Starlet Sr Oil Loss

[fiskey]

I have a small problem with my Toyota Starlet SR, this is that it seems to go through a pan of oil a month. I have had my thoughts about the problem but none of them add up, these are as follows: -

1. Worn piston rings, but there doesn't seem to be any lack in performance, and no black smoke is being chucked out of the exhaust. The car has just been through an MOT and didn't fail on anything, so surely if it was buring this would have shown up. (since it needs filling each month too!)

2. Some kind of oil leak, I did a service on the car a few months ago, changing / replacing the spark plugs, air filter, oil and oil filter. But if it was due to an oil leak I would see some kind of evedense on the drive way, but I don't.

We have another Starlet in the household which was also service at the same time as the SR, and this has no problems at all, if anything performance wise the SR is alot more nippy than the Sportif, and it is a smoother ride (don't know if this is due to the Sportif having crappy tires )

Perhapps someone could give me some kind of an idea what the problem could be? The car has only done 46,000 miles (its on a S reg) compared to the R reg sportif which has done 87,000.

Thanks in advance

Tom

[toyotasera.co.uk]

what sort of oil do you use?

[fiskey]

what sort of oil do you use?

The oil used in both Starlets is Carlube 10w-30.

[Jim in New Zealand]

Excuse my ignorance, but, how much is "a pan?"

[fiskey]

Excuse my ignorance, but, how much is "a pan?"

Sorry, I mean oil up to the full mark and that it looses enough for the oil light to come on in about 30 - 45 days!

[Dub-Se7en]

the 5EFE in my starlet does exactly the same thing with exactly the same lack of symptoms - no smoke, oil patches etc.

interesting.

[toyotasera.co.uk]

try changing to a full synthetic oil.

[fiskey]

try changing to a full synthetic oil.

I used to use Castrol GTX Magnatec, but at £22 a time and having to fill it up each month started to hurt the pocket.

[toyotasera.co.uk]

Well its got to go somewhere. The exhaust isn't smokey is it?

[fiskey]

Well its got to go somewhere. The exhaust isn't smokey is it?

Not really, both starlets have very slightly black exhausts, but don't most cars? As I said in an earlier post, it has just been through an MOT and didn't fail on anything, we have also taken it to a garage and they connected it up to their machine and we were told that the results don't show anything out of the normal. I would have thought that if the oil it being burnt (bearing in mind that it needs filling up every 6 weeks) it would show on the emissions test?

[toyotasera.co.uk]

Magnetec isn't a full synthetic. Its a highly developed mineral oil with synthetic additives. I found that I did have an oil burning issue, but this was reduced considerably when I changed over to a full synthetic.

There will always be some oil which gets past the piston rings and down the valve guides and burnt off as part of the combustion process - this will increase with milage.

I'd try draining oil and replacing with a full synthetic and seeing how you get on for a bit.

[Jim in New Zealand]

:o I once had a car that burned 1.5 litres every 1000km :censor: . Some oil brands produced clouds of smoke at the lights! :ffs: The least consumed was Shell Helix 20W/50. But never use it in a good tight engine because it might fail to cool the piston undersides adequately. So, after a fast motorway flog you might hear incurable wheezing at idle (BLOW-BY) Tight engines stay tight on Pennzoil 10W/30 semi-synthetic.

[llawgoch]

try using a good quality 15w-40 in it . that wat i use in mine and it doesnt use much at all.

i put 10W40 in it but it used max to min on the dipstick in a week. with the 15w40 i it only uses bout a 1/4 of the dipstick every 3-4 weeks.