Corolla Engine Help!

June 23, 2005

i bought a corolla gs 1.6 1999 model with 52k on clock from a garage with 3 months warrenty, after few weeks we notice the engine oil light on , we have been travelling up from london to northampton and back once a week and it seems to be using up alot of engine oil almost 8 litres. its blowing black smoke out of the exhaust. other than that the car drives smoothly. the car was serviced and cam belt changed before we bought it by garage, dont think it was blowing as bad wen we ought it but we never checked the exhaust smoke too much wen viewing the car at garage. i had a corolla gti before and they are usually very good engines so i knew there was something wrong with this. took back to garage and they said they admit there is something wrong, but said it was a job that their garage couldnt fix and said to call warrenty company, does anyone know why its blowin black smoke, and burning up engine oil after a motorway run. and also if its something a warrenty will cover, i have booked to take it to nationalwide auto centre to check. only about 5 weeks left on warrenty so any advice ould be great . thanks

ken

June 23, 2005

You say its burning/using oil yet state 'Black' smoke is whats coming out.

Reason I ask this is because usually when a car is blowing blue smoke it's oil, white is usually water (e.g. head gasket gone) and black is fuel (rich mixture etc to much fuel).

In view of you say it is black what is your fuel consumption like?

As for use of oil ...is there a bad leak underneath somewhere?

With regards to used vehicle warranties, beware some are not actually 'warranties' but mechanical breakdown 'insurrance policies' the difference being that only major items will be covered (in your case if it is engine repair then that will be okay) or it may be that it will only pay a certain amount or a percentage of the repair (read the small print). If lets say it is not the engine but something like the injection system you will get some redress but I doubt all the cost of the repair, sorry.

I would however be most interested to hear how you get on. :yes:

June 23, 2005

You say its burning/using oil yet state 'Black' smoke is whats coming out.
Reason I ask this is because usually when a car is blowing blue smoke it's oil, white is usually water (e.g. head gasket gone) and black is fuel (rich mixture etc to much fuel).
In view of you say it is black what is your fuel consumption like?
As for use of oil ...is there a bad leak underneath somewhere?
With regards to used vehicle warranties, beware some are not actually 'warranties' but mechanical breakdown 'insurrance policies' the difference being that only major items will be covered (in your case if it is engine repair then that will be okay) or it may be that it will only pay a certain amount or a percentage of the repair (read the small print). If lets say it is not the engine but something like the injection system you will get some redress but I doubt all the cost of the repair, sorry.
I would however be most interested to hear how you get on.
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June 23, 2005

after about 1000miles after i bought the car it started showin engine oil light, so top up about half then after every motorway run about 80 miles the level would drop again quite abit, wen we revved up the engine on neutral it showed alot of black smoke comin from the exhaust, we assume it is being burnt and sent out thru the exhaust. we have just done complete oild change, and there isnt as much smoke comin out, but the engine is idling bad like it wants to stall wen travelling about over 40mph the engines very shaky. the cable where the accelerator pulls in the engine bay is very loose, also could the spark plugs be collecting the engine oil too. have booked to take it to nationalwide auto centre for a check up this monday under warrenty so hope they can shed some light on this. thanks

June 24, 2005

today me and my dad checked the spark plugs and it seems the 2nd plug to the driver side was all oily, the others were of dry yellow colour. the car was either running on 3 spark plugs as my dad says the engine was trying to stall before we wiped the oil off the oily plug, but after wiping it the engine ran smoother but started to blow black smoke out of the exhaust, it may seem that the engine oil is leeking into that spark and thus burning the oil and causing black smoke. does any1 know if this would be a big job and also if my 3 month autoprotect car warrenty would cover this (i am only covered up to £500 of repairs). any help or advise would be apprietiated. thanks