My girlfriend is buying her first car and is interested in a 2005 Scion tC with 129k. She wants something fun and reliable but I'm concerned about all the reports of oil burning coming from this model.
The current owner says he hasn't had any issues. But how common is the problem? Is it basically guaranteed with this engine?

Also I know Toyota is fixing the problem on some years but I understand they aren't doing anything for the 2005 tC.. Is that correct?

Anyway we test drove the car today and it drove great and looked pretty good.

Would you consider buying one? Thanks!

 

I was under the impression that the oil issues were only with the 07-10 engines,
those were updated and are different from the 05-06 engines.

i have an 06 tC and don't have any oil issues.

 

I agree @gjpjr84, the 05-06's were of the earlier design, the 07+ had the newer re-design and it didn't work out because some of them are burning a lot of oil.

Plus, 06-08 you need to look at the water pumps, they did go bad and that could lead to severe overheating = cylinder head damage. Toyota re-designed the water pump and no more problems. So that's something to think of and look at. Look between the drivebelt down low. Get a bright flashlight and if you see anything like dried salt, that is leaking coolant out of the weep hole. Might or might not just need a water pump replacement but I wouldn't take the chance.

 

My 2005 Scion TC is burning over a quart every 1000 miles. I took it to the dealership to check out the oil issue and was told it is not covered under the TSB. As of now I don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon, but am uncertain on the long term prospects of how long this engine will keep running. So far it doens;t seem to cause any major problems, but it seems like my mpg is slightly lower than it used to be averaging around 26mpg or so.

 

Couple of things to try, change to a different brand of oil. That can change how the oil is burning off. I found that the lower the "NoAck" percentage the better it is in the tc's engine. The higher the % the more the oil will burn off and you'll have less oil.

I was going to say a high mileage oil, but that's usually for seals that are leaking, not burning off oil.

Another problem I've seen is the usage of Mobil 1 synthetic, there are different versions, as they were calling it synthetic but in reality it was a super refined dino/regular oil. But the point is I've seen Mobil 1 burn off a lot quicker in the 05-06 engine than just regular oil. If you're using Mobil 1, stop it and use something else!

I've moved to 5w-30 Toyota brand oil. Not burning any oil at all. Can get it from the dealer. Mobil does make it but it's to Toyota's specs, working great. The guys on bob is the oil guy forum like Pennzoil but I can't remember which one, you might want to post over there too. But there's what can help you fix this burning off issue. It really is that easy on the 05-06's. They didn't have the piston ring issue the 07+ had and that's where toyota gave the extended warranty to.