I have a 2008 Camry LE and have had the same engine oil consumption problems since around 30k. Contant complain not only went undocumented, but I was also told it was normal to burn up to a qt every 1000k.

I finally got them to scope the engine and they found excessive carbon build up on one of the cylindar heads. At that time they told me I needed a valve job... When they pulled the top to do the work, they found the cylindar walls to be damaged. TQC was called in to do an inspection, and they would not authorize any warranty coverage until they pulled the bottom to perform further inspections (at a cost of 10 labor hours for me, on top of the 6 already committed to).

At this time, I need an entirely new short block and I still dont have committment from Toyota that they will honor the warranty. Not only this, but they have not been able to tell me the root cause of the issue in the first place. So I run the potential of not only being stuck with the engine replacement on my own, but a repeat of the same instance occuring because they can't tell me what happened to begin with.

Point being is that if you are having these issues, dont buy into the its "normal" arguement. You will end up losing your engine in the long run and in my experience good luck getting any sort of coverage.

This is my fourth Toyota, and will absolutely be my last.

 

Suggest you get together all your service records such as oil changes, etc.

My opinion is given the number of others having this problem, Toyota Corp has a very good idea of the cause but the dealer is dancing around the issue hoping to burden the customer with the repair costs.

Showing the engine had the proper oil changes at the required time and mileage interval allows you to state the car was properly serviced. It would help if there was a record of your past complaints about the oil consumption.

To others out there with the same problem, insist the dealer record your any complaints you have in the cars service records even it they dismiss it as "normal." Make your own record of the time of visit, problems, who you talked, problem resolution (if any).

I have been suggesting people write the President of Toyota North America stating their concerns. I doubt if you will get satisfaction but also doubt top management has a clue as what's going on and how this is causing bad PR for Toyota and lost future sales.

If writing be polite, anger is just a turnoff. Give them an chance to make it right, but state politely if no satisfactory resolution your next car will not be a Toyota.

This tread has had thousands of views (11000 plus). Highly unusual!!!!!!! Thus there must be others in the same boat.

Mr Yoshimi Inaba
President and COO; Chairman and CEO, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
9 W. 57th St.
Ste. 4900 Fax:
New York NY 10019

Phone: 212-223-0303
Fax: 212-759-7670

 

I have the '08 Camry SE and have now officially noticed that oil is used to a greater extent than it should be between changes. If Toyota doesn't address this, I would be surprised. I had a '90 model Toyota Truck that had the 3VZ V-6. Toyota broke it down and put new head gaskets on it just because it might leak - it wasn't leaking. Now, they put the company on the line because apparently a a whole buch of short blocks or pistons or rings or something ain't meshing together. Yeah, it would be a big one. But what costs more, fixing it or seeing all these Camry owners go and buy an Accord when they have to park the Camry out back with the blown engine.

 

The 3VZFE engine may have been the subject of a recall or campaign. The engine had issues with head gasket failure. The oil consumption issue may not have reached this point yet.

At least you don't have an earlier year engine now having issues with pulled head bolts due to a design flaw.

 

The 3vz engine wasn't in the "may hve been subject to a recall" mode. It was subject to a campaign. Toyota then had a sterling reputation and did what was right, even to the point of surprising the Toyota owner. I think this entire trumped up governemt inspired sticky gas pedal issue has taken the wind out of their sails for now. To formally admit a block problem on the heals of the government attempting to take them down more than a few notches to bolster Government Motors sales would only further the problems. In another time, Toyota would have been all over this.

 

As more then one auto industry analyst has stated Toyota has had quality problems for years (not untypical for a car manufacturer). The difference was no one was listening as Toyota's stiller reputation overshadowed these problems. Over time these problems caught up to its reputation and now the king has no cloths in the eyes of the buyer.

I don’t think Toyota is concerned about its reputation being tarnished further by taking care of the head bolt or oil consumption issues. A back door fix would be to issue a TSB covering these items, then when a customer complains the dealer would be empowered and encouraged!!! to fix the problem. TSB’s work on the basis if the customer does not complain, they never know about the TSB. Thus Toyota’s rep would be safe, as typically only those affected by this problem would know. And not all engines have a head bolt or oil consumption issue.

Toyota corporate management seems disconnected from these types of problems, perhaps they don’t even know about them. Toyota engineering does know as they redesigned the block, pistons, etc to help alleviate the problems on future engines.

In not acting, the grumbling by the customer just grows from a whisper to roar. Look at the number of hits for this thread 11000 plus. That is a highly exceptional number for hits for a small and remote car forum with limited membership!! Thus someone is searching for answers then finding and reading this thread.

The issue is if Toyota management fails to act, the problems just becomes larger as more engines age and are affected. The result can be a class action lawsuit or a large consumer organization or automobile media review outlet presenting the data in mass making it look like Toyota was hiding something in an attempt to make more profits.

Once the trust between a buyer and seller is broken it is not so easy reestablished. The millions spent on PR to reestablish trust may have been better spent taking care of problem when it started to emerge. However not be an accountant, maybe in the long run Toyota is still saving money alienating some customers and saving millions by refusing to pay for repairs on what are obvious design problems. This stated not making an exception of Toyota as many corporations are run the same way. But it was Toyota that implied they were doing business differently.

 

Just joined the forums because of this thread. My 2007 camry 2.4 uses almost 2 quarts every 5000 miles. Started noticing it around 45k now at 75k

 

Does anybody have the phone number for Toyota help on this issue? The dealer just wants to add oil when it gets a quart low. I live 35 miles from the dealership. That will cost me about $7 a trip just for oil.

 

See link below:

http://www.tundraheadquarters.com/bl...roblem-solved/

As the poster states, if possible work the dealer side until exhausted, if going over their head they may give up.

Another good site is Toyotanation.

Check your state to determine if it has arbitration on failed warranty issues.

 

My wifes '98 Camry (2.2L) uses about 1/2 qt. between 3000mi. oil changes. I figured it was normal for a high mileage 4 cyl.. I have gotten used to adding 1/2 qt between oil changes. I have oil changes done at Jiffy Lube and they are putting Quaker State (not my favorite) in it.
I had a '94 Toyota 4x4 with the 3vzfe V6. I didn't know about the recall until after I bought it. My local dealership worked with me beautifully. When I took it in for 30K servicing, they replaced the head gasket at same time under the 'recall campaign'. It worked out great as it saved me a fortune on the 30K servicing as much of the work was covered under the campaign. Ended up costing me just under $200 for 30K servicing, which as anyone with a 4x4 can tell you is usually in the $600 to $700 range. Plus I got a new head gasket. I never had any problems with the motor, aside from it being very gutless for a V6 with a 5sp.