Oil Consumption Problem

[bhotshot007]

so !Removed! angry looking for advise - i cdid a service about 2 months ago oil oil filter pulgs etc..i put in 4 litres of oil duckhams - yesterday driving home my engine management light came on so i turned car off straight away - checked oil and nothing on the stick whats going on, this really concerns me.

i've bought a u381 diagnotic reader so hope this can give me some info - but maybe i need to take more drastic action - any advise welcome people - thanks in advance ;)

[Black Knight]

Can you confirm which light came on?

Engine management (orange engine one) or the oil pressure one (red oil can).

If you've no oil on the stick it sounds like it'd be the oil pressure light. If it is the oil pressure light sounds like your engine might be toast.

Have a read qround here about oi consumption problems. Guessing you've the 1ZZ/140bhp engine

[eddiew]

so !Removed! angry looking for advise - i cdid a service about 2 months ago oil oil filter pulgs etc..i put in 4 litres of oil duckhams - yesterday driving home my engine management light came on so i turned car off straight away - checked oil and nothing on the stick whats going on, this really concerns me.

i've bought a u381 diagnotic reader so hope this can give me some info - but maybe i need to take more drastic action - any advise welcome people - thanks in advance ;)

your Engine may be busted if you ran out of Oil!! Dont start the engine without adding Oil but even doing that may cause more damage, id ask a mechanic on what to do. By the time the oil light comes on your engine will already be toast. My celica uses about 1.3L per 1000 miles, lucky enough it has never ran dry and ive done 30K miles in 2 years since the problem started. it runs perfect and you would never know that its drinks oil, even passed the nct last month on emissions with ease! Its a very common problem for 2000-2002 celicas after 40-50K miles and toyota were offering a 7 year extended warrenty for cars with a FSH that had the oil drinking problem. They would replace the short block of the engine free of charge and that solves the problem.

As stated before there are lots of threads on this site and others about the problem. Most people just tend to get a 2nd hand engine to solve the problem if the engine has ran dry of oil rather than replacing the bottom of the engine.

good luck!

[classicpartsni]

hi there.the vvti engine from around 2000 until 2002/3,mainly the 1.6 and the 1.8 all suffered from this problem.these engines have an aluminium block and they all wear the bores once they reach the 40odd thou mark.this problem only gets worse once more miles go on them.the corolla and the avensis running this engine are prone for this also.this is a design fault by toyota and i know a few people who had engines replaced under warranty a number of years ago though this won't happen now as they are to old.we have a 2000 model corolla with nearly 100k on it thats doing the same,though i make sure it is always topped up and so far it is still going strong.most of these engines usually only quit because of low oil level,so keep it topped up and check the oil level every couple of weeks and i'd say it should be okay.hope this helps......

[eddiew]

hi there.the vvti engine from around 2000 until 2002/3,mainly the 1.6 and the 1.8 all suffered from this problem.these engines have an aluminium block and they all wear the bores once they reach the 40odd thou mark.this problem only gets worse once more miles go on them.the corolla and the avensis running this engine are prone for this also.this is a design fault by toyota and i know a few people who had engines replaced under warranty a number of years ago though this won't happen now as they are to old.we have a 2000 model corolla with nearly 100k on it thats doing the same,though i make sure it is always topped up and so far it is still going strong.most of these engines usually only quit because of low oil level,so keep it topped up and check the oil level every couple of weeks and i'd say it should be okay.hope this helps......

i have to say my oil consumption isnt getting any worse, it started at about 50K and its now at 80K and it still uses about 1 - 1.3 L per 1000 miles. The engine is still going strong somehow, no problems at all. I just top it up every time it gets to about 2/3 of the way down to the min mark from max mark. Ive probably just cursed myself now and ill be in a pool of smoke on the side of the motorway!!

[bhotshot007]

engine management light came on - after leaving it stopped for hour or more checked oil nothing on dip stick put in 4.5 litres checked this evening now its well over the max level - whats going on?? thanks for advice guys:)

[eddiew]

engine management light came on - after leaving it stopped for hour or more checked oil nothing on dip stick put in 4.5 litres checked this evening now its well over the max level - whats going on?? thanks for advice guys:)

i think the max mark is at around 4.0L as far as i can remember hence adding 4.5L would be too much and i suppose there was some left in the sump, well hopefully anyway. I would just blead off the excess.

[eddiew]

i think the max mark is at around 4.0L as far as i can remember hence adding 4.5L would be too much and i suppose there was some left in the sump, well hopefully anyway. I would just blead off the excess.

actually its 3.7L with filter change, 3.5L without filter change so 4.5 would be too much:

from celica workshop manual:

celica workshop manual

[ReaperGFX]

ive got the problem but so far been able to keep up with the drainage, personally after each top up i reset my clock and check every 200 miles i also tend to add wynn's oil additive to help reduce friction, helps a little bit

ive had my engine management light come on aswell when i was doing a long drive but luckily all my levels were still on the max and after a reset its never came back on ( touch wood)

if your engine isnt toast your looking at around £600- £800 depending on parts to get it fixed ( quote from a member on here)

which is cheap really if you look at the fact that if you blow your cam then your up over the 1k mark to get it sorted

[bhotshot007]

problem seems to have sorted itself - i had to drain about 2.5 litres of oil and engine management light hasn't come on since i took negative lead of Battery...i bought a U381 diagnostic reader so when i receive that it should give me some info..thanks for help guys much appreciated..great forum really full of good advice:)

[dns17]

Apologies in advance for going off topic, but does this oil consumption problem affect the year 2000 190Bhp VVTL-i ZZT231 engines? Only had mine a couple of months and oil consumption seems normal so far (touch wood!).

[Rackers]

IIRC it doesn't affect the 190. :).

[dns17]

Cheers for the reply Rackers!

[Scarlett Arrow]

Just get the Lift/Flange Bolts changed to the uprated type on the 190 :)