Poor performance on the 1.33L ''oil burner'. Is it game over

[AisinW]

Newest engine oil formulations has much lower ZDDP antiwear than 20 years ago with ILSAC GF4 standard.  ZDDP is the one that poisson catalytic converter the most.  The manifold catalytic converter is the one that do the biggest catalytic job. That's why the 1st O2 sensor installed before it and the 2nd after it.  The 2nd catalytic converter downstream do the 2nd cleaning. 

If you can get the original CAt, get the CAt for sure even it cost 2x the aftermarket because it contains way more active metals. 

Diesel orignal after treatment +DPF are often cost more than new hybrid Battery.  With unlimited miles 15 years warranty, Hybrid Battery is better than any Diesel can offer unless we do 99% Motorway and drive 20k miles a year to offset the emission tax. 

[Mooly]

I have to think long and hard what to do. The massive oil consumption has to be the root cause and that issue is not going away. Looking back and its something like this.

2010 car new.

2014 first hints of oil consumption. Top up once in the year.

2015 top up a couple of times.

2016 Realise a 1L top up bottle isn't enough in the year

2017 Up to a couple of litres in the year.

2018 three + litres

2019 Four litres. First original plugs changed at 60k Condition, text book perfect.

2020 Five or so litres

2021 Seven + litres

2022 Ten + litres

2023 not using engine braking as an experiment seems to cut consumption. Four litres so far since February.

 

[AisinW]

From your data,1 to 5 liter in less than 2 years is excessive. It must be from stucked piston ring or clogged oil return hole. Not a normal wear and tear. 

I had Nissan QR25DE that consume engine oil from 1L per 2000 miles and stay there for 70k miles/7 years and it consume more if i drive fast >70 mhph. Mobil1/Castrol 0w-30/0w-40 full synthetic consumed less than cheap 5w-30 at that time. the spark plugs are ok with a bit of thin carbon crust on the back of ground electrode only, nothing on the ceramic or tip. It is from normal wear because it has head gasket leak before.

High RPM  and engine braking will accelerate oil consumption because the piston rings work harder, expand and contract and cannot compensate fast enough.  Special engine flush for stuck piston rings such as BG44K MOA may reduce a bit but only a patch. But I prefer to just sell it if i were you.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.torquenews.com/8113/bg-products-claim-fixreduce-toyota-prius-oil-consumption/amp

 

[TonyHSD]

The oil consumption in these cars its because of design fault of the engine components as is written and adjusted by Toyota themselves at later date. 
The newer models does not suffer from this event. Nothing could have been done to prevent this from happening. More frequent oil changes will not help at all. How many cars are shown in TCCN channel that burn oil like crazy and oil changes been always at 5k or early? Pretty much same stuff with those who follow manufacturers recommended 10k intervals. The problem is not the 10k miles intervals but the fact that many drivers does 10000 miles over 2-3 years and they does not follow the 12 months time intervals and this is how their engines get bad and start burning oil. Many doesn’t even realise that because they sold their cars but it will become obvious to the next owner. 
My car when bought 5 years old in 10/2015 at 42k miles had already 4 Toyota dealer service done with 0w20 all documented. The car never used a drop of oil between changes once a year as it was low miles second car in the family. Oil was changed at 12 months at mileage between 2000-6000. 
When the car turned over 120k miles it started to drink a bit, and this increased with the mileage going up. Oil changes always been within the 10k miles , more like 8500-9500 miles but time wise every 3 months. Now at 248000 the car oil consumption is 2 litres per roughly 10k miles, could be even slightly more as I still change the oil before actual 10000 miles , 9k perhaps. I would say normal wear. Engine runs fine, the car drives good and efficiency is better than new. 60mpg summer, 50mpg winter. 4.7l/100km and 5.7/100km.  Coolant consumption is around 300ml per year or 35000 miles. This is what I add on, level from min to to max. That’s it. 
The car has an oil leak too. This was discovered back in 2018 at 60k miles. It seems like either rear main seal, oil pan gasket or metal cap on oil gallery.  Never bothered to repair. 

