Yup, that’s when I recommend removing the engine and doing a complete reseal top to bottom including head gaskets. That usually sets them straight. The cost of that repair will buy a lot of quarts of oil to top up between changes.
Sometimes repairs like that are required, but it’s quite rare. I had a customer with a 12 year old Kia Sportage. It would just “sweat” a little oil, leave a spot smaller than a dime in the parking spot. But the condo management had a strict rule about no oil leaks in the parking garage, so we pulled the engine and resealed everything.
I also once had a guy with a Powerstroke in his E350 complain about spots of oil in his pristine garage. I referred him to a diesel specialist.
Did they accidentally let the vehicle overheat at the shop? If not fully filled with coolant, it could have overheated the head and damaged the valve guide seals. Then they felt guilty and wouldn’t answer the phone.
I have a family member with a 2002 Chevrolet pickup truck. The dealership he’s always taken it to for repairs/maintenance informed him recently that they are “no longer interested in working on anything over 20 years old.”
You need to go to a garage where the mechanics are old enough to buy a ■■■■ (over 21…). The new younger techs just do not have the experience or even the knowledge to work on vehicles older than they are…
Back about 5-years ago, I had our '85 Toyota at the dealer and I had removed the air cleaner and was explaining to the service writer how hard it was to change out the radiator hoses on the back of the engine.
A service center employee of some type (he had on the same uniform as the mechanics…), looked under the hood and asked what the “two barrel carburetor” was and I said (with tongue-in-cheek) it’s “Tunnel Ram Induction…” and he remarked he had never seen one before… the service writer rolled his eyes and we both had a good laugh…
It’s not a matter of finding a mechanic who can work on an older vehicle.
It’s the wisdom of working on an older vehicle. Sometimes adding a quart of oil every 6 months to a 300K miles engine is a whole lot better than opening it up to “fix” the leak. That was my point. And I also suspect that’s why the mechanic I mentioned didn’t want to work on anything older than 20 years. Too many other things can go wrong.
I would eliminate the word “sometimes” from your advice. As has already been stated, the consumption of 1 qt every few months is considered to be “normal” for engines on some brand-new vehicles.
Even if the vehicle in question is consuming more oil than it used to, the bottom line is that this rate of consumption is not excessive, and the remaining life of a 26 year old vehicle with 350k miles is… let’s just say… not infinite… so spending big bucks on this type of repair just doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense–or at least it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
They didn’t offer to fix the consumption rate, they offered to fix the leak, so oil doesn’t drip on the floor. The oil leak would likely be ounces per year, the consumption rate would stay the same.
Maybe it is the wisdom of owning an older vehicle; choose your repairs. Also, we don’t know if the oil leak was a fire hazard, the OP didn’t tell us what was leaking or repaired.
I don’t know if this affects this particular engine, but I have seen Toyota engines that have a half moon disc at the back of the head where the camshaft ends. It can easily fall out when replacing the valve cover gaskets allowing oil to drain on to the exhaust pipe.
If debris or sludge falls onto the head during the repair and blocks the oil return holes in the cylinder head(s), oil will pool on the head and leak past the valve guide seals.
The cylinder heads for the V-6 engine have large drain holes so this is unlikely to be the cause.
I struggle to understand why a professional mechanic would recommend even $2k worth of engine repairs on a vehicle with this kind of mileage, let alone $4k worth of repairs. At this point, if the rest of the vehicle is in good condition, and it’s a model which is worth putting money into, they should have recommended a remanufactured engine instead.
OP stated the truck was in excellent shape and only using 1/2-quart between oil changes
Seems anything spendy related to the engine simply wasn’t justified, imo
Sounds like the shop upsold unnecessary work on a fine-running truck, really botched the job, took $4k from the customer and returned a vehicle in infinitely worse shape