Avensis Oil Consumption

[winco576]

I have two Toyota's one is a Carina E 221,000 miles, it uses no oil between changes.

The second is a 2001 Avensis 1.8vvti Automatic with 96,000 on the clock. The engine has been using oil at the rate of 1 litre every 700 miles since 37,0000 miles.

On another forum I read of a cure. The person who posted the reply claimed that by using about 4 tankfulls of High Octane unleaded instead of ordinary unleaded the problem improves.

As an engineer of 50 years I was not convinced about this but then I though maybe the detergents used in the High octane may be better that the ordinary unleaded & may clear sludge or crud from the oil scrapper ring groove, so I tried this out.

Well, 4 tankfulls of high octane later, the oil consumption has dropped to 1 litre every 3000 miles. I am going to use one more tankfull then revert back to ordinary unleaded to see what happens.

Give it a go it may work for you.

[sibbs]

thats interesting so where can i get some high octane fuel which one did you use ???

[Jamesbelfast]

I would be tempted to agree with your theory. Some detergents can help unblock oil scraper ring oil-ways.

The Renault 1.5 Dci engine suffers from similar problems and Renault themselves recommend a double engine flush which is successful in around 60% of cases reducing oil consumption to a more acceptable level. Just how long the effect works is another question though.:)

[winco576]

thats interesting so where can i get some high octane fuel which one did you use ???

Both Shell & Tesco offer 99 octane unleaded which is better than the standard 95 octane unleaded.

Asda & Morrisons do not seem to stock the higher Octane option.

Regards

[sibbs]

thats interesting so where can i get some high octane fuel which one did you use ???

Both Shell & Tesco offer 99 octane unleaded which is better than the standard 95 octane unleaded.

Asda & Morrisons do not seem to stock the higher Octane option.

Regards

ok here i go v-power it is then hope it helps, anything has to be worth a try!!!

[igormus]

thats interesting so where can i get some high octane fuel which one did you use ???

Both Shell & Tesco offer 99 octane unleaded which is better than the standard 95 octane unleaded.

Asda & Morrisons do not seem to stock the higher Octane option.

Regards

ok here i go v-power it is then hope it helps, anything has to be worth a try!!!

I presume the oil slag from dain holes can only be cleaned mechanically.

Cheers

[sproutdreamer]

I have two Toyota's one is a Carina E 221,000 miles, it uses no oil between changes.

The second is a 2001 Avensis 1.8vvti Automatic with 96,000 on the clock. The engine has been using oil at the rate of 1 litre every 700 miles since 37,0000 miles.

On another forum I read of a cure. The person who posted the reply claimed that by using about 4 tankfulls of High Octane unleaded instead of ordinary unleaded the problem improves.

As an engineer of 50 years I was not convinced about this but then I though maybe the detergents used in the High octane may be better that the ordinary unleaded & may clear sludge or crud from the oil scrapper ring groove, so I tried this out.

Well, 4 tankfulls of high octane later, the oil consumption has dropped to 1 litre every 3000 miles. I am going to use one more tankfull then revert back to ordinary unleaded to see what happens.

Give it a go it may work for you.

My 03 1.8 was not burning oil very badly (2000 miles per litre quite consistently from 40K to 58K miles) but I was very concerned about it getting much worse and becoming a problem so I tried to follow the sort of process outlined above plus other measures and the oil consumption is now about 1 litre every 5000 miles as far as I can estimate from the minute amount used over the last 1000 miles.

Unfortunately I tried a number of things at the same time so I am not sure what has helped, but it is maybe a combination of things!

When changing the oil I used a flushing additive.

I used Halfords 20/50 oil - a sports/performance oil which noted a higher level of detergent component.

Used 4 full tanks of top grade unleaded, various brands.

used a higher level fill approx 10mm above the full mark approx 1/2 litre extra. Interestingly this fairly quickly went down to the full mark in about 1000 miles but then the level is static at the full mark for the last 1000 miles.

