Vibe losing oil

[rob454]

Hi All,Its been a little while since I posted here. I am having issues with my 04 Vibe base. It seems to be losing oil. I am getting the infamous P0420 code and I know I need a new cat. When I first bought the car at 117k miles it didn't seem to burn any oil but now at 143k miles I seem to be putting a quart every 2000 miles in this. I am running full synthetic. The motor does have a lot of valve noise at startup so I had a shop look into it and he said it is just "valve bleed" and typical of a car at this mileage. The rod bearings are still good as well. Btw I never seen blue smoke come out of the tail pipe either. Does anyone know about this issue?ThanksRob

[joatