Oil Consumption

[toyato]

There is an ongoing saga with my avensis and its steady but slowly increasing oil consumption.

Does anyone have any answers to the following ? If so please reply.

- Normally when the oil level is measured with the dipstick, you can not do that just after you've driven the car, as part of the oil will be 'in the engine'. Correct me if I am wrong, but for a proper reading the car needs to cool down in order to let the oil settle. Well now, if that is correct, then how can (toyota) garages accurately measure oil consumption over a certain distance (meaning: measuring how much have been consumed since it has been topped up) right after I've driven my car there to allow them to do so. Isn't part of the oil 'in the engine' right after the ride ? Do they correct for this at all ?

- Toyota garage seem to fill up right to the 'high' level on the dipstick. Not keen on doing that myself when I fill up the oil as I am afraid of overfilling it. Is this easily done ? Is there another way to tell upto where you can safely fill it up perhaps ?

Would be good to know as if I know how to fill it up to exactly the maximum level everytime I top it up, then I could monitor the oil consumption that way myself perhaps.

- Last measured consumption was ca 0.75 ml for ca. 1100 miles, which apparently is still within Mr. T's specifications. However this is up from half a liter per 1200 mile since the last time it was checked (8k miles ago). With just over a year of extended warranty remaining (02 reg with just over 50k miles on clock) do you think I should start making an issue of it as otherwise the real problems will occur after the extended warranty expires ?

- I've been thinking of letting an independent garage monitor the consumption as I don't know how to do that myself - can anyone on here tell me how toyota garage measure the amount of oil exactly and if it is easy to do it yourself.

Thanks for your help.

[bjw]

This oil consumption issue is a well known problem with the Avensis( 2001-2002) which seems to start at around 40,000 miles if you do a search on here you will see numerous threads regarding this .

I myself would let Toyota monitor this problem as provided you have maintained your full Toyota service history Toyota should help out as they have done in the past for other customers .

Hope it helps

[Black Knight]

It'll only take a few minutes to drain sufficiently for them to get an accurate reading.

The safe point to fill the oil level to is the full mark. you wouldn't be doing any harm though to over-fill by 10mm on the stick and that'd mean your arm slipping and sticking in an additional half litre of oil

[albapatriot]

Hi Toyato

Sadly this is a big problem with certain Toyota engines. I speak from experience because my 2003 Avensis T4 1.8 VVTi has had the dreaded oil consumption problem. I bought the car in April this year and discovered the problem 4 weeks later. I had gone through 3.5 ltrs of oi in 1500 miles!! I got invaluable advice from other forum members on here and did my research. Toyota did not want to know and made out they knew nothing about the problem or that there was an extened waranty of upto 5 yrs or 100,000 miles on affected engines provided the car has a full Toyota service history (which mine did) I sort legal advice and was told to take the car back to the garage I purchased it from because I had up to 6 months (with it being pre-owned. 12 months on a new car) under the sale and supply of goods act and it was the garages responsibilty to fix or replace the car. I had the car tested for oil consumption over a 1000 miles and the garage agreed there was a problem because they had to put a further 1.5 ltrs of oil in. They took the car in and did the short-block engine, new oil filter & oil. I drove the car for 500 miles and then took it back for them to check & change the oil & oil filter again. I have since done 2747 miles and the oil has not moved at all on the dip stick or changed from its clear colour. So hopefully the problem has been solved and sorted for my car. I was disgussed with Toyota's attitude to this problem but thankfully Carcraft whom I had bought the car from were great and didn't quibble about fixing the fault. To quote the guy I dealt with he said "No you bought the car from us, we have inherrited a problem and its our problem to fix for you" I even got a courtesy car and a full vallet on my car from them. My car was fixed within 4 weeks of discovering the problem. Alas I fear if I was waiting for MRT I would still be waiting!! it took some members on here 12 months to get their oil consumption problem fixed by Toyota. I am now a happy Toyota owner again but no thanks to MRT though

Good luck with yours.

