Hi ! This is my first post here.

I got the first 2007 Camry SE 4cyl at my local dealer in March of 2006. I bought it for myself as I had a long commute. I used it for about a year and put about 26,000 on the car with regular synthetic oil changes at express lube every 5,000 miles. Them my wife started using it and one day on the way home she called to tell me the oil light was on so I told to pull into the gas station and it took 3 quarts. I called the dealer and they said they would do an oil change and then to come back and if it was low they would probably rebuild the engine under warranty.

I really didn't wan't a brand new car to be all disassembled and rebuilt so I just started adding about a quart of oil every 1,000 miles or so. After my wife used it a few years we gave it to my older daughter for school and she used it for 2 1/2 years and now my younger daughter is using it but we have been driving around with a case of oil in the trunk for all these years and the car now has 145,00 miles and is otherwise perfect and has had no problems whatsoever.

So anyway we got a recall notice about the oil consumption and brought the car in to get an oil change to do a consumption test and it's been driven 1,200 miles now and we are due to bring it back tomorrow and I'm almost certain that they will need to replace the rings which they said were the problem on the recall.

Is there anyone here who has done this and is there going to be any other expense or problems or anything I should know about this process ?

Thanks

 

Welcome to CF.

It is not a recall but a warranty enhancement. Recalls have no time or mileage limit as to when a repair can be done, a warranty enhancement does. In this case the warranty enhancement is until Oct 31, 2106 regardless of miles. Or 10 years from the date of first service or 150K miles which ever occurs first.

Your car seems to have 26K miles and should be covered.

This oil consumption issue has be around for a LONG time. Toyota originally issued a service bulletin stating if the oil consumption was less then 1 quart per 1200 miles, this was deemed normal. They would then do nothing to help.

After much customer complaint and a class action lawsuit, Toyota finally stepped up to the plate with this extended warranty.

The service bulletin below:

http://assets.carcomplaints.com/docs...SB-0094-11.pdf

Your dealer is now having you preform the test outlined is this service bulletin. If they find the oil consumption is less then 1 quart per 1200 miles they will not rebuild the engine at this time. If greater then 1 quart per 1200 miles they should implement the warranty fix free of charge.

From your writing it appears the consumption is 1 quart per 1K miles.

In order to qualify for the warranty as this time, the engine needs to be using more then 1 quart per 1200 miles. If your engine is not using this much oil they dealer will do nothing at this time. If in the future and before the extended warranty expires, it does become greater then 1 qt per 1200 miles, the warranty will apply.

The extended warranty states there is no charge to the customer. If the dealer tries to charge you show them your copy of the extended warranty your received and or call Toyota customer support. The phone number is in your owners manual.

If your engine qualifies, then do the repair as there is no other fix to solve the problem! This is in your best interest. If the oil consumption currently not high enough, keep taps on this until it because greater then 1 quart per 1200 miles.

Before going to the dealer, take your own measurement of the oil level. This to make sure it matches what the dealer tells you.

 

And to add in on the great info above:

Your recommended oil is probably 0-20, although the engine spec is really built around 5-30. Thanks to CAFE, Toyota went with 0-20 as the new recommendation despite, from what I have read, some issues with their rings and oil drain holes in the pistons. Some have stated that they burn less oil when moving up to 5-30.

I started consuming far more oil between changes once I hit around 140k or so - shocked me when not much more than a quart came out once, when prior it was always several quarts that drained out. Let the dealer do their thing, but if they reject you and state your consumption is not high enough, you can try out 5-30 instead of 0-20, and may consider doing a treatment. I ran a quart of Kreen from KanoLabs through my oil to help get rid of some of the gunk and (hopefully) stabilize the rings/gaskets better. You can follow my thread on it here: https://www.camryforums.com/forum/ge...e-after-49921/

 

Unbelievable !

So my daughter drives the 1,200 miles for the consumption test and I ask her to check the oil and take a picture before she brings it back and it's low as expected. The service rep calls me and said his Tech checked and everything is fine. I tell him that it's low and we have a picture and he says that's because we should check it while the engine is running... true story. So after arguing with the guy I tell my daughter to leave and I check the oil and it's a quart over full after the car sat not running for 2 hours. So it's pretty obvious to me that they just added oil back in and they are trying to run the clock out.

 

Some dealers can be SOB's especially with women, although this never stopped them with a man either.

Suggest formulating a plan of attack.

Find out if the engine is burning over 1 quart per 1200 miles? Toyota is not going to fix the engine if not exceeding their oil consumption specs.

Run your own test. Use the recommended oil weight for your climate temp. Calibrate the dipstick to find out where one quart low is. I assume normal oil level is between the two holes in the dipstick? Check your owners manual for oil weight and dipstick high/low level.

If you are having a shop change the oil, ask them to calibrate the dipstick. A decent shop should be well aware of this engine oil consumption problems.

Read up on how the dealer is supposed to run the test. See link below:

http://assets.carcomplaints.com/docs...SB-0094-11.pdf

If burning more then 1 quart per 1200 miles you have a few choices.

Find out if you can join the class action lawsuit by assume Richard D. McCune, Jr. of McCuneWright LLP. This was around 4/1/2014. The internet is filled with posts like the one below:

Toyota Hid, Refused To Fix Oil-Guzzling Engines, Suit Says - Law360

Have another test done at the same dealer or another. Not all dealers are the same.

The extended warranty states nothing about how many tests can be done. One can assume as the engine gains more miles it will use more oil. This problem does not fix itself.

