Scotty, there's several recalls on 2006-2008 Toyotas and several service bulletins on 2009-2012 for oil consumption. There's even more chatter on the latter due to no recalls.
2011 Rav4. 115k miles. Never had reason to check oil between what has always been no more than 6k miles between changes until recently. 3 months and 3,000 miles after last change the oil sensor shut me down making a left hand turn (with traffic coming...). Took it to mechanic and we see there was less than a quart of oil left. Said he's seeing this more and more. No blue smoke. No leaks. Spark plugs are fine and PCV valve is good. No nothing except the missing oil. He says he feels it was due to the amount of highway miles we had driven recently - oil getting through the piston rings at higher RPMs.
Plan: Refilled the oil. Will check frequently. Will switch to Mobil Synthetic High Mileage at oil change in 1,000 miles time (so he can see what if any oil is used in that time). Will also add ATS Oil Treatment 15 minutes before that next oil change. Anything else you'd add to this plan?
THX!
Don't waste your money on ATS oil treatment. Check your oil once a week minimum. The rings are bad and you'll just have to live with it.
You might also change your PCV valve even if the old one appears to be good. If original it's over a decade old.
Unfortunately most manufacturers seem to regard oil consumption up to 1 quart per 1000 miles as "normal". Part of this is due to the switch to low-tension piston rings in engines years ago to meet gas mileage regulations. They don't seal as well as the old-school tight fitting rings. This even resulted in sludging problems in some engines early on because the additional blowby overwhelmed crankcase ventilation systems. What your mechanic is saying has the ring of truth to it.
Thank you Chuck. It is amazing how short sided some things turn out to be. A quart per 1,000 seems nutz right? But he says he sees it day in and day out with some other vehicles as early as 50,000. This totally was a wakeup call and 100% indicates that you have to check oil these days and...change it more frequently than recommended because oil is cheap but...
Scotty talks a bit about the problem of low-tension piston rings in the video he just posted about a new RAM/Fiat van, around 2 minutes in. Of course I expect the problems to be worse on a Fiat engine when it gets older than it would be on a Toyota.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjWJPK_jBnQ&t=110s
How much stiffer are old school rings compared to more modern rings? I have a piston from a 2011 Journey's Pentastar V6 that I found in the junkyard and the rings are pretty easy to squeeze in by hand.
With old-school piston rings you need a special tool (a ring compressor) to push pistons into the bores. Pretty much impossible to do without it. From what Scotty has said with low-tension rings that's not really needed. (Though I imagine it's still easier with the tool.)
Chuck - Thx! Saw the video and...it's as if it was upped just for this!
As an aside (and a nod to issues in Toyota as well) - neighbor with 2004 Camry gets all her service done at the dealer. Her service advisor, who she's been with nearly 30 years, told her yesterday, "Keep this car as long as you can. Things started to go downhill 2008+"
Is this a Japanese thing? In my whole life of GM vehicles (some with close to 200k miles), none of them burned even an ounce of oil.
Thank you sir.
You are welcome
So checked oil every 2 weeks for 1000 miles. It burned 1/2 quart during that time (but no highway driving). Scotty thinks it's worn due to long oil interval changes but we never went longer than 5,000 miles.
Did the ATS oil treatment. Damn strong stuff. Mechanic said his eyes watered as he drained the oil.
PCV valve? $8 bucks from the Toyota dealer BUT? It's a 3.5 hour job. Thx for that design Toyota. Jeeze.
Doc - you were right. AST didn't help. It was only after that attempt that we read through the car's manual to find Toyota insanely stated two things: A) Both city driving (frequent acceleration and deceleration) and highway driving (high speeds) will increase oil burn. (So, basically...driving a Toyota increases oil consumption 😧) and B) The acceptable rate of burn before you should see the dealer (new car)? 1.1 quarts per 600 miles!
4 years of using Penzoil Ultra Platinum and topping off with 12-24oz every 400-600 miles has seen that number slow. Currently at 600miles on most recent oil change and still at the top dot.
As an aside we were getting an evap code. I bought a new gas cap from Toyota and gas mileage as increased from (city) 16-19 to 19-22. Now with 150k on the dial...