[silverarrow]

well done and good for carcraft

they had big problems and have been on t.v with poor customer service and wrong prices for car sale on line and different at the show room

as for the toyota and oil problem we all know mr t has a list of the faulty blocks BUT will not do a re call

we need lemon laws like the usa

[Black Knight]

Why would they do a recall?

They're replacing problem blocks at over 5 years/100,000 miles under warranty if there's a complaint. It isn't a safety issue (such as the steering column problem that's often heard about on here). You have a problem and it gets sorted, if you don't have a problem then what's the problem?

[albapatriot]

well done and good for carcraft

they had big problems and have been on t.v with poor customer service and wrong prices for car sale on line and different at the show room

as for the toyota and oil problem we all know mr t has a list of the faulty blocks BUT will not do a re call

we need lemon laws like the usa

Well unfortunately Toyota were decidedly not interested in my oil consumption problem when I contacted their head office and my local dealer was none too helpful either. My car was 3.5 yrs old when I bought it on 5th April and the fault was discovered on 6th May. The car has a full Toyota service history and they were not interested. Had I bought the car from a Toyota garage then they would had to have fixed it under the sale & supply of good act. But perhaps because i bought it else where is why they were totally disinterested. Thankfully my car is fixed. I can honestly say that Carcraft were ok with me. I did haggle on my trade in price etc and felt I got a fair deal and I love the car.

I do agree though that a recall should be made on all the VVTi engines affected. We all spend a lot of money buying these cars in good faith and if Toyota are aware there is an ongoing problem they should fix it. If they are not prepared to do a mass recall (which obviously they are not) then do the decent thing and when a car presents with this problem and has been diagnoised with it following tests, fix it with out arguement. Lets face it, its not a few but a lot of cars and not just the Avensis either. They should not make owners jump through hoops and beg them to fix what was already faulty at the time of purchase. This fault only begins to appear around 40,000 miles on adverage 4 years of age so outside of maufactures warranty. I called Toyota GB HQ and they would not accept that there was a 5 yr or 100,000 mile extended warranty on the 1.8 VVTi engines with full Toyota service history. I just met stone wall after stone wall. Lucky for me I found the fault 4 weeks after I purchased the car from Carcraft and I had the protection of the law in the sale and supply of goods act. I believe the cost of the short block replacement is approx £2,700 !! I never had to throw my weight around and invoke my rights under the sale and supply of goods act. I agree lets get a lemon law !!

I am very happy with my Avensis now and aware that all manufactures make cars with faults but its how those faults are dealt with from a customer satisfaction point of view. When the time comes to replace my Avensis I'm not sure i'll be replacing it with another Toyota again but you never know. One thing I do know is that following this experience I will always buy from a garage/dealership so that legallyy I am covered dispite what the maufacture is willing to do for you.

[kavensis]

well done and good for carcraft

they had big problems and have been on t.v with poor customer service and wrong prices for car sale on line and different at the show room

as for the toyota and oil problem we all know mr t has a list of the faulty blocks BUT will not do a re call

we need lemon laws like the usa

Well unfortunately Toyota were decidedly not interested in my oil consumption problem when I contacted their head office and my local dealer was none too helpful either. My car was 3.5 yrs old when I bought it on 5th April and the fault was discovered on 6th May. The car has a full Toyota service history and they were not interested. Had I bought the car from a Toyota garage then they would had to have fixed it under the sale & supply of good act. But perhaps because i bought it else where is why they were totally disinterested. Thankfully my car is fixed. I can honestly say that Carcraft were ok with me. I did haggle on my trade in price etc and felt I got a fair deal and I love the car.

