions. Carefully check the torque on the oil pan bolts to see if they are tight enough.

I had an 80 that was using oil at an alarming rate after 80,000 mile, and this was the culprit. Also an '85 doing the same thing.

That is definitely NOT normal. Take it to another mechanic.

For comparison purposes, I own a 2002 Tacoma, 60k miles. I still have the first quart of oil I bought when the truck was new. I've used half the quart. My son's got a '96 Camry with 90k miles. It's used 1/2 quart since he bought the car, and he's put 15k miles on it. Three Toyotas we've owned in the past have been similar, in terms of almost zero oil use.

check oil pressure sending switch, normally a $7 part that sits immediately by oil filter housing

the o-ring may have failed and would spray oil only at high rpm conditions but leave no visible residue

If the inside of the valve cover is coated with soft black deposits, check PCV. Otherwise it could be valve seals. VW claimed 200 miles a qt. was normal, until the EPA forced them to issue a recall.

Agreed, this is 'way too much oil disappearing, and if it's not coming out the tailpipe as smoke, it's sure going somewhere....as has been suggested. An engine that spews it out at high rpm's such as highway driving is definitely faulty, and a careful examination should reveal where it's going. Good luck!

Sounds to me like a leak .probably the oil pan gasket , or timing chain cover.

A quart every 240 miles ? You would be laying down a smoke screen if it burned that much and prrobably get pulled over for poluting

Ed

Interesting writing, but there is no way you can suggest that the OP's situation is normal. If he was talking about a Dodge mini-van, then maybe. But not a late model Toyota.

Dodge minivans are actually one of the best selling vehicles. They're not bad.

Even if they were a bad vehicle, drinking that much oil (if the car wants to _eat_ oil, it is called "coal") is not normal.

Jeff

The sales figures are in no way related to the unique stench and smoke I see while driving behind many of them, and I'm not talking about ancient ones either.

Thanks a lot for all of your feedback. I am taking the car to a shop tomorrow, and will post the findings/results.

One more thing I forgot to mention: The acceleration is sluggish from a full stop. No way I can spin the wheels on dry pavement, which I should be able to do even with this moderately-powered car (not that I would _want_ to spin the wheels for fun.) I've been meaning to have the mechanic check that as well. Could that be a spark plug problem, which could be contributing to the oil consumption problem?

Cheers

More like the other way around - spark plugs tend to foul in engines that burn oil.

No, it is not normal. I was suggesting that the car is using a lot of oil all the time, but it is being masked by blow-by. When he runs it harder on a long trip, the blow-by products evaporate and the true level of oil consumption is revealed.

Ed

My guess is that your engine is worn out. A compression test will probably reveal low compression.

Ed

I don't think so. A working catalytic converter should be able to handle a quart every 240 miles - at least for a while - particularly if the engine is as worn out as I suspect. In addition to the oil, there is a lot of energy going out the exhaust, feeding the converter and keeping it good an hot, allowing it to handle the oil. The "sudden" increase in consumption on a trip is a classic symptom of an engine with worn compression rings. Of course there probably are leaks. If the compression rings are shot, the crankcase pressure goes up and oil is forced out of every seal and through the PCV system.

Ed

IIRC, the oil pressure sending switch has a tapered pipe thread and does not use an O-ring. The housing itself may be leaking, although at the rate the OP mentioned, there should be signs of leaks like oil on the ground.

A quart per 1,000 miles is considered acceptable for warranty purposes. If you are using 1 quart per 240 miles, the engine has a problem somewhere. If it has not been regularly maintained, the rings could be stuck or worn.

If it's the worn rings, how much would that cost to get fixed?