[dragonfly5]

Brand new here - 1st post - so forgive me if this turns out to be a common topic.

I have a 98 Corolla with about 230,000 kms on it. Generally I'm very happy with it except since about 130,000 kms it's been burning about 3 to 4 litres of oil between changes. Oil level is good for the 1st 2000 to 2500 kms from oil change - then it needs topping up until close to oil change time it can burn a litre in about 5-600 kms. No drips of oil on the driveway and the exhaust looks clean (no huge black clouds) - so it's going somewhere as it gets older.
Techs at Toyota say unless it's consistently burning a litre of oil every 700 kms - don't worry.
I've tried a couple of oil treatments(Lucas) to no avail.
Is this normal with this series on Corolla?? Is there anything economically I can do- or is it just a matter of watching the oil level and topping up???
Thanks in advance.

 

[Verolla98]

Hi and welcome,
I am new to this forum also. I belong to other forums like (trdforums.com,vvti.net,corolland.com) to name a few. This topic of oil consumption for 98-02 has been well covered. From my studying of this topic since i have the oil consumption issue also. I have learned that the oil is most likely being burned through leaks in the valve system or piston rings. Sometimes its the PCV valve located on the valve cover and also the it could be the valve cover gasket. So far to battle this oil issue i have changed the PCV valve, Valve cover gasket, Checked the car for leaks near the oil pan cover. So My last step in trying to reduce the amount of oil being consumed is i am cleaning my engine with a product called Auto-rx (auto-rx.com)which is a very good engine cleaner that will not ruin or mess up your engine by eating away at the gaskets and seals found through out the engine. The other thing i noticed on other forums is that our engines tend to get sludge if not properly lubricated through consistent oil changes. But i have heard also that even if you keep up on the maintence our engines can still get sludge. So i have conclude that my piston rings are stuck from gunk or at least i hope. My last resort if i cant fix the problem would be to replace or rebuild the engine. You could get a replacement engine from 300-1500 dollars depending on what you find. Make sure to check your oil levels more often like when you gas up. Keep oil handy and your choices would be to live with it as long as its not getting worse or try cleaning the engine out with auto-rx which i have heard good things about. I am in my first phase of using this product so i cant say if really works or not but from what i read it might take to cycles of using auot-rx to get my engine clean. Apparently this product can free up stuck rings and clean all the internal of the engine. Check out the website it has alot of good info. Good luck with the diganosis.