Oil Consumption On Is250 Auto

[Carl911]

I was interested to know if anyone checks there oil regularly and how much there car uses.

I recently checked my oil and noticed that it was half way down the oil stick level.

Concerned it was using more oil than it should I took it to Lexus to check out.

They topped the oil up and told me to do 1000 miles then return to check level.

I did 1300 miles then returned and the car had consumed 0.65 litres of oil.

Lexus tell me this is well within allowable usage although it still seems a lot to me.

Effectively that means I'm using 7.5 litres every 15,000 miles which is roughly what I do a year.

That seems high to me.

I was interested to know what others use?

I have no oil leaks anywhere.

Carl

[mrahman136]

cant say I actually checked. I rely on the the "Check Completed" on the screen which I shouldn't do. Its gone to Lexus today anyway because someone kindly ran into the back of it earlier in the week. I'll ask them to check it over whilst it's in.

[Exdee]

It's normal. Synthetic oil burns quicker than your average traditional oil.

[Tel]

Never had an issue with oil consumption including my ISF.

I would say that oil usage over 10000 miles is measured on the dipstick as negligible as the oil "used" is replaced by the products of combustion------done c.250000 miles & has remained constant.

Tel

[Carl911]

Well I will say that if I change my oil twice a year I don't expect to top it up in between.

It maybe that my oil was not properly topped on the first place but I shall be keeping a close eye on it.

[dazed]

I check my oil about once a month and have never noticed the level drop by more than a tiny amount between services. I've certainly never needed to top it up.

To be honest my IS250 (80K miles from new) has probably held onto its oil better than any previous car I've owned.

[Carl911]

I check my oil about once a month and have never noticed the level drop by more than a tiny amount between services. I've certainly never needed to top it up.

To be honest my IS250 (80K miles from new) has probably held onto its oil better than any previous car I've owned.

That is what I would expect. My car has also full Lexus service history and only 69,000 on the clock.

Despite what Lexus have said Im not convinced although the car seems fine in every respect otherwise.

[normski2]

Have to admit my oil has not noticeably dropped in 4 months ownership. Mine is MY2010 with 39K on the odometer.

[Carl911]

As I would expect normski.

The problem is that Lexus say that if it had been using 0.65 litres in 600 miles then this would not be acceptable, but over 1200 is well within specification.

I have had cars with multiple oil leaks use less. Have to say I'm not really happy with Lexus response to this. More to the point I want to know where the oil is burning. I don't see any blue smoke which I'd expect consuming this amount.

[normski2]

My younger son ( who now has my old 220d ) had an Astra Bertone that got through a terrifying amount of oil.....like really scary quantities.... Everyone said this was normal ! Not in my book it ain't !

The 220d has barely drunk a drop in 6 months.

[Dromara1974]

@ Carl

As I have probably mentioned elsewhere, my wife's golf GTI (54k on the clock) used the amount of oil that Lexus deems unacceptable - it used 2 litres in about 2.5k miles, just before having a major service at VW. After we got it back from VW, the light came on after a month and the oil didn't register on the dipstick once again. Well, I thought the engine was gone having had oil burners in my student days, but there was no trace of blue/white smoke or oil leaks on the drive - much head scratching followed!!

I tried the Normski (et al) method and put some Archoil AR6400 in the fuel, after reading about this on an american GTI forum, and this has stopped the excessive consumption - though I must check the dipstick tomorrow! The excessive consumption is caused by the piston rings sticking in the piston - due to carbon deposits - and not sealing properly against the cylinder wall.....still not sure where the oil is going. We need a techincal master to explain, but my musings are that the sticking piston ring means there is inadequate compression/seal and the oil is passing past the ring and passing straight through the exhaust without getting combusted in the way that would cause blue smoke, due to a lack of compression. This is probably rubbish though and I will gladly stand corrected by someone who knows!

Incidentally, some garages are equipped with the necessary cameras and they will have a look inside your engine's bores to see if the carbon is noticeably bad.

[finchy40]

My lexus is250 has now covered 105k. I've owned it from new. Up until it had covered 60k there was no discernible oil usage. Since then, once filled to the max on the dipstick, it takes about 5k miles before it is at the bottom.

I was concerned about this but like you, it's not smoking or running badly.

[Carl911]

Well I must admit I have spoke to several Lexus service people now and the bottom line is that Lexus Japan set the consumption and mine s acceptable whether I agree or not.

So I have two options, sell it and buy another which could be just the same or worse or just accept that I need to keep an eye on the levels.

This issue isn't just on the Lexus either as one f the chaps at my work has an 08 plate petrol Toyota and has exactly the same oil consumption and also complained at the time only to be told the same as me.

It seems to be an issue the Toyota / Lexus had with the piston rings on one of the earlier cars.

My car has only just done 68,000 so I don't class that as high mileage on a v6 engine.

After much deliberation I will stick with the car I have and keep an eye on things. If it should get worse or start smoking then I may have to reconsider.

Carl

[agent_dess]

I had a Toyota Yaris T2 (1.0L) 2006 model... i owned it from 6k miles up to 98k (full Toyota dealership service)

Engine oil consumption was fine up to 50k... after that it was downhill and had gotten worse by the time i hit 70k

Toyota would tell me it was normal for it to consume 1L of engine oil every 600 miles!!

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that was was costing me alot of money considering i drive 1k miles every month.

Usually would check it every 2 weeks and find the dip stick almost dry!

by 90k mileage it was spewing black smoke out the exhaust which for me was fine i didn't really care as long as it was getting me to work and back but problem was it would have totally failed the MOT test. So i got a new engine fitted (got lucky and found a brand new engine for £350).

anyway enough of the sidetrack... i even switched to thicker 10w40 oil which helped the oil burn slower a little but not that much of a difference.....

From what i heard and what people told me the new VVTI engine where known for burning engine oil compared to all older engines... I guess it's not all that different with the lexus engine given that the new IS started from 2006.