Can I just keep adding oil?

My father in law went from black to white hair in 80 in like 3 months due to a 20k wedding for his eldest daughter. He regained some color later, but cars once the damage is done there is no chance of recovery.

@Marymax There have been many oil consumption complaints for the 4 cylinder (2AZ-FE) Camry. Toyota has redesigned the pistons to address this problem.

Monitor your oil consumption, it will likely increase. If it reaches 1 quart per 1,200 miles inquire about having it repaired. Toyota has recently provided a warrant extension for oil consumption on certain vehicles with the 2AZ-FE engine to 10 years/150,000 miles.

Ask a shop if the valve covers might be leaking too. Are there any signs of drips of oil on the ground where the car is usually parked overnight?

Good info from Nevada above, dB4690 has mentioned this too as I recall. Consumer Reports has a Car Reliability Guide publication that has many of the manufacturer warranty extensions due to manufacturing or design defects. You might want to look at a copy of that OP, see if there is anything about oil consumption there.

In any event, 3000 miles per quart isn’t a problem at this point. And yes, the solution is to check the oil level frequently and top it off as needed between changes. If you really wanted to pamper your car you could change the oil every 3000 miles, then no need for topping off. And your engine would purr like a kitten.

Triedaq
My first car, a 1947 Pontiac used a quart of oil every 250-300 miles. I was still able to drive the 350 miles from my house to graduate school.

How often did it foul plugs?

@auto-owner I didn’t have any problems with plugs fouling. I may have gone to a higher heat range, but it has been 52 years since I owned the car so my memory is a little fuzzy. I do remember it had a worn cluster gear and really howled in first gear, so I shifted to second as quickly as possible. The car had no rust, a very solid body and a clean interior. If I had had the time, I probably should have looked for a good used motor and had the transmission rebuilt.
The worst oil hog I ever drove was a U-Haul truck back in 1969 to go a second round of graduate school. We had a move of 110 miles. To save money, I rented the truck on a return basis. The tru k had “local use only” on the front bumper. The muffler was,shot so the truck was,really noisy. I had to double clutch shifting gears or the transmission would grind. When I filled up with gas to make the return trip, the oil was down 2 quarts. It used 2 quarts to go 115 miles. When I got back, the dealer had to add another 2 quarts of oil. I gave him the receipt for the 2 quarts I added and he took the 2 quarts off the bill. He just laughed and said “The truck seems to use a little oil”. We checked out the truck, loaded it, drove 115 miles, unloaded the truck and drove 115 miles back in one day. We spent the night in sleeping bags in our old apartment and drove back the next day. It was a cheap move and bad as the truck was, I appreciated the price break the U-Haul dealer gave me on renting me a local use truck.

I had a 53 Buick that burned 15 gallons (yes, gallons!) of oil between Southern Connecticut and Springfield, Ohio. The blue cloud out the back was remarkable, but I had no time and no money and I was young and stupid. In Springfield it sort of exploded at a traffic light, I had the compression checked, 2 cylinders of 8 with 0 compression. I ended up buying two used pistons with rings at a junk yard, pulled the pan and head and put in the pistons, no torque wrench, no new gaskets, just winged it and drove it from Ohio to Colorado, over Wolf Creek Pass, used 2 quarts of oil, and sold it for $40. Oh, to be 20 and young and just eager and ignorant. It was great! (Do you have any idea how heavy the head is on a 53 Buick straight eight?)

@Marymax, check your oil more frequently. If you drive about 12,000 miles per year, then you will be down a quart every 4 months. You should check your oil level at least once per month if this is the case to make sure your oil consumption does not increase. This will keep the engine healthy and provide many years of useful service.

@GeorgeSanJose

Yes, I have repeatedly mentioned the oil consumption of the 2AZ-FE engine. In fact, I’ve repeatedly mentioned the oil consumption of Toyota 4 bangers, in general

It is the reason why I bought a V6 Camry, versus a 4 banger Camry

Like it or not, this is nothing new. There are many people out there, who maintain their Toyotas very well, but have to frequently add oil.

