Here's Why Toyota Engines Consume Oil. Tear down and Repair.

A Toyota Master Diagnostic Technician disassembles a 2.5L 2AR-FE Engine to investigate the Cause of oil consumption.

Folks, Here's why Toyota Engines Consume Oil.... I have been shouting my lungs out telling you to follow the recommendations from Toyota FULLY not half way. Please pay close attention to the conditions in which you operate your engine, as many conditions will revert you back to 5000 mile \ 6 month oil changes.

The owner of this car missed that part and ended up with a mega expensive repair as you will see in this video.

This video walks you through the whole process of a Classic Toyota Oil consumption engine repair at a Toyota Dealership. Is Toyota to blame? I don't think so. I'd say Toyota clear recommendations in the maintenance guide were not followed by the owner that's why this engine consumes oil.

The engine in question is the 2AR-FE I4 2.5 L found in many popular Toyota models like the 2010-2017 Toyota Camry, 2012-2017 Toyota Camry Hybrid, 2009-2018 Toyota RAV4, 2016-2018 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, 2013-2018 Toyota Avalon Hybrid. A Brother engine to this one is the 1AR-FE which also has the same issue if the maintenance is not followed. That engine is also popular in cars like the 2011-2020 Toyota Sienna ( 4 cylinder model ), 2008-2019 Toyota Highlander ( 4 Cylinder Model ) and the 2009-2015 Toyota Venza ( 4 Cylinder Model )

The moral of the story here is to adhere to the maintenance guide fully not partially. There are many conditions in which your 10K mile oil changes go out of the window. To play it safe and take the guess work out of the picture, Change your engine oil every 5000 miles or 6 months and call it a day.

The total cost of this repair is over $6800 and the trade in value of the car before the repair was $5000-6000. So this repair basically totals this car.

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0:00 Intro
1:08 Plan Of Action
1:45 Engine Removal
6:06 Engine Tear Down
8:38 Findings
11:53 Reassembly
17:09 Reinstallation
18:23 IT'S ALIVE!
19:03 Cost and Advice

[Wokenomics_PhD]

$6, 800 in repair cost plus vehicle down time and lost revenue. All could have been prevented by spending $1, 000 - $2, 000 in routine maintenence over the 5 years of use. $100 every 4-6 months for oil. Half that if you do it yourself.

[chuckdavis]

I had a 96 Camry I got from a co worker and her family. 4cyl. 200K. Lots of power for a 4 CYL. She mentioned that her father in law had the motor rebuilt under warranty years back.
I came across that paperwork in the glove box later, the rebuild was done at 65k . Not sure why the rebuild was done. but it amounted to basically disassembly and a ring job done by Beaverton OR Toyota. I drove the car for 26, 000 miles, upon purchasing it I had flushed the motor [3 OIL changes 500 mi. apart} and trans 2x and several later oil changes. Sold it at about 230K. That car used zero oil and had great power and nice clean fluids even after 3000 miles on the oil. Shout out to that guy at Beaverton Toyota for a great job. Remember, its not the fancy shop that matters, its who's doing the work!

[raygee]

When you talked about the cost of the repair being high, yet the owner decided to go for it due to the lack of good used cars it reminded me of something we say on my radio show "the cheapest car to buy is the one you already own!"

[MeGBillG]

The Problem is not with the Cost of labour or Parts Quality, It IS the qualified Hands That Works on rebuilding An Modern engine . Bless your HANDS Mr AMD.

[jlkhawaii]

Only an expert could've done that job and you are that expert. Your customer learned an expensive lesson (repair cost and lost revenues from down time) but I am glad he used the best toyota mechanic ever.

[Ratlins]

I learned two things from this video, you’re a top notch mechanic to perform this level of engine rebuilding and second, you’re one hell of a nice guy for sharing your knowledge, tips and videos to the viewers who enjoy your channel. God Bless you.

[carnold.knowledge]

Just bought a 2021 RAV4 for my wife who drives about 2500 miles a month. I’m definitely getting the oil changed every 5000 miles now. In the long run I am confident it will be worth it. It’s a shame Toyota and others say you only need to do it every 10, 000 miles.

Thanks for superb videos. I’m going back and watching as many as I can.