I do agree though that a recall should be made on all the VVTi engines affected. We all spend a lot of money buying these cars in good faith and if Toyota are aware there is an ongoing problem they should fix it. If they are not prepared to do a mass recall (which obviously they are not) then do the decent thing and when a car presents with this problem and has been diagnoised with it following tests, fix it with out arguement. Lets face it, its not a few but a lot of cars and not just the Avensis either. They should not make owners jump through hoops and beg them to fix what was already faulty at the time of purchase. This fault only begins to appear around 40,000 miles on adverage 4 years of age so outside of maufactures warranty. I called Toyota GB HQ and they would not accept that there was a 5 yr or 100,000 mile extended warranty on the 1.8 VVTi engines with full Toyota service history. I just met stone wall after stone wall. Lucky for me I found the fault 4 weeks after I purchased the car from Carcraft and I had the protection of the law in the sale and supply of goods act. I believe the cost of the short block replacement is approx £2,700 !! I never had to throw my weight around and invoke my rights under the sale and supply of goods act. I agree lets get a lemon law !!

I am very happy with my Avensis now and aware that all manufactures make cars with faults but its how those faults are dealt with from a customer satisfaction point of view. When the time comes to replace my Avensis I'm not sure i'll be replacing it with another Toyota again but you never know. One thing I do know is that following this experience I will always buy from a garage/dealership so that legallyy I am covered dispite what the maufacture is willing to do for you.

If you had problems persuading HQ to solve your problem, then mine's already trashed! I 've had my car for almost 2 years, and I've been praising it for having an engine that would last forever... Well, it would last for a long time, then 2 weeks ago I was on the road with a contractor following in his van behind me. When we reached our destination, he says to me, "Your cars smoking a bit, there mate!" Since then the smoking had become progressively worse. I'd topped up the oil that weekend. The Thursday of following week I thought I hadn't put enough oil in the car, and so topped it up again. Last Friday 3 August, my car went in to my local garage to have a new cat. fitted. The machanic took the car for a run, came back to the garage and found the oil level had dropped by quite a lot.

My concern is that I bought my Avensis via a finance company in October 2005. Part of the agreement on the warranty is to service the car regularly twice annually (didn't need to) by any qualified garage machanic. Also the finance company did not receive the service history from the previous owner. The car was checked over before I bought, and was serviced by the same garage ever since 2005. What can I do? I did my research before obtaining this car, the reviews were near on excellent. I chose this Vermont because I do a lot of mileage and thought I would take the hard work. I might have to consider selling the car if Toyota can't help.

I once had a Celica Supra which smoked when you put it into overdrive. The person I sold it to stripped it down, couldn't find anything wrong then put it back together. "It drives fine", he said to me. Oh woe!

[Black Knight]

Whilst it's easier if you have the full service history from Toyota (since then they know it was serviced as per their recommendations) it should be ok even if you have had the servicing done by someone else so long as you can prove it was done correctly. You'll need receipts for EVERYTHING though. Parts, labour, the works.

Then it'll probably be just a case of how hard you push Toyota

[albapatriot]

What I suggest you do is get proper legal advice. Your home or car insurance may offer a free legal advice service. I was able to get my problem sorted very quickly because I had only had the car a month so I could invoke the sale and supply of goods act to get the problem fixed. With cars you can only use that act in the first 6 months for a pre-owned vehicle or the first 12 months for a brand new car and it does not apply to general wear and tear which would be expected on a vehicle dependant on its age etc.

Because you have owned your car past the first 6 months you will have to get legal advice and becasue you have finance on it perhaps the finance company can get involved. It's going to be a long slog but you should be able to do it. So don't give up if you can prove that the car has had its regular services, and Toyota parts were used, is under 5 yrs old and has no more than 100,000 miles on the clock you should be able to make them fix it.

Other members of this club have been able to get Toyota to fix their cars. It did take one guy about 12 months but they did eventually fix it. It costs approx £2,700 depending on who does the work to replace the short block engine.I know Carcraft couldn't get any where with Toyota. They kept getting told that there was no problem with the VVTi engine ! I was told by service manager at Carcraft that when they ordered all the parts from Toyota to replace the short block engine on my car that the VVTi engine was the only engine which Toyota kept a full stock of parts for and they do not keep parts for any of their other engines. So much for Toyota GB telling me that they knew nothing about any problems with the VVTi engines!!

