I’ve got a 2005 Toyota Camry 2.4l 4 cylinder that burns a lot of oil. This seems to be a common thing with these because of the pistons oil holes getting clogged. bought the car with 228k miles now it has 256k. Runs great except it burns oil. Opened the oil cap whille it was running and a lot of air and mist was shooting up. was wondering if anyone has tried soaking the pistons in b12 or something as I’ve heard that might help unclog the pistons. Thanks
It might help, but with 256k on the odometer, there is likely to be a lot of engine wear causing high oil consumption, in addition to those badly-designed rings. It’s worth a try, but don’t be too surprised if it doesn’t help very much.
Soaking the pistons won’t work. The holes you’re trying open up are below the compression rings.
What you want to try is adding something to the oil that reaches the holes.
I would try this.
Tester
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That makes sense. thanks I’ll give it a shot
I would try a heaver weight oil, my buddy’s Mazda 3 6speed manual was burning oil and he went up in weight and it stopped burning oil, this was about 5 years ago or more, still driving it…
Define “a lot of oil”. How many quarts per how many miles?
Change out your PCV valve for a new one.
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Patrick:
Given your above statement, it’s your compression rings that are either worn or stuck/gummed up. Your oil rings may be clogged and gummed up as well.
Try Tester’s recommendation above. If that doesn’t work, then Davesmopar’s suggestion of going to a heavier weight oil can be a good bandaid to get you whatever you can from the engine.
Two questions:
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What weight oil are you currently using?
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As cigroller asked, how much oil are you burning? (E.G. how many miles before you need to add 1 quart?)
And yes, as cigroller noted, change the PCV. It’s a cheap and easy triage step.
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she’s burning about 1 quart per few hundred miles. probably close to 300
I put in a brand new PCV valve and a valve cover gasket recently with not much improvement (the inside of engine had some browning but not too much sludge)
just trying to slow the oil burning before something bad happens because it runs great despite 256k miles
using the cars suggested oil 5w-30 and topping it up when it burns some. going to change the oil soon so i’ll try some high mileage sea foam. thanks
Hi Patrick:
We’re missing a key piece of information, which is how much oil are you burning.
Let’s ask it a different way.
How much oil do you need to add every thousand miles?
Is it a quart for every thousand miles? Or about two quarts?
Hey, yeah it burns about 1 quart per 300 miles give or take. Smokes when started and smells like oil. I top it up and have changed it often, but seems like the pistons have been clogged
Thanks. That is excessive.
Follow the steps noted in earlier replies.
Yes, he should, but as I had mentioned earlier, he shouldn’t be too surprised if none of those measures has a significant effect. My friend’s 2005 Rav-4 began consuming an excessive amount of oil by the time that it got to ~ 100k miles. I replaced the PCV, switched to a “thicker” oil, and even resorted to using Restore, but the rate of oil consumption never got better than 1 qt every 300 miles, or so.
Thanks ya’ll I appreciate it
I would also add that you should change your pcv valve.
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changed the pcv about a year ago. the exhaust is definitely coated in oil so might do that again. thanks
You need to be prepared for the probable need to replace the catalytic converter in the near future.
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Try 10w30, with 250K miles on the engine, all the clearances are greater then when new and the 5w30 was recommended, if the 10w30 slows it down, but still burning some, add 10w40 when topping it off to see what happens… You are way past the point of hurting the engine changing the weight of the oil…
Me? I would run some Marvel Mystery Oil in the oil for the last top off before changing the oil the next time…
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Why substitute 5w 30 with 10w 30?
It’s still 30 weight oil when the engine gets up to temperature so the engine is going still burn oil at the same rate.
Tester
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