Another Oil Consumption Thread !

[celicavvti]

Hi all,

Bit of a sad story this but here goes, after years of running a battered old Toyota Corrolla and before that two Celicas (one a Gen4, the other a Gen 5) I managed to save enough money to buy myself a shiny gen 7 Celica. I thought I was getting myself a bargain as it was in good nick, leather etc, and drove like a dream, apart from a slight stutter when flooring it. Anyway, both me and the wife have fallen in love with the car, but after two weeks ownership, the thing has started to cough out lots of sometimes black, sometimes blue smoke and is using A LOT of oil. I've tried to go back to the private seller, who is having none of it and states the car was fine when purchased (which it appeared to be, no smoke, 12 months mot, serviced etc etc.) Now the car is a NOV 2000 model but an import with 106,000 miles, so i'm out of luck with the extended warranty everyone keeps talking about.

The wife is now getting angry with me as she thinks we've lost all our saving (which we might have done!), I just want to get this sorted with as little hassle and expense as possible, but the Toyota dealer wants loads of money just to look at it . . .

Do people think it'll be cheaper to do a whole engine swap (I can get a re-con item for £1000) or is it worth spending a bit of moeny on the engine and tey and fix it?

Any help would be greatful as i'm getting to the end of my tether with it !!!

thanks.

[T600]

Sorry to hear this, it sounds like you have been unlucky.

Personally I'd pay Mr T to diagnose the problem properly; how much do they want to do that? I'd expect them to have a pretty good idea of what the problem is inside an hour, and that shouldn't cost more than £60 or so.

For that I'd also expect a quote of how much work is required to solve the problem; then at least you have something to compare against the cost of a recon unit.

[midfieldwarrior]

It does sound like really bad luck. Personally though I'd do a trawl and see if you can't find a good independent specialist round your way first. They're almost certain to charge less than MrT and are far more likely to do a thorough job, as it's they're personal reputation that's on the line should they bodge the job. Whereas MrT can sometimes hide behind being the manufacturer franchise.

Best of luck.

[celicavvti]

Thanks, It's booked in on Monday at an independent diagnostic centre . . . .

I've also borrowed a compression tester from a mate so at least I should know if it's the bores / rings before I Shell out any more money . . . .

Strangely given all the problems i've got with it, I still love it !

I'll keep you posted !!

[EireCelica]

Sorry to hear that mate but was the slight stutter on flooring it noticable on the test drive before you parted with your cash ?? No modern engine should behave like that all being well.

[celicavvti]

Ok, good news and bad news !!!

I've sorted the stutter out (it was a dodgy spark plug) but compression tested the engine, and although the compression is all within Toyota limits (3 cylinders being as if it had just come out the factory!) 1 cylinder is 1.5 bar down on the other three. Going to start ringing around to see how much a engine rebuild is going to cost me . . . . .

Out of interest I see a recon engine for sale on eBay advertised as an avensis or celica / Mr2. I thought the avensis 1.8vvti had a lot less bhp than the celica 140 ? Has anyone any ideas about this ??

[T600]

I've sorted the stutter out (it was a dodgy spark plug) but compression tested the engine, and although the compression is all within Toyota limits (3 cylinders being as if it had just come out the factory!) 1 cylinder is 1.5 bar down on the other three. Going to start ringing around to see how much a engine rebuild is going to cost me . . . . .

Good luck. I hear they're scarce, but there are some about.

Out of interest, was the dodgy plug in the cylinder with lower compression? If so, could be being fouled by the oil perhaps?

[MickD1970]

I`m in need of an engine too< seen the same engine on eBay, not a full recon though!

Is the recon you can get a full recon and do you mind telling me where?

Thanks

Mick.

[celicavvti]

Mine's now booked in on the 3rd Dec, I'm getting a local well respected engineering firm to recon my own engine, I'm looking at £1000 + . . .

I did find a company that would pick your motor up from your door, fit a fully re-con engine and return it to you for £1400, however, spending this sort of money I didn't particuarly want to deal with someone who wasn't local . . .

If you're interested they're called uk-parts and are based in Birmingham (No idea what the engines or service are like though . . .)

[hrnybadboy]

hay dont worrie about it im having the same problem or worse hears my story

i was sick of driving near scrap motors so i saved up 4000 for a celica vvti 140 i found a nice 1 so went to london to get it half way home to scotland it started to use alot of oil so by topping it up every 3-4 miles i managed to get home the trip up and back ended up costing £300 so i took the car to the garage and after paying £300 to get the problem diagnosed it turned out to be a burned out valve in cylinder 4 and there was light scoring on the inside of the cylinder after getting about 3 or 4 quotes for a new engine and fitted i contacted the garage that i bought it from and thay told me to f**K off because i didnt take it back rite away :( so ive set trading standards on to them ........... after that i found a guy that said he could rebuild it for me for 850 so after getting quotes of 2000 - 3000 of the other garages i jumped at the chance 3 months l8er its had the valve replaced the gasket replaced all the other valves cleand and refitted still doesnt work rite and being a digger driver ive lost my job because i havent got transport im flat broke baby due in june and because of the stress ive just been diagnosed with high blood presser at 28 years old

so to cut a long story short chin up there is always some1 worse off

good luck m8

ross

[petrolhead]

the problem is with the piston rings sticking with cardon if it is only burning oil and not knocking and if the bores look ok re ring the pistons and glaze bust bores. is the cheapest way