I was also advised to get the cat checked because obviously the oil consumption can caurse oil to be burnt through the cat which damages it......I think I have that correct? Anyway my car wasn't burning oil and the cat checked out ok.

Good luck getting your car fixed and I hope you manage to do it. Let us know how you get on.

well done and good for carcraft

they had big problems and have been on t.v with poor customer service and wrong prices for car sale on line and different at the show room

as for the toyota and oil problem we all know mr t has a list of the faulty blocks BUT will not do a re call

we need lemon laws like the usa

Well unfortunately Toyota were decidedly not interested in my oil consumption problem when I contacted their head office and my local dealer was none too helpful either. My car was 3.5 yrs old when I bought it on 5th April and the fault was discovered on 6th May. The car has a full Toyota service history and they were not interested. Had I bought the car from a Toyota garage then they would had to have fixed it under the sale & supply of good act. But perhaps because i bought it else where is why they were totally disinterested. Thankfully my car is fixed. I can honestly say that Carcraft were ok with me. I did haggle on my trade in price etc and felt I got a fair deal and I love the car.

I do agree though that a recall should be made on all the VVTi engines affected. We all spend a lot of money buying these cars in good faith and if Toyota are aware there is an ongoing problem they should fix it. If they are not prepared to do a mass recall (which obviously they are not) then do the decent thing and when a car presents with this problem and has been diagnoised with it following tests, fix it with out arguement. Lets face it, its not a few but a lot of cars and not just the Avensis either. They should not make owners jump through hoops and beg them to fix what was already faulty at the time of purchase. This fault only begins to appear around 40,000 miles on adverage 4 years of age so outside of maufactures warranty. I called Toyota GB HQ and they would not accept that there was a 5 yr or 100,000 mile extended warranty on the 1.8 VVTi engines with full Toyota service history. I just met stone wall after stone wall. Lucky for me I found the fault 4 weeks after I purchased the car from Carcraft and I had the protection of the law in the sale and supply of goods act. I believe the cost of the short block replacement is approx £2,700 !! I never had to throw my weight around and invoke my rights under the sale and supply of goods act. I agree lets get a lemon law !!

I am very happy with my Avensis now and aware that all manufactures make cars with faults but its how those faults are dealt with from a customer satisfaction point of view. When the time comes to replace my Avensis I'm not sure i'll be replacing it with another Toyota again but you never know. One thing I do know is that following this experience I will always buy from a garage/dealership so that legallyy I am covered dispite what the maufacture is willing to do for you.

If you had problems persuading HQ to solve your problem, then mine's already trashed! I 've had my car for almost 2 years, and I've been praising it for having an engine that would last forever... Well, it would last for a long time, then 2 weeks ago I was on the road with a contractor following in his van behind me. When we reached our destination, he says to me, "Your cars smoking a bit, there mate!" Since then the smoking had become progressively worse. I'd topped up the oil that weekend. The Thursday of following week I thought I hadn't put enough oil in the car, and so topped it up again. Last Friday 3 August, my car went in to my local garage to have a new cat. fitted. The machanic took the car for a run, came back to the garage and found the oil level had dropped by quite a lot.

My concern is that I bought my Avensis via a finance company in October 2005. Part of the agreement on the warranty is to service the car regularly twice annually (didn't need to) by any qualified garage machanic. Also the finance company did not receive the service history from the previous owner. The car was checked over before I bought, and was serviced by the same garage ever since 2005. What can I do? I did my research before obtaining this car, the reviews were near on excellent. I chose this Vermont because I do a lot of mileage and thought I would take the hard work. I might have to consider selling the car if Toyota can't help.

I once had a Celica Supra which smoked when you put it into overdrive. The person I sold it to stripped it down, couldn't find anything wrong then put it back together. "It drives fine", he said to me. Oh woe!