[BobReed]

This has given me a new appreciation for auto technicians. There seemed to be a hundred things to forget or not install correctly or break while disassembling. Everything about this job was truly impressive! Your dealership is lucky to have you.

[tonyedward]

The amount of engineering involved in design and mass production is mind blowing!!

[robertthomas]

Thanks for the advice. I never thought 10, 000 miles between oil changes could be good for your engine and was told I'm wasting my money doing it at 5, 000 miles. You just proved to me I'm doing the right thing. Thanks again.

[fizout]

What a wonderful nightmare of a story. On the plus side, the quick but detailed disassembly is fantastic. I especially appreciate the arrows to indicate what is being talked about. It's so satisfying to see parts that are not normally seen or accessed by DIYers. And with that, I hope never to see those parts first hand!

[steveboehlke]

It was worth the cost cause you were the mechanic doing the work. I would've chose the repair too with your expertise on the job. Great job AMD

[vintagejeeper]

If you catch your high oil consumption early it can be easily corrected. Mine was burning a qt in 100-200 miles and now shows no oil usage after 500 miles so far. WD40 (or seafoam) down spark plug holes every day and turn engine over with plugs out the next day before adding more. Keep doing this for a week. Put plugs back and drive high rpm for 10 miles or so. Do this again for a second week then drive 10 more miles and change oil. So far this has worked for me. Continue removing sludge from engine using seafoam or similar solvent based engine cleaner in engine oil a few hundred miles before each oil change.

[flagmichael]

We had changed oil on our 2014 Prius when the maintenance reminder told us to. I noticed the maintenance schedule said 10K miles were good while the reminder was 5K mile. I was about to change to 10K miles when I saw your video that first told me to change every 5K miles. I think you may have saved me a small fortune somewhere in the not-distant future.

[gregjohnson]

Hello, I am fairly new to your channel and enjoy your content. I also have an aircraft mechanic son who likewise enjoys your content. Now, some background. We have owned Toyotas since 1981 and until we bought our 2007 Camry 4 cylinder never had a drop of oil between changes. At one time I changed the oil every 3000 miles and when I went to full synthetic went to 5, 000 changes. The 07 Camry was using a quart about every 3, 000 miles when we sold it with about 170K miles. It didn't consume enough for Toyota to fix the engine under the excessive usage program. We put about 15, 000 miles on/year so the car had 3 oil changes per year. We had a 98 4Runner V6 which was sold with about 170k miles and didn't use any oil and sold a 97 Camry with about 220k miles that likewise didn't use any oil. So I was maintaining the 07 Camry as you recommended. I think I'm going back to a 3k mile oil change interval.

Continue your wonderful pieces and God Bless You and your family.

[mr-prez]

I want to thank you for this video! I got a '17 Camry with the same engine in April. I just did the oil change myself last weekend (95k miles on it) and was set to count down another 10k before changing the oil again. Now that I've seen this...I'm going to keep doing them myself at 5k intervals. It was well maintained before, but only at the car's built in intervals. My car will last so much longer now thanks to your information!

[johanneshuss]

I came in contact with your channel when my car had severe issues with oil consumtion. I saw your video about the different stages and unfortunately my car was in stage 3 and couldn’t be saved. We changed to a newer car since it wasn’t worth fixing the old one though we really liked it. I’ll now be changing oil in the intervals 5000miles/6months to a T as you suggested. Thank you sir for your willingness to share to others your extensive knowledge. I’d suggest you’d call your channel ”The car care genius” since it would be more appropriate 😊 God bless you abundantly sir!

[chapinenchicago]

Clearly your main intention is to help people and you are doing a great job thank you.
👍👍👍

[antouab]

Wow, I never thought The Car Care Nut was this high level expert in auto-mechanics.
Thank you for having this channel for us sir, this kinda stuff shouldn't even be free to watch.

[piffwhiffle]

I recently paid $4500 for an engine teardown and water pump replacement in my 2013 Prius at ~160k miles and it was a no-brainer. Even if I have other major work at the 200k mile mark, the way I see it, I paid under $5k for the vehicle to take me another 40k miles, which would still beat the used car market in normal times. Total Cost of Ownership is the key to happiness!