Synthetic or Dino for An Oil-Burning Camry

My SILs ‘08 Jeep Wrangler with the 3.8 used oil from day 1. Finally started using Edge 0w40 in place of the factory recommended 5w20. Slowed consumption dramatically. I've since then started using Edge 5w40 which is a bit thicker than the 0w40. Silly thing loves it. About a quart in 3000 now.
 
You can buy them ready to go on Amazon or similar, so no need to drill it out.
Time is worth something.

Did this for both our 02 Camry and 03 Corolla for the P0420

They did not come back.

Usually the CAT is still working, just not as well. We don't have emissions testing in my area, so this just gets rid of the annoying light.

Originally Posted by Oro_O


Take a spark plug non-fouler (on rack at auto parts stores). Drill out the thin metal baffle on the cylinder end. You put it in-line between your 02 sensor and it's normal mounting hole. Pulling the sensor back out of the direct flow will "trick" it enough to defeat the CEL. It works, you can google it.

You said above you had run VPB Restore? How long, etc. and did it do anything at all? The full-ester oil, correct?
 
Originally Posted by Oro_O
Quote
What's the "spark plug fouler-spacer trick"?


Take a spark plug non-fouler (on rack at auto parts stores). Drill out the thin metal baffle on the cylinder end. You put it in-line between your 02 sensor and it's normal mounting hole. Pulling the sensor back out of the direct flow will "trick" it enough to defeat the CEL. It works, you can google it.

You said above you had run VPB Restore? How long, etc. and did it do anything at all? The full-ester oil, correct?


OK, thanks for these tips, Oro & Java.

Yes, I ran the VPB Restore nearly 2yrs/35k miles ago—the $70/gallon ester stuff for Cummins engines, not just the Premium Blue 5w-40 HDEO. Ran it for only one 5K OCI (about 4 months), but I didn't buy a second gallon of it for top-off, and the car's oil consumption rate was about 1200mi/quart, so it was fairly "diluted" by the PUP 5w-30 I was topping off with. So I may not have given the Restore a laboratory-adequate test, but my anecdotal data point is that it made little or no difference in my car's oil consumption rate. With my car's mileage and age, its oil consumption may be due to honest ring and/or valve guide wear, or fried valve stem seals, rather than the ring coking/piston oil return hole issues that plagued the ‘07 & later 2AZ-FEs—but I'm no expert.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by khittner
Ran it for only one 5K OCI (about 4 months), but I didn't buy a second gallon of it for top-off, and the car's oil consumption rate was about 1200mi/quart, so it was fairly "diluted" by the PUP 5w-30 I was topping off with.


Good to know.

A point I ponder is this - when Valvoline & Cummins say to run it "one standard OCI" in those engines - that means 30k miles in normal hauling duty. That's the base OCI for the ISX15 engine (and they approve the regular VPB for 60k OCI's with UOAs). So I wonder if gas people are giving it long enough. I'm contemplating trying it and that's something I keep trying to factor.
 
Originally Posted by khittner
Originally Posted by Earls1st
Are the combustion byproducts of full synthetic oil less likely to foul the catalytic converter and downstream oxygen sensor than that of Dino oil?


My real question, concisely stated. Thanks.


I don't think there will be much of a difference between how Group II, Group III or Group IV burn, they are all mostly C-H and C-C bonds. The big difference will be in the additive package. You want low Phos to minimise harm to the exhaust cat.

Check out this LINK

https://mobiloil.com/~/media/amer/us/pvl/files/pdfs/mobil-1-oil-product-specs-guide.pdf

M1 AFE has less Phosphorus than regular vanilla M1 (650ppm Vs 800ppm P). Avoid the Euro rated M1 0W40 it has 1000 ppm Phos.

The other way to go is thicker (if you can start OK), with an oil that is just SN or SN-plus rated (for normal Phos levels), like GTX 10W40 or 15W40, that should burn less.
 
in the past i would use old oil as "top off" oil. i would do an oil change every 5k miles and keep the old used oil and top off whenever needed. when oil change time comes i would use new oil. but my old car would burn about 1 quart every 3-5k miles.
 
I have a Pontiac Vibe with the same oil-burning engine. When I bought it, I did an oil change with PUP 5w-20 and quickly noticed it was consuming oil. So, I tried some Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 (on the thicker side of 30) and it consumed oil nearly twice as fast. I don't think the nature of this problem (being the rings/return holes coking up) is helped by higher viscosity oil. My car also runs better on 5w-20 with a tolerable level of oil consumption. Just my experience.
 
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