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By Bull6791, April 16, 2015



When did this engine first start with oil consumption. What was the problem and how was it fixed.

When did this engine fist come out in Toyota line up.

There is tons of information out there on excessive oil consumption on the 1ZZ-FE. Just do a search for it and you'll be swamped with tons of links. For completeness - I'll post what I've seen so far, but for more information - search the established topics online.

For the US market - 1998 was the first model year the 1ZZ-FE came out in. Since then, it has gone through a few revisions - VVT-I added in the 2000 model years, some variants used larger valve diameters, with the 2003 model year powerband was shifted with different cam profile and induction system. DBW and AFR came in the 2005 model year. Overseas 1ZZ-FE models actually have a TSB on a potential fix - that being replacing the pistons with revised ones. But many on this side found that didn't always "fix" the problem.

As for oil consumption - that is harder to pinpoint. Many that you'll run across on the net were pre-VVT-I models, 1998-1999 model years. There are a number that also seemed to reported in the 8.5 gen Corollas (2000-2002). Most of the 9th gen "seemed" to be unaffected with oil consumption, though there are a several posts with some early 9th gen (2003 model year) and a few DBW variants that seem to be afflicted with oil consumption.

Oil consumption is posed through several possible culprits. Most were due to blocked oil drain passages in the piston itself, some were related to stuck/broken rings, some were related to bad valve stem seals, some from heavily scored cylinder walls / damaged piston / warped head, some from external oil leak points (timing chain tensioner o-ring, timing chain cover, front/ream main seals, oil pan, etc.), some from poor maintenance (sludged engine, infrequent service), some from a combination of the above.

Fixes ranged from using a better quality of oil with appropriate oil change intervals, some involved piston soaks with a particular solvent, other had to do full rebuild / engine swaps.

I don't anyone has compiled the real numbers, aside from Toyota. Some people might be seeing oil consumption but not reporting it, on the flip side, some might see the car consume a normal amount of oil and believe they are seeing the start of excessive oil consumption. Whatever the case, it is likely a small fraction of the 1ZZ-FE actually had this issue - many, like myself, do not have any oil consumption on their 1ZZ-FE engines - compared to how many of these engines were released.

Because of the many ways this could present itself, there isn't a singular root cause for the excessive oil consumption - could be with faulty manufacturing / bad design to the engine being beat on when it was first delivered (before sold) / improper engine break-in.

Some people experience oil consumption right away, with some of the cases happening very abruptly and be extremely excessive (quarts per hundreds of miles) - some might start more gradually and be very progressive in consumption - start at a couple of oz of oil per oil change interval, usually never more than a quart every 5K miles for significant amount of time.

Note that ANY car can see oil consumption - just the nature of the internal combustion engine. Toyota, with their legendary reputation - anything like this will seem very excessive. I used to remember that my domestic cars used to drink oil like there was no tomorrow - carrying oil in the trunk was a normal thing and you just used to checking the oil levels every morning.

Now with reduced sump capacities, higher operating temperatures, extended/reduced maintenance schedules, tighter emission controls, more performance with smaller displacements, etc. - all these lead to the oil being punished a lot more than it used to be, even though lubrication tech now is a quantum leap better than what it was even a few decades ago. With only a small amount of oil to work with - it is actually more critical for owners to keep up with maintenance.



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