Every manufacturer has its quirks, if you will. For toyota, it seems to be the pistons and rings

But overall, there’s nothing to worry about, in OP’s case. 1qt/3000 miles is completely acceptable.

Moving on, I agree with @keith that eliminating external oil leaks is very important. However, I believe that in a significant percentage of Toyota owners who have to add oil, it’s being used, not leaking away. In my case, for what it’s worth, and I’ve owned many Toyotas, it’s always been oil consumption, not oil leaking

My wife and I drive to a nearby town every Sunday that she is here. She found a doctor who can cure varicose veins with juice extracted from common vegetables.

Garlic; celery; carrots, and five other plants.

Her white hair has started coming out black.

At your last oil change, did you put in the same viscosity, type, and brand of oil? With tbe, non-synthetic oil, I could go further before adding a quart on Valvoline 10W 40 than I could on Sunoco 10W 40 on my Ford Maverick. My 1978 Oldsmobile never needed oil between changes no matter what brand of 10W 30 I used.
Also, I have had good luck so far with synthetic oil in my old push lawnmower. I decided to try synthetic 10W 30 instead of non synthetic straight 30 weight. The oil consumption is minimal and the blue smoke out the exhaust has disappeared. I don’t know if the synthetic freed up a stuck ring or what else may have happened. Our Rural King store had full synthetic under iits house brand RK label for $2.67 a quart. This was,$1 more than non-synthetic oil and it was a dollar well spent. I also bought a quart of 0W 20 to top up the oil if necessary in my Toyota. The label says it meets,Toyota’s specifications. If I weren’t so old and lazy, I would change my own oil and save money. At that price, I could do my own oil changes for less than $20_and still have enough for a couple of six packs.

Try a different brand of oil. I have always gotten different oil consumption results with different brands. I have been using full-synthetic for years. Mobil-1 is great synthetic oil, for example, but my cars have always used oil with M1 in the sump. With Valvoline synthetic, I get reduced oil usage, and with Amsoil, my car seems to use very little to zero oil.

Try a different brand at your next oil change. That said, a quart per 3,000 miles is nothing to get too excited over. It may have been the last oil change with the shop using a different brand of oil that brought this about, especially if you just get an oil change wherever they’re having a special.

“The oil consumption is minimal and the blue smoke out the exhaust has disappeared.”

End of an era. I’ve had many chuckles reading posts that mention that mower.

I have started running Rotella T6 full synthetic 5W40 in all my mowers that call for 5W30, 10W30, or SAE 30. The oil seems to hold up a lot better and the mowers sure use a lot less of it. I used to get lots of smoke under heavy loads in hot weather but this has stopped.

I recently came upon a FREE used riding mower that had been left outside to rot for 3 years straight. It was just sitting in the elements getting rained on and all. Obviously the previous owner was not too good about changing the oil. I changed it first thing once I got the engine running again and the old oil was quite nasty. I refilled with the Rotella 5W40. It smoked at first and used quite a bit of oil so I kept adding it. Eventually the oil burning all but stopped and the power and performance of the engine increased so I assume sticky rings from sitting and neglect eventually freed up. I changed the oil again at this point and this relatively new oil had obviously been working hard dissolving crud because it was very black after only a few hours of use. This change of oil hasn’t been in long but it seems to not be getting dirty nearly as fast as that last change.

I also run synthetic oils in my cars. This may be overkill in both cases but the peace of mind is worth it to me. I know some friends with Toyota 4 cylinders from that era that burned a lot of oil. I think one of these was made worse as the woman who drove it only added oil once the low pressure light came on. This car was traded in once the excess crankcase pressures blew out the engine seals and oil leaks became noticeable. This is just another example of a used car I wouldn’t want to end up with.