Buying an early 05 1.8vvti. Oil concerns.

[justin75]

Hi there. 

I'm looking to buy a 1.8 vvti avensis and I'm concerned about the oil burning issue. 

It's got full service history and is on 80k.

Is there any way to tell or know if it is an issue on the car.

Cheers 

Justin 

[FROSTYBALLS]

The oil consumption issue was resolved in cars built from July 2005. Would have thought a Toyota dealer would be able to tell you what the build date of this car is.

[justin75]

Think it's March build.

Boo hoo.

These are such fantastic cars amd the car is really well looked after and serviced.

Is it every 1.8 car or is it a bad percentage? 

[Konrad C]

Not every 1.8 vvti 1ZZ-FE engine had the oil burning issue. It could be some engines were fine, some were ran in a way that kept the problem away, some had the block and pistons changed, some had engine swap for a modified engine and some engines had the problem that the owners just topped up oil continuously.

If the engine has been changed, it should be shown on the registration document, and any records or paperwork, if available. Some owners may hide the fact the engine is burning oil. The only way you would find out is drive the car for a week and a lot of miles. Not practical. I have seen a post stating, that by using premium fuel helps to keep the oil burning away.

This is why late 2005 onwards will be more desirable.

 

[justin75]

Hmmm

Cheers for the replies. 

How many do you think were bad compared to good?

I'm presuming there were thousands sold?

[d-a-n]

I've recently asked the same question and got good answers on this forum. I've just bought an 85k 05 car in otherwise great condition - decent Bridgestones all round, expensive wipers, lots of indicators that the car has been cherished. I reckon if the previous owner knew it was an oil burner, they wouldn't have spent all this 'unnecessary' extra money on it. I've no idea if it was a new short block one but I've done 300 miles and the oil level on the dipstick hasn't moved, I'm using V power in it for the time being as I want to do my usual 1 tank of v power then 2 tanks of regular routine.

I guess the scientific way to tell would be to get engine block numbers etc, or just use your intuition. If the worst it does is burn a bit of oil, you'll still see a lot of life in it yet and have a car which is lovely too.

[d-a-n]

BTW - for every person on the internet who wants to find out why their car is burning oil, I imagine there are lots more who's car isn't and they aren't bothering to get on the web to tell everyone their car ISN'T burning oil!