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Oil Consumption

by Bull6791, March 11, 2015



I have a 07 CAMRY that is consuming/burning oil.

What I wanted to know is if I do a couple of short oil change intervals with high milage/ diesel engine motor oil and use a good filter would the rate at which the car is consuming oil go down.

Or would the leaking oil slow up.

All depends on how the oil is being consumed in the engine.

If it is like most of the 2AZ-FE engines, then short oil change intervals with a HDEO (heavy duty engine oils) will likely do little to nothing, in terms of stopping oil leaks (mechanical issue) and slowing the oil consumption (again, likely mechanical issue).

Better off running the recommended oil API (0w-20,5w-20) and checking oil levels more frequently - with heavy oil consumption - everyday before you drive is not unreasonable. Running low on oil is worse than that brand of oil you run.

Fish

I know Pennzoil platinum and mobile 1 are good oils. Would it be worth it to spend the extra money and get these good oils and also good filters when my 07 CAMRY is consuming oil.

since I do not have a lot of experience with cars consuming or burning oil I am asking these questions: like what would be better In this situation 3000 or 5,000 OCI ALSO what would be better synthetic or conventional oil.

Thanks.

Never hurts to get good oils and filters, regardless if the car is consuming oil or not. Same with synthetics or conventional or blends - pick whatever you want, regardless if it is consuming oil or not. Only thing that might influence owners is from a cost standpoint - all depends on how quickly it is consuming oil.

As for oil change interval - all depends on how quickly the car is consuming oil. The interval is set by how much protection is left (TBN and TAN) in the oil and how high the insoluables are (contaminants that are to be filtered out of the oil).

There is no "recipe" that is set in stone on how to handle all cases of oil consumption. As I indicated in an earlier post - it is not the type of oil, brand, type of filter, oil change interval, etc. that will grossly affect the overall outcome - it is making sure that the crankcase is always topped off as oil is lost through consumption or leaks.

As I recall - you lost a fair amount of oil at one time before you noticed on the Camry. As long as that doesn't become a habit - you should get a fairly long lifespan from the car, as long as you stay on-top of routine maintenance and make sure the oil level doesn't drop too far again.

Let's look at two theoretical cases:

One case, you might only notice that it drops a quart every 5000 miles. IMO, not too terrible of a situation, that was considered pretty normal for a car with a lot of miles on it. Whatever oil/filter/oil change interval you were using in that case - I see no reason to change to something else. If you want to try a different filter or different oil - no problem. Feel free to experiment - all driving by whatever budget you set for maintenance. At this level of oil consumption - trying a higher mileage oils, piston soaks, etc. - might have some effect, or atleast a better chance of doing something. But don't expect a magic bullet sort of fix - as every situation is unique. Some might see oil consumption drop, some might see it actually increase - most will see little to no change. Just make sure you check every time you fill the gas tank - you should be pretty safe.

Second case, you might notice that the engine is just guzzling oil, a quart every 500 miles. That point, nothing short of a rebuild will fix that oil consumption. If it was my car - from solely a costpoint perspective - I'd just find the cheapest oil I can get my hands on and make sure to keep the crankcase full. Since I'm refreshing the oil so often, might actually be able to stretch out the oil change interval. Though it is still safer to stick with whatever I was running before. Only (UOA) used oil analysis can tell you how long the oil / filter can run - can't really guess on this situation. This isn't to say that using a quality synthetic oil or filter in this case will be totally ineffective - just from a cost standpoint, IMO, the money would be better spent to put toward a future engine rebuild or a replacement car. A car can run a VERY long time, even burning oil at this rate, as long as you keep the crankcase full of oil. There are people that have oil consumption ever worse - a quart every 100-200 miles, and they've been able to limp along for 10s of thousand of miles - just keep a case of oil in the trunk and fill up when they need it.

Fish

What I have to do is actually see how fast the car is using oil. By that I mean I have to see how many miles I am getting before I have to add oil. That way I know what I have and I will have a better idea of what I want to do.

Correct. You have to find out how quickly you are losing oil. Note mileage, amount of oil shown of dipstick, when you checked it, anything unusual (driving conditions, average speed, etc.) - without any hard numbers of knowing what you engine is doing - you can't treat it properly.

At this point, you are putting way too much worrying into potentially nothing. Even though this engine is known for oil consumption - it does not automatically mean that you will have oil consumption issues. Every engine is different, every situation is unique. Start monitoring oil levels and mileage and eventually get those consumption numbers back to us.



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