sudden high oil consumption [2010 IS250 auto]

[Orku5]

Hi,

I had a quick look, but didn't found anything.

Background Info:

Bought myself back in November 2020 a 2010 IS250 with 93k on the clock - right now the car has humble 164k on the clock.

I have no issues with the car, I or my local mechanic do service on it between 6000 and 10.000 miles and she runs fine; however, this year I started noticing that the car is using/burning oil, but I don't have any black nor white smoke. Car has no power loss or anything.

In April, on a trip down to Sheffield (I live in Scotland) I got the 'low engine oil' warning the first time ever since I own the car.

I pulled over, and oil was below the lower mark, so I topped it up and when back home I did an oil service. I use 5W-30 full synt by Mannol. I use Mannol since over 10 years in all of my cars, never had issues; and I drive a lot.

2 days ago, the same again - warning and dry like a Martini.

I have no idea where the oil is going as I don't have black nor white smoke; there is no oil under the car, nor is anything oily what would indicate a leak.

 

 

[steve2006]

If you start the engine then remove the oil filler cap is there any blow back from there?

[Orku5]

8 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

If you start the engine then remove the oil filler cap is there any blow back from there?

Of course there is, but nothing excessive what would indicate a hole in the piston.

In idle I can 'seal' it of with my hands and barely any oil splatter.

So, just checked his video; 1.1l every 1200 miles oO

 

 

[ColinBarber]

22 minutes ago, Orku5 said:

I have no idea where the oil is going as I don't have black nor white smoke; there is no oil under the car, nor is anything oily what would indicate a leak.

Most likely it will be burning it but not enough to cause grey/blue smoke. Probably it is carbon build up on the piston rings that will start to let oil past.

[DamianLEX]

Considering this car value and potential expensive repair I would just get rid of it asap.

Its just no point digging in this engine when you can buy same car low mileage for a little more. 

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Gabriel. Colin could well be right regarding carbon build up. UK cars don't usually build up carbon unlike the American ones do. 

If your mechanic has an endoscope (small camera on a flexible lead) then simply remove an easily accessible spark plug and poke the endoscope down the hole and see what is down there.

Carbon build up would be very obvious.

Apart from that wait to see if Linas pops on to give his opinion, he's very knowledgeable about the is250. 

[Spock66]

You could try some engine oil flush treatment.

[Linas.P]

Few things you can try:

1. Engine flush - may unstuck the rings.

2. Stick to 6,000 miles services, when I had IS250 with 160k+ miles and burning oil I noticed that majority of burning happens after 6k miles. Up-to 6k miles it would be something like 0.4-0.8 litter, but after 6k miles it would burn like 2L to 10k. 

3. Switch to thicker oil, I have used Mobil-1 Extra-Longlife 0W40, which is basically upgrade to 5W30 in all posible ways and it eliminated burning altogether.

Apart of that sounds fairly standard for high-miles IS250, that has not received services every 6,000 miles it's entire life. They get stuck rings, because those rings are already low tension/friction and they don't need much. I doubt there is actual damage done to the engine, I have seen inside of even 200k 4GR-FSE and they even have cross hatching... obviously to unstuck the rings without dismantling the engine is really hit and miss, kind of luck more than science. In theory frequent oil changes and flushes could do it over time, but also if you always do 6k services you may not have issues anyway, so not sure it even matters if they unstuck or not. 

[steve2006]

11 hours ago, Orku5 said:

Of course there is, but nothing excessive what would indicate a hole in the piston.

In idle I can 'seal' it of with my hands and barely any oil splatter.

So, just checked his video; 1.1l every 1200 miles oO

 

 

Reason I mentioned it was, the crankcase breather valve is known to fail which could increase pressure and cause excessive oil blow by.

Direct fuel injection doesn’t help when it comes to carbon build up