My 2008 Camry Hybrid is burning a quart of oil every 1000 miles. I had been reporting to Toyota at my oil changes that it is going through oil. They never once told me this model has an oil consumption problem. I did my own research and found that Toyota is aware of this and was offering to fix it within a certain time period. My frustration is that when I was reporting this to the dealer I was within that time period of 10 years. I insisted they test it which of course it failed. Now Toyota is refusing to repair it. My question is now what to do with the car? It has 150,000 miles on it. It has been a great car so I hate to put it out to pasture. I’m aware of the class action lawsuits against Toyota for this problem but they still won’t budge.
Check the oil level regularly, add when needed and keep a quart of oil in the trunk and keep driving it.
It could last to 200,000 miles just like this.
If you want Toyota to fix it, you’ll have to hire a lawyer. If you want a little money back long after the car has been scrapped, join the class action lawsuit.
An 11 year old car that you like OK but it needs a quart of oil every 1,000 miles? Keep on truckin’ and check your oil level often then top it up. At $5/qt., the oil costs 1/2 cent per mile - not worth worrying about as long as you keep it from getting too low.
I agree with the replies saying to live with it.
If it were my 11+ year old car, and I were adding a quart every 1K miles, I would change the oil less often, since you’re continually replenishing it with fresh oil additives. Not everyone will agree with me.
If you aren’t using full synthetic oil, I would start using it. It might reduce the oil consumption. It worked for me on a lawnmower engine. Be sure the oil is of the correct viscosity. I have been able to purchase full synthetic oil at my local Rural King farm store under the Harvest King label for $2.79 a quart.
A quart every 1000 miles is not a problem. I was delighted when I had the valve stem seals replaced in my Ford Maverick and the oil consumption rate went from a quart every 300 miles to about a quart every 1000-1200 miles. My first car, a 1947 Pontiac used a quart every 250 miles. Now that is big boy oil consumption. I sold that car and bought a 1955 Pontiac where the dealer had just “overhauled” the engine. While the engine on that Pontiac didn’t use oil, there were all kinds of other problems resulting from that engine overhaul which consisted of new piston rings and grinding the valves.
Finally, I don’t think I would want the engine torn down to correct an oil consumption rate of a quart every 1000 miles. There is too much that could go wrong in replacing the pistons and rings.
I would add the following to the comments above. I agree with the “adding oil as needed” idea, but I would add to this be sure to use a premium oil filter if you want to extend the exchange intervals.
Also, note that you can get Mobil 1 synthetic in 5 qt jugs for about $25 at Walmart, and Mobil 1 now has a rebate in place where you can get $12 back on each of these jugs. Yes, the rebate will work with a WalMart receipt.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
My friend’s 2008 Rav-4 was consuming ~1 qt every 500 miles, and switching to Mobil-1 made no difference. In fact, the rate of consumption was almost identical, no matter what brand/type of oil I used in his engine.
Then, a couple of months ago I used a Target coupon to buy conventional Pennzoil at a nice discount. While this is completely counter-intuitive and inexplicable, ever since switching to Pennzoil conventional oil, the amount of oil consumed has decreased to a rate of 1 qt every 750-800 miles. While not a drastic change, it is an improvement.
I would keep up with the recommendations, adding good oil to dirty oil is not a winning recipe in my book.
I disagree. I think the oil change intervals could be extended. The oil in the crankcase
will be a mix of used and new.
My experience with my 1947 Pontiac that burned about a quart of oil every 250-300 miles was that after I changed oil, the consumption would be reduced to a quart every 350-400 miles for a while.
What is YOUR winning recipe . . . ?!
Keep up with the prescribed maintenance. Adding good oil to bad oil does not improve the quality of the oil that is in there. Kind of like you have sour milk, adding good milk to it does not make it any better.
This is wrong. The bad oil is diluted, reducing the percentage of
contaminants. The milk analogy is flawed: there are no bacteria
spoiling the oil that can infect the new oil.
I think you are mistaken. It was an analogy, there is still as much dirt in the 4 quarts, vs adding a new quart, the additives are depleted, Do what you wish with your car but not I would recommend. .period end. not going to argue with you.
Change oil every 5000 miles. Buy house brand oil the discount store that meets the specifications and viscosity for your Camry, add a quart when needed and you will make it to 200,000 miles.
Maybe , who knows .
Wouldn’t oil consumption at that rate cause the catalytic converter to fail?
@gdan29. My brother bought a used 1977 Cadillac Coupe DeVille in 1982. It had about 60,000 miles on the odometer when he bought the car. He put at least 150,000 more miles on the car. The entire time he owned the car it used about a quart of oil every 1000 miles. He never had to replace the catalytic converter.
That’s a good question. The answer is no. Many carmakers consider that level of oil consumption normal, or acceptable anyway. They would not get away with that if it damaged the emissions systems on cars in the US, or created significantly more air pollution. Oil, like gasoline, is a hydrocarbon and it burns - not as cleanly as gasoline, but those small quantities have little effect.
The simple answer is Yes, the oil would fail the cat… eventually. With 150k on the car already, it won’t matter. As @shanonia pointed out, it is a small effect. Now 250 miles per quart? Well, both the car and the cat would be on a short timeline.