help with oil-consuming 1MZ-FE

[vtunderground]

About a month ago, I bought a 2002 Toyota Highlander V6 (1MZ-FE) with 60,000 miles. New timing belt, new battery, new tires, clean Carfax, and it was the cleanest used car I'd ever seen. I love it... except for one thing....

I quickly discovered that it uses oil. Lots of oil. About a quart every 500 miles. It doesn't smoke at startup, or while driving, and there're no leaks visible on the motor (I checked all these before I bought it). It has the redesigned valve cover & PCV valve that were supposed to reduce the sludge issue in the 1MZ-FE motor. On the other hand, the original owner only changed the oil every 6000 miles (about once a year).

I have a 6 / 7500 warranty through GWC Warranty. Right now my plan is to take the car to my mechanic and see if the warranty will cover a new motor (but I'm not optimistic). I paid about $2000 less than KBB trade-in value for it, so I could just unload it on a dealer and hopefully break even.

My question is... what would you do?

 

[simple_gifts]

Boy, that sucks. I assume you are using 5w-30 oil. I would bump up a grade and try using 15W-40 to see if you can reduce consumption.

Since you got the ride for cheap is an engine swap out of the question?

 

[Eddie]

Is the recommended oil weight in the engine? Oil leaks are very difficult to spot, if they only leak while moving-I know from personal experience. I would first to an oil change and put in the recommended weight. Measure carefully on the dip stick and when checking do so in the same place-level-side to side & front to back. Until you know you have the correct oil in the engine and have carefully measured oil usage, you know little about the engine internals.

 

[EricF]

if you don't see any leaks, pop out the plugs and see if any are oil fouled.. could be a bad stem seal?

you could try a bottle of Re-Seal and see what it can do for you?

 

[JohnSaints]

I had some similar experience when I bought my car used. Fortunately everything worked out alright, as I hope happens to you too.
Here's a link to my thread explaining what happened:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2324800#Post2324800


I bought it with 150.000 km (90.000 miles) and apparently it didn't have much use in the 3 or 4 years prior.

In the first 10.000 km (6.000 miles), it burned around 4-5 liters of oil (slightly above 4-5 quarts). It didn't smoke either, and there was no noticeable leak whatsoever.

After those 6.000 miles, I changed oil and filter again and it seemed to have stabilized. It only burned around half a litter (slightly above half a quart) in these last 4000 km (around 2500 miles). In both situations I used same grade oil (10w40, but from different brands).

Do you know if your car was seldomly used prior to you buying it? How many miles have you put on that engine?

If you're using 5-30 oil, why not change oil and filter, maybe to a 10w40 grade and check what happens?

 

[zyxelenator]

try to make you warranty pay. I have older version of this engine, it was burning oil like crazy. It was(still but much less) sludged up,and I guess rings were stuck, since itl not burning oil amymore, and not smoking. So let mechanic check it and make they pay for whatever possible. What celbed in my case, after about 10k miles of chemical therapy: pcv valve change, removed both valve covers, cleaned bunch of sludge by hands, changed, all valve cover gaskets, cleaned pcv valleys, did kreen piston soak, and cleaned all intake parts that I removed. It helped dramatically. Smoke on start stoped, I haven't add any oil since that (500 miles after, would be around a quart or more adeed before).

 

[zyxelenator]

^ half liter is more than half quart.

 

[JohnSaints]

Originally Posted By: zyxelenator
^ half liter is more than half quart.

haha, my mistake

Just edited it.

When will you guys switch to metric?

 

[robshelton]

No smoke at startup and using that much oil? Makes me wonder about the history of the car. Almost sounds like a sludge motor replacement from a salvage yard...

I agree with the above in that I'd change the oil so you can get a base line for its consumption. After that I'd get a quart of Kreen and add it to the next oil change to see if it might have a sticking/stuck ring - thats what I'm betting on.

I think I'd try a good diesel 15w40 to see if it helps at all. I like Delvac but that's only because I get it on sale. BTW, don't worry about the 15 rating, if you read/believe their info with all the additives it performs more like a 10wt.

If everything fails it should be about the right time to sell it; assuming it's 4wd that would be in the fall.

Good luck! My GF has a Camry with a 1mzfe so I will keep tabs on this thread.

 

[vtunderground]

I've put 1000 miles on the car since I bought it. Not sure what oil the dealer put in it (but I've added 2 quarts of 5w30 so far).

simple gifts: I'd consider a new motor, but only if I couldn't trade the car in for what I paid for it. I'd try everything else possible before I spent that much money.

EricF: I've always been told that if the valve stems leak, the car will smoke at startup. Not sure if that always holds true or not? My car doesn't smoke when starting (I actually made the salesman start it while I watched the tailpipe, haha). I can pull the plugs to check that though, no problem.

Johnyjj1212: Yeah, I saw your thread - it gave me hope

I'll change the oil before too long... it's not a big deal to change weights so I might try that.

I'm tempted to try some MMO in the oil, but I'm afraid that it'd somehow make things worse (it hasn't helped oil consumption on other cars I've owned).

I bought a new PCV valve - I'm going to put in probably tomorrow. We'll see if that does anything (and what the old one looks like).

 

[R2d2]

Get rid of it.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Keep it and try Shell Rotella T6 5W-40 and see if that lowers the oil consumption.

 

[zyxelenator]

Originally Posted By: Johnyjj1212
Originally Posted By: zyxelenator
^ half liter is more than half quart.

haha, my mistake

Just edited it.

When will you guys switch to metric?

I use metric. I moved here when I was 19, so I don't get imperial system except miles, temperature and pounds

 

[fdcg27]

Drive the sucker and see if consumption doesn't improve.
If this thing is sludged up, with only 60K, driving it and changing its oil every 3K should clean it up.
You could try Kreen or ARX.
There was a reason this thing was such a deal.
Good luck!

 

[oggb]

I'd pull a valve cover and see what it looks like.

Then I'd give it some cheap diesel-spec oil in either 10w-30 or 15w-40 and a quality filter (Purolator, Wix, etc.) and see what it does over time. If nothing else the 15w-40 may help with the consumption slightly while also cleaning things up.

 

[Gokhan]

If there is no leak and your PCV valve is not clogged, it's probably the valve-stem oil seals. The remedy would be to replace them.

Using 15W-40 instead of 5W-30 will cut the oil consumption by a factor of two or three.

 

[garlicbreadman]

going with a thicker weight is pointless, its obvious the motor has something seriously wrong with it. even if using a 40weight will bring it to 1 quart per 1000 miles, that is still very excessive

 

[Gokhan]

Originally Posted By: garlicbreadman
going with a thicker weight is pointless, its obvious the motor has something seriously wrong with it. even if using a 40weight will bring it to 1 quart per 1000 miles, that is still very excessive

It's not pointless at all. 1 qt per 500 mile is not manageable but if it's less than 1 qt per 1000 mile, the owner can easily manage it.

The limit on oil consumption put by auto makers is 1.7 qt per 1000 mile (1 lt per 1000 km). Anything under it is considered manageable by auto makers and the engine and emission systems will tolerate the deposits caused by oil burning, as well as the emissions test could be passable.

 

[steve20]

I hope you get your problem solved-but in my experience, KBB is 15-20% over the retail value of the car--in all conditions.
Trading to the dealer will not be an economical avenue

 

[Brons2]

What about some Mobil1 High Mileage 10w40? It's available at Walmart in 5 quart jugs. A while back there was a thread with pics that showed how much 2 fills of this oil had cleaned up a 1MZ-FE.