Burning oil!?
 

my check engine light came on last night so i brought it to autozone, they told me it was either the O2 sensor or a bad catalytic converter. i checked my oil (filled it 3 days ago) and i burned thru close to a 1/2 qt...is the bad 02 sensor or catalytic converter causing me to burn oil or is burning oil causing a bad 02 and catalytic convertor? i dont have any smoke in my exhaust and dont have any leaks...

and after driving for 20-30mins it seems like theres some power loss...any ideas?
thanks guys

check compression in each cylinder. Sounds like the engine is going.

k.thanks

Sounds like your piston rings are going out. Does it blow blue smoke out your tailpipe? As stated above, do a compression check. Burning oil will ruin your cat, which would give you check engine light.

alright i will.thanks man. I think what it was was my switch to synthetic. i think it was seeping through my seals and ruined my cat and 02 sensor. I just changed it back to conventional and it seems like it stopped burning oil and the engine noise went away. I'll still check the compression to be sure.

Great :) Hopefully that is all it was.

XB Burning oil
 

We own a 2008 Scion XB, and it started to burn oil. At first, we thought there was a leak or something, but no visible leaks on the floor. We took it in for an oil change, and then drove it for about 3,000 miles, checked the dipstick, and BAM… there was no more oil in the engine! WTF?! We bought this car brand new. I took it back to Scion because they had another recall on the coils, and asked them to take a look. They said it was burning oil, and that I might have to change the small block. WTF?! A 3 year old car and I need a new engine already? That was ridiculous! I did some research, and found someone posting that in several SCION AND TOYOTA models with the 2.4-liter 4-cylinderengine may be using too much oil. In T.S.B.’s SB002411 and SB009411 issued on Aug. 11, the companies said the problem was traced to the piston assembly. Replacing the pistons and rings should solve the problem. Affected models are the 2007-9 Scion tCs and the 2008-9 Scion xB as well as these Toyotas: 2006-8 RAV4, 2007-8 Solara, 2007-9 Camry, 2007-11 Camry Hybrid, 2009 Corolla and 2009 Matrix. After bringing this to the dealership’s and corporate’s attention, they agreed to pay for the parts, but not the labor. My problem with this is, if you know you have a piston assembly, be responsible and put out a recall to fix the issue. Growing up, Toyota was synonymous with quality. With this lack of action, the quality Toyota now puts out is very questionable. If I'm going to be getting crappy products that I thought were superior in quality, then I might as well buy American. I owned a 96 Ford Ranger, and put 250,000+ miles on it before I had to get rid of it. AND, the only reason I got rid of it was because someone rear-ended me. The insurance company totaled it because the cost of repair was worth more than the cost of the car. BUY FORD… great cars!

I'm having the same issues with my TC.
Dam they wouldnt cover labor, This might not turn out well for me.

well as I told my wife. (she has a 2008 camry with almost the same issue) record all of your oil changes but don't ever top off the oil. If it's still under warranty drive the ____ out of it when the oil is low till she blows. Then you will get it fixed under warranty lol. If you plan to do this ensure you do all of your paperwork and keep EVERY record and go by the book for EVERYTHING listed and there won't be an issue. Go over 100 miles on an oil change and they have the right to refuse to cover it under warranty.

Like I said I "told" my wife this is what whe should do but I am not ballsy enough to test the fact that i've done every ounce of maintenance to warrant them fixing it for free.

Wow... a great deal of misinformation... If you go over on mileage they can't refuse you for a warranty claim... they have to prove that it was your negligence that cause the damage... (magnus and moss warranty act) ;-)

and purposely not checking the oil of filling it.... if that isn't negligence and cause for a failed warranty claim I don't know what might be...

I do 7500 mile oil changes in my scion with mobil because its reasonably cheap and off the shelf... I top off the oil with about a half a quart once each oil change.. I drive the crap outta the car. Only draw backs to the mobil is the engine is a bit nosier than with amsoil in it...

I have 85K miles on my 2008 Scion xB. I have changed the oil religiously every 5K miles, if not sooner. I'm pretty sure at 85K I'm not covered by warranty anymore.

Anyhow, just before my last oil change was due the oil light came on. Took it to my shop and it was down 2 quarts. I had an appt. at Toyota for recall work on the power window main switch. I had them look at the oil issue. They didn't see any leaks. They are thinking I may need a partial or full engine rebuild. I never trust the dealership.

Anyhow, oil was changed on Monday, so I'll check the level this Saturday. I don't know much about cars. My roommate told me I should get a tuneup. A friend told me that wouldn't affect how my engine burns oil. When I started the car up this morning I saw no exhaust at all, blue or otherwise.

I don't know what steps to take at this point. A Toyota engine needs rebuiliding at 85K miles? Geez! I just put 90K mile tires on the car thinking I would drive this thing to at least 200K.

Any advice would be appreciated.

what do the plugs look like? to me it sounds like the rings COULD be going bad...with that being said it could also just be one of the 2.4l engines that burn oil.

I have read on multiple forums of people whos tC and xB with the 2.4 that have burned oil since day 1, up to 1 quart per 5000k to be "normal"

change your plugs a little more often say 35-40k instead of 55-60k and monitor your oil level regularly check it every sunday or somthing like that make it a routine... i had a honda that burned oil for 4 years it never blew up on me

I think its perfectly normally for a car to burn " a little bit" of oil between changes as it ages. How much is very skewed line.