Oil Consumption

Try and do a pressure test on the valve cover/PCV. Bring the RPMs up and drop them off fast. See if there's a deviation in vacuum or pressure from established norms. Might have worn valve stem seals. I've seen this type of consumption on high(er) mileage 4-cyl Toyotas. Try and scope what you can of the valve stems too.

Advise them to switch to a good name brand grade of synthetic oil. Conventional oils have a common issue called burn off and shear. Synthetic oil minimize this problem from what I have seen. I am not aware of any piston ring issues with these engines. There are other makes (like Subaru) who have tried using low tension oil rings and they have been major issues.

I was thinking the same Glenn, had a Suzuki Grand Vitara I bought used with a 2.0L and it would guzzle oil, I used 5W/30 mineral like you and had to top up every few weeks to a month. I changed over to a synthetic blend 10W/30 Quaker State back then and never had to look back. The engine would keep levels till the next oil change. Can be all the other things being discussed here but play around…

So far the best mass produced oil I've found with the lowest volatility has been Pennzoil Platinum/Ultra Platinum. I've seen reductions in consumption in personal and customer cars of greater than 20%.

Have seen this problem on other high mile engines; oil drain back holes in heads become restricted, oil hangs up in heads/valve covers at cruise and runs down valve guides as well as PCV system sucking some oil up.

Time for half interval high-detergent oil and top tier fuel!

I have seen had previous Lexus engines that would require replacement of valve covers due to restrictions in the baffling for the PCV system. Personally I have not seen much oil consumption issues on this 2GR-FSE motor.

We had the exact same vehicle here with the exact same consumption issues. It would also occasionally smoke out the tail pipe. Dealer told him it was engine time. Based on our experience we suggested trying snake oil from only the finest snakes: i.e Liqui-Moly.(with no guarantee of course) But the stuff is cheap enough to give it a try. We did the service, had him come back a month later and…

Me personal car is a 2003 Highlander with the same concern. Does yours ever smoke at startup? Every once in a while mine will fog the garage. Most of the time it doesn’t smoke at startup. I’ve tried a couple of chemicals, as I believe the rings may have carbon buildup. It seems to be improving. Funny thing is, if you remove the valve covers, things are clean as a pin.

I would have to agree with Batista about the snake oil. Not saying the guys that suggested switching to synthetic are wrong but in my experience I've had a few customers that just wanted to switch and their cars started using oil so they went back to conventional, go figure?

Cmore, I know you're over at iATN too. Please give this a read and re-consider. members​.​iatn​.​net/forums/search…

How much oil is it using? 1 quart every 1000 miles is considered within acceptable limits for most manufacturers.

Good morning Rod, I can't offer you any experience specific to this engine. But I do have a few thoughts for you: You mentioned a borescope. You can inspect the tops of the pistons for oil wash. A piston top that is clean around the edge tells you that oil is bypassing the oil control rings and washing the edge. What about valve stem seal leakage? A good practice here is to pull the spark…