ALK

the only logical reason in my case . While the oil is 1000 miles old. Is a leak ?

UDel

Pretty much, it is either burning some oil which is not all that abnormal or there is some kind of leak which is not all that abnormal either for a car with over 150K miles, it is not almost empty if there is still oil on your dipstick which would be very abnormal and a serious issue, it is a quart or 2 or a little more low, there is still a lot of oil in your engine. Again I would fill the oil back up to the proper level if you have not done so and keep an eye on the levels and go under the car, remove the bottom protection cover and with a bright flashlight look around the valve gasket area on each side(is their evidence of seepage or burn marks/residue), between engine/transmission, oil filter, etc. Sometimes leaks don't show up on the ground when the car is parked, they just leak when the car is hot and running. If there are no signs of leaks but it is still getting lower and lower it may be burning oil, I would do another oil change and make sure the proper weight/type oil is put in, sometimes if you put too heavy of a oil in or a type of oil not made for the engine it can burn, the car may have been slightly low before the trip but you got a false reading if the dipstick bumped on the side. You can research what to do when a engine burns oil if that is the case, who knows, you may just have to add a quart or two of oil between oil changes

Doublebase

What I'd do is this...pull the engine covers off and get yourself a good flashlight - not something cheap - and look over the valve covers. Check where the high pressure fuel pumps are, you may see something there. Try to smell around, if the covers are leaking you'll smell burning oil on the exhaust manifolds. Then flash the light down where the plastic cover is on the bottom, take a look from the top...is there oil built up on it? Crawl under it, is there oil dripping off it? Look at the filter housing, check the drain plug. If it's dry keep an eye on it for a couple of weeks...drive 500 miles or so, pull the dipstick. Has it dropped? If so how much? Did you lose a quart in 500 miles? If so and you see no visible sign of a leak then you have an internal consumption issue...could be rings, could be valve guides, could be PCV valve system (but that's probably escalated because of rings and blowby). Good luck.

lextout

sorry do derail, but how in the world does this take 10 quarts and my old sequoia 5.7 took 7?

SW17LS

From the manual. 9.1 qt for RWD, 9.5 qt for AWD:



Also I found the answer to the question "how much oil is it down when the low oil light comes on?" 1.6 qt.

ALK

come to think of it this was mentioned in the service history
Service: RE RING ENGINE DO TO USING OIL.
Description: RE RING ENGINE DO TO USING OIL. ~ ~ ~ ~,CUSTOMER DECLINED SERVICE -NO REASON STATED is this correct the reason

2KHarrier

I think you found your smoking gun... Do a compression check and see what kind of numbers you have. That should be a good indicator of ring condition. More than likely that's what the dealer did when they diagnosed the problem stated above.

ALK

the thing is that this was mentioned to the previous owner back at

143146 MILES in

07/02/2015

Now my odo is at 164708 . I am afraid that it's too late..

Doublebase

So 20,000 miles have been driven since that diagnosis? How many of those miles were driven by you? Because if for the most part you've driven the car and NOT experienced much oil consumption...maybe the 1,100 miles of driving at mostly a constant highway speed made the consumption temporarily worse. Like others have said, drive it and keep an eye on it, it may not be that bad. Keep in mind all engines use some oil...some more than others. Some have ring wear, that generally gets worse as the engine ages and piles on the miles....especially when you start getting over 150,000 miles. Some people combat that by using a thicker weight of oil...like maybe bouncing it up to 5w30 or something.

I'd just keep an eye on it because the other alternative is to have the engine rebuilt, which would probably run you ten grand in this car. Or you could just buy a used engine for a few grand and pay someone $2,500 to put it in. Either way you'd be screwed, so just keep an eye on it and if you notice anything go to a higher/thicker oil weight.

ALK

i bought the car at 160000 odo

2KHarrier

Does the 4.6 have a PCV valve?

If it's using oil on a sustained highway speed trip, it could be an issue with PCV valve sticking. I know this is a huge problem with the RX300 (completely different animal, I know...) where the PCV valve gets clogged and the oil starts being consumed by the engine due to pressure build up in the case.

ALK

yes they do thats what I going to check first

Doublebase

Good luck checking the PCV valve, it's buried under the intake manifold.

​​​​​​​I know the first logical (and easiest) step would be to simply change the PCV valve, but not on this car.