[Cyker]

Yes what TonyHSD says - There is a known issue with the early 1.33L 1NR-FE engines; My 2009 Yaris Mk2 had the same problem with increasing oil consumption before I got rid of it.

The fix was new pistons and piston rings (And probably more stuff I've forgotten), but with the age of your car it's probably wrecked the cylinder walls so you'd be better off getting a new engine than wasting money replacing bits of it.

[Mooly]

I'm back 🙂 and so is the car. It feels totally different to drive as you would expect of course. The garage has also performed a 'carbon clean' of the intake system and valves and said there was a lot of crud in there. The cat was just clogged rather than showing any damage or overheating and a massive amount of gunky crud was got out. Bizarre that the emissions were spot on with it like that but they were.  

I've told them of the known issues that we know about (the control rings) and yet that doesn't quite fit with my description of being able to generate lots of smoke by using engine braking and also of seeming to be able to cut consumption by coasting rather than engine braking which at face value sounds more like valve stem seals.

I think its a job they all got genuinely interested in as even the owner said 'he got his hands dirty on this one' doing some of the work and test driving it before and after. When I said it did get driven hard enough in real life and also occasionally red lined I was pleasantly surprised when he said that was he had done the same testing it.

Hopefully I have a bit of wiggle room to think now. Obviously the underlying issue of oil consumption remains. 

 

[Mooly]

Oh yes, forgot to mention...

Compression check performed and all good. Surprisingly all four were almost identical. Apparently there is often at least one that varies from the others but not here. Can't remember the figure although I think '150' (psi presumably) was mentioned but can't be sure. All four the same. 

 

[sampauli1910]

Just jumping onto this thread.....

I have a just recently purchased a MK 1 Auris (2012) facelift, VVTi 1.33 petrol. I live in Ireland. 
It has 125,000 KM on the ODO. 
I hadn't come across the oil burning issue when researching, but I have seen some things on forums in recent days. 
My car isn't burning oil that I know of, but from what I read it sounds inevitable. Apart from oil changes every 5000KM, has anyone here got any advice as to how I might make the inevitable sounding problem more manageable moving forward? 

E.g.) Additives to use to help the pistons? Which type of oil is best (0W20 vs 5W30)

I love the car, so just want to give it the best chance at hitting 200,00 KM 😇

Thanks

[TonyHSD]

5 hours ago, sampauli1910 said:

Just jumping onto this thread.....

I have a just recently purchased a MK 1 Auris (2012) facelift, VVTi 1.33 petrol. I live in Ireland. 
It has 125,000 KM on the ODO. 
I hadn't come across the oil burning issue when researching, but I have seen some things on forums in recent days. 
My car isn't burning oil that I know of, but from what I read it sounds inevitable. Apart from oil changes every 5000KM, has anyone here got any advice as to how I might make the inevitable sounding problem more manageable moving forward? 

E.g.) Additives to use to help the pistons? Which type of oil is best (0W20 vs 5W30)

I love the car, so just want to give it the best chance at hitting 200,00 KM 😇

Thanks

Hi and welcome. 
Your oil is 0w20. Stay on that viscosity and buy quality oils. Oil change intervals of 5-10k miles are fine depending on use or every 12 months. 
Do not use any engine oil additives, these could potentially cause more harm then any help. Only can do oil stop leaks if there are any minor leaks but even so any oil additives should only be used a 1000 miles before oil change and not in a new oil. Fuel additives are fine. If your engine doesn’t burn oil now it means it’s still good and not worn out. With age and mileage any engine will start consume some oil , it’s inevitable, so don’t worry too much about it. Keep the car in good working condition, maintain on time and drive sensible, that’s all you need to do to bring it to a high miles, and of course trouble free. 
Good luck 

[Mooly]

8 hours ago, sampauli1910 said:

Just jumping onto this thread.....

And a follow on here:

Your 2012 version will be a later production version where some the issues causing this may well have been addressed.