6G Celicas Forums

all but the long one in the very front.



I brought it back into the shop at work today. it wasn't busy so instead of having someone else check it like last time I had someone rev it while I checked the back myself. theres white smoke and it smells like its burning oil I'm going to switch back to regular oil and dump some ATF in it and see if that improves it at all. maybe do a compression test. I don't know what else to do

I still think its not enough smoke for the amount of oil its burning. I'd try the valve seals only if Manny wants to help me but if its the piston rings I'm not even going to mess with it, I'll just keep putting oil in when it needs it for a few years until I have the money to do a swap of some sort.


ps. this makes me very sad

This post has been edited by hurley97: Jan 10, 2007 - 11:44 PM

[qoute]I'll just keep putting oil in when it needs it for a few years [/qoute]

I have been doing this for the last 50k miles and nothing has changed...car still runs the same as it did when i bought it with 140k and I still get great gas mileage. haha... its indestructable! Also when it warms up use some thicker oil and it will slow it down some. I also notice the harder i drive the car the more oil it uses.

This post has been edited by bufferdan: Jan 11, 2007 - 10:24 AM

Incase we're counting here, mine does the same thing as well. GT with 177,000 miles on it. Gets great mpg, never smokes, and runs fine.

the car still runs great. even one of the mechanics I work with that looked at it for me didn't believe my mileage was that high, said it looks and runs incredible other than the oil burning.

the thing is, its always burned a little oil. it used to go through a little less than 3 qts every 7k miles or so. that I can deal with. its just recently that its gotten much worse and I'm afraid it'll only go downhill from here

did a compression test today. all four cylinders read at 225. Dustin says it may have read high if the engine was cold, I can't really remember if it was. good part is that its consistent and if it was cold and read high then the proper reading is probably about normal (as opposed to being cold and reading normal which would mean the accurate reading would be low) ... hoping I'm assuming correctly

AND now the CEL is on.
(I don't know if it makes a difference but I just installed the GT-4 rear strut bar today so I drove the car around the parking lot kind of hard, parked it for about an hour, and next time I got in and started it the CEL was on)

It's not funny, I just have had mine come on a couple times.
Both times after driving on rough roads(paved). I had it reset once
and it was the #2 oxygen sensor. I didn't do any thing the second time and it
went off by itself. When in doubt, blow the carbon out.

my car burns oil and blows blue smoke when you first start it up in the morning then goes away. I hope it doesn't effect the performace of the car

Is it hard to do valve seals? The kit is like $30 some isnt it??

our cars must have bonded in the factory or something. its like that thing where when twins are separated at birth but they still encounter similar problems at similar times...
I'm going to check it today, if its the O2 sensor I'm going to laugh




I'm not absolutely sure cause I've never done it before but I'm pretty sure its not as hard as piston rings. but nothing is too too hard with these small engines.

the seals themselfs are cheap, its all the work involved to get the old ones out, and the new ones in that makes it a "no-fun" job.
you basicly have to dissasemble the top half of the head to get the seals out (t-belt, cams, buckets, valve keepers, ect,ect..)
then actually have the tools to get the seals in and out properly.
turns it into a 800$ toyota job.

My car has close to 190,000 miles and uses about 1 1/2 quarts of oil every 3,000 miles. I get a puff of smoke sometimes when I crank it up, but I never have any other problems with it. My problem is old, leaky oil seals on the pistons. This may be your problem along with the valve oil seals.

what does the ATF do for it? and is it really safe to do that? im not very smart

it'll clean out the engine, its like a detergent... which I'm not sure that I want cause then it could leak from more places.


theres small leaks from my valve cover gasket. that will be changed out today and I'll see if it helps any.

check the rings. mine was leaking past the rings but no sign of oil burning. Only found out the rings were fried when i desided to disect the engine myself.

so I'm pretty sure it's burning oil cause it's not leaking from anywhere. although it doesn't smoke as much as I would think it should. I'm told it smokes a little when I shift (up or down). the smoke is white and as a slight smell to it. it also happens when the car is cold and I start it up, then goes away and runs clear at normal idle/temp

now what I want to know is EVERYTHING it would possibly be related to so that I can take the motor apart and replace anything and everything I can. I don't want to take it all apart and just do one thing and have it not make a difference.

so I know I should go for piston rings and valve seals, anything else?

If anyone's keeping track, I'm almost to 100k, and I go through about 1 qt of oil every other fill up. Nothing's leaking, but I drive everyday to work at ~75mph, which keeps the RPMS around 3,800. I'm guessing valve seals.

A couple of other things can cause this.

Clogged oil control rings [oil scraped off the cyl wall can't drain, so get's burned]. This is caused by too long between oil changes, so as long as you know you've kept up, it's unlikely.
Worn valve GUIDES.

Easy way to see if your valve guids/seals are leaking.
Pull the manifold and look at the valves. If they are gunked up, most likely it's from that.

How do your plugs look?

If you did a compression test and got 225, it sounds like you've got a lot of carbon in your cylinders. Or you cranked the ****e out of it.
How many times did you crank it for each cylinder?
You should've done 4.
Did you have all 4 spark plugs out and the throttle plate wide open?

Also, if your rod bearings are badly worn they can cause oil consumption at high engine speeds. Too much oil gets thrown onto the cylinder walls, and has the same effect as clogged control rings.

Also, high rpm driving will burn more oil regardless of engine condition.

Here are 2 interesting facts to ponder [I had to go back to my text book for the exact numbers ]
If 1/1100 of a drop of oil gets past each set of piston rings on each stroke [remember, 4 stroke engine], you lose 1 QUART every 1000 miles. Will obviously vary with engine speed.
Imagine half a drop per stroke.....

If you drip a drop of oil every 30 feet, you lose ~ 3 quarts every 1000 miles.

my plugs looked fine last time I checked them (maybe a month ago)

I think they cranked it a lot doing the compression test, it was done at work so they kept calling me to the front for one reason or another so I'm not too sure the specifics of everything that happened

I have been doing a lot more higher RPM driving the past few months


I have to find some time to bring it to you one weekend

This could be a major part of your problem. When I met my GF she lived about 60miles away and I would drive to and from a couple of times a week. I started noticing that I was having to add a half a quart between oil changes. I got worried due to the recall on later 5s's and called a friend of mine who is a Tech at a Toyota dealership and he specifically asked me if i was taking very many long trips during the problem time. I was amazed that he was able to diagnose it like that but he was right.
Now my GF lives with me and so I'm back to my old driving habits and no burning oil.
His explanation was: The hotter/longer duration oil temps cause the water in the oil to burn off therefore lowering the volume of oil.
That plus your higher mileage and worn seals is probably adding up to your total problem.
Hope this helps ease your mind.

when you do a compression test and it seems low try to pour some oil through the spark plug hole and test again, if it still leaks its the valves if not its the rings