My usage is very consistent and with no real differences in usage to explain the reduced oil consumption other than to assume that increased flushing of the piston drain holes has actually happened as the higher viscosity oil made no difference to the oil consumption initially.

I will monitor my oil consumption closely and feedback in a few months.... but it looks very promising.

Thanks for the advice.

[closchkutza]

The drop in oil consumption might come from the high viscosity oil you are using. This might give you satisfaction on the short run but it will make you regret it on the long run.

[sproutdreamer]

The drop in oil consumption might come from the high viscosity oil you are using. This might give you satisfaction on the short run but it will make you regret it on the long run.

Surprised at your comment unless you have some particular expertise that this is based upon? As I understand it the only disadvantage of higher viscosity oil is that starting may be more difficult when very cold and MPG may not be quite as good but lubrication should be fine. If my reduced oil consumption is only due to thicker oil why did reduced oil consumption not start straight away. I think there is more going on than just thicker oil-I have previously used 10/40 oil with no noticeable reduction in oil consumption. 2000 up to 5000 miles per litre is pretty dramatic I think you will agree.

[Mistermena]

My mum's Citroen C3 1.6 exclusive has always been run (From day 1) on Tesco's 99Ron unleaded. I can't remember who makes it for Tesco's now but its very good stuff. The "Which Report" did a test on a lot of the 99 Ron fuels and if I remember correctly Shell V-Power just pipped the Tesco's to the post. The guys on "Pistonhead" rave about the Tesco's stuff. I've always run my Avensis oil burner on the Shell V-Power derv as it has twice the additive package of the normal derv

[sproutdreamer]

I am amazed that the concept that there may be a way of reducing oil consumption of the 1.8 engines without very expensive piston replacement does not generate more interest as this is a severe blot on what I think is essentially a good car. I also was very sceptical of a magic cure to reduce oil consumption without surgery but it worked for my engine. 2000 miles per litre of engine oil up to 5000 miles per litre I think is excellent.

[1304]

I too have been following this thread with some interest. At present I'm on Shell vtec as mine burns about 0.5 lite every 250 miles, so I should soon be able to tell if there is any improvement. I've only managed about one and a half tank fulls up to now and at present I can see no difference. But I intend to see it through just to put my mind at ease.I will let you know in due course.

[greysquirrel]

Any updates on this from anyone? Mine is using a bit of oil, and I think I may try this.

[Jombob]

Any updates on how this is going for people, I'm using 1L per 700 miles. It currently has 5W30 fully synthetic oil in should I change to 10w40 semi synthetic.

[Roker]

I read somewhere that if you use more than 5w30 the thicker oil is more prone to blocking the piston drain holes with carbon

[Akash87]

I bought Toyota Avensis 6 months ago. Previously it was serviced with 5W30 oil and there was oil consumption of 1L/1000miles. On my recent service I changed it to 15W40 because the owners manual allows it to -14 degree Celsius. Surprisingly the consumption dropped to 0.3L/1000miles. I also try to avoid hard acceleration while driving. You may try the technique. Worked for me.

[sproutdreamer]

Update- I replied to the original post in sept 2011, having reduced oil consumption from 2000miles per litre up to less than 1/2 litre in 6000 miles after using premium grade petrol.

After the initial 4 tankfuls of premium grade fuel the oil usage was almost nothing for 6000 miles and then slowly over 3 months reverted to about 1/2 litre per 700 miles. After doing the 4 tanks pf premium grade petrol the oil usage again reduced to almost zero, less than 1/2 L between oil change at 6000 but again starts to rise over 3months back to 1/2 L in 700 miles.

I have done the 4 tanks of premium fuel thing 3 times now and each time oil consumption has dropped substantially for about a year and then rises over 6 months back to the higher consumption.

I also have the oil level 10mm above the full mark.and I have used 15/40 synthetic oil and 5/30 semi without noticing any difference between the oils.

All I can say is it works on my car.