Tercel uses oil...

[Tamitoyo]

I just learned a lesson. I bought my 1996 Toyota tercel on ebay and got it home. I drove it home 2200 miles and was very impressed to get 42-45 mpg.
It has the 1.5L 16V, 4 speed and uses a quart of oil every 1000 miles!!! I changed the dirty oil and was really surprised to see the under side of the engine was dry - no leaks. The car doesn't really show any blue smoke when it runs. Also the car never gets hot, the temp gauge stays in the same place after it warms up to normal operating temp.

Is this normal?
Where could it be going?
Does it need a valve job or head work?

Thanks in advance!

[TercelFix]

Does it smoke when you floor it?
Did you check the rad fluid for oil?

[Tamitoyo]

The antifreeze fluid is a clear yellow and up in the middle of the low / full area.
From what I can tell there is no oil smoke, even when I floor it.
I did see in a few other posts this engine may be in need of some valve stem seals?
The car has 114,600 miles on it now.

When I first got it home the check engine light came on and the engine started cutting out, losing power. So I took it to a good shop to have it checked. Turns out the 2 spark plug wires were shot and $125.00 later the car was running smooth again. But the car was also giving a code from the EGR valve. The shop said these cars have a bent metel tube that gets clogged with a lot of carbon over the years. and to clean it or replace it. So I spent an hour in my garage, removed the copper looking tube from the egr valve and the eger valve and cleaned the tubes and the passages with a wire then I could blow thru them. I reassembled everything and cleared the check engine light by disconnecting the - battery cable. The car seems to drive great! but 40 miles after that the check engine light came back on. But the car still drives great!

I also learned this engine uses the odbc-II code reader. I checked the prices of these code readers and found them to be over $100.00. I don't have one. I read a post that the check engine light can be shut off/cleared by using a paper clip? Is this true?

Sorry for the long reply.

[Damage82]

Mine smokes when I first start the car up, my friends call it smokey! Also when I floor it it puts out a little bit of blue smoke. But as you said, no oil leaks on the ground.

[TercelFix]

No the paper clip trick does not work. What you can do is pull the OBDII fuse under the hood to reset the computer.

Look around in the posts and you will find others that had an EGR code problem, once you have checked out all of the EGR related stuff, check the MAP sensor, that is what the computer uses to check the EGR operation... Toyota also has a recall on that problem, high altitude use causes problems.