File a complaint with Toyota and open up a case file. The owners manual should have a phone number for Toyota customer support. Note: The dealer you dealt with will not like this.

Talk to the dealer in person who blew you off stating the owners manual shows to check the oil engine off. That you already ran your own test. And that you don't appreciate this kind of service. Be polite but firm. Dealers have a lot of latitude in doing repairs or not.

You can try another dealer as not all are the same. Some like warranty work, others not as when Toyota is paying the bill they make much less profit or even none.

You need to find out if the engine is burning excessive oil per Toyota.

 

When she took the car in initially they changed out the oil even though I had just had it changed about 300 miles ago at express lube. I actually believe that when the Toyota dealer changed the oil, they added an extra quart because I would have expected the level to be much lower than what my daughter's reading showed. Now the level is at least a quart over again. I think that you're right about when they see a 20 year old girl or any woman, they try to take advantage so I am going to have to do this myself which is a royal pain since my daughter lives about a 1/2 hour away and has a crazy schedule with school and work.

 

So, prior to the start of the official Toyota oil consumption test the dealer changed the oil and added an extra quart?

The dealer may have wanted to change to the official Toyota recommended weight of oil but overfilling the engine is of course underhanded and not per the service bulletin directions.

That is why suggesting doing your own test. There is no sense getting into this issue now if the engine is not using more then 1 quart per 1200 miles.

Suggest you educate your daughter as to how to use the dipstick to measure the engine oil. Also given the engine burns a lot of oil, you don't want the engine to run low on oil between oil changes. One quart low is OK, 3 quarts as has happened to owners due to excessive oil usage is not OK.

If my kid and car, would have them over and I would change the oil myself. Then when refilling, mark the dipstick with an engraving tool each time I added a quart of oil or maybe 1/2 quart as the dipstick measurement may not be linear with how much oil is in the engine. Do this until the engine was full. When adding oil making sure it had time to drain from the head to the oil pan. Ditto when checking oil level during the test.

Then the driver can see for themselves if the oil level is dropping and how much and record this plus odometer reading in a logbook. Use the same weight as recommended by Toyota for the climate temp. If the oil ever got too low, of course add more oil, but one quart low is well with in safe parameters. Then you will know what consumption the engine has now and a have base line for the future.

Yes, a pain in butt to deal with but if the engine does have excessive oil consumption, either now or in the future prior to the extended warranty expiring, Toyota should be able to be forced to repair it. This issue has been going on for years and I assume hundreds if not thousands of car owners were told by Toyota to just deal with it as they would do nothing to help. That's why the class action lawsuit happened. This engine has known major problems (the oil consumption being just one).

Why Toyota seemed to go backwards in quality from the tried and true 5S-FE model previously used in Toyota for say 11 years is unknown.

 

All good stuff here. I would add a few things.

The filter used will have an effect on how much oil it takes to bring the mark up to the F line. If the filter is placed on dry, you have to crank the engine to allow oil to fill the filter - meaning the level on the dipstick will change between a look before you crank and after. Take a look at a Toyota OEM filter compared next to say a Royal Purple filter. The RP is very much smaller, so holds less oil in it. When I put in a RP filter on my Camry I put in about the same amount of oil I always do (actually added .5 quart extra by accident), but that time the dipstick read a fair amount over the F line. I figured it out as less oil in the filter meant more in the pan, plus my extra .5 quart.

I like toyomoho's thinking on engraving the dipstick. Excellent thing to do on an oil change. Drain that bad boy dry, then check the dipstick to make sure there is no reading on it. Put in exactly 1 quart and wait several minutes to allow the oil to matriculate down to the pan. Mark the stick. Repeat. Generally speaking this should give you an excellent idea of exactly how much to add when you drain and change the filter. Plus, you can overfill by .5 quart and mark it to see how much higher it goes on overfill.

Those lube places are dangerous in my opinion. Way better to change your own oil. Autozone and other places like it take your old oil for free. I have had those lube joints leave tools in my engine compartment, and no telling how much they actually put in. Our Camry's don't exceed the 5 quart deal they have, but I have heard stories about Tundra and other trucks that those places try to state they had to put in 6+ quarts (up charge) when the manual states otherwise.

How certain are you they put in 1 quart extra? I don't think there is a linear way to measure off the dipstick, due to the shape of the pan, etc. If you engraved the stick with an extra .5 then 1 quart on an OCI you would have a fairly good mark to measure against going forward.

It doesn't surprise me they did an oil change. They need to make sure it is OEM oil at the proper spec and (theoretically) the exact proper amount. That is why I am wondering how you gauged 1 quart over, as if they did that they are being shady big time. That is letter writing time to the manager, copying in Toyota central.

Good luck on this moving forward!

 

Both my daughters know all too well how to check the oil and add because they don't live with me and they have been doing it every 2 weeks for the last 4 years. I am going to see how long it goes now before having to add again. After looking at what's involved with the repair, I still have reservations about letting any dealership do all that. There is no equivalent to a factory assemble engine imo. The down side now is that all of this will show on a carfax should I decide to sell. I may call Toyota America and speak to them too.

 

Still suggest doing your own oil consumption test and dip stick calibration. You need to know yourself what the oil consumption is or the dealer is always going to have the last word.

The alternative to a dealer repair is a rebuilt as used engines can have the same problem unless the repair was done. These engines are not cheap used and expensive rebuilt or to rebuild if having you engine repaired.

As to Carfax, the repair should increase the cars value as the engine will have been almost rebuilt by the dealer who to most buyers is deemed a reliable repair source.