I read with great interest the article “Oil-burning Altima…” in Saturday’s (12/26/09)San Diego Union-Tribune because I have a similiar problem. We purchased a brand new '09 Corolla for my Daughter. Being a tinkerer, I checked the oil level at around 2000 miles and found it 2 quarts low! I topped it off and checked it regurlarly and found that it went through about a quart every 800 miles or so. When I went back to the dealership they happily pointed out that according to the owners manual, that was an acceptable amount of oil to go through!!! I made them show me in the owners manual and sure enough it is written. I made them do an “oil consumption test” and it didn’t use more than a quart in 800 miles. I got them to document that fact plus a “metallic rattling” noise from the engine (probably the timing belt tensioner) which they “never heard of before” and we could not replicate the noise even after I left the car there two days in a row so we could start it cold when it usually is guaranteed to make that noise but of course it wouldn’t on those two days!
It still makes that noise but the oil consumption is now a quart every 2-3000 thousand miles.
Any ideas??
Thanks,
fj-40
The engine is now broken in, the rings have seated and a quart every 3000 miles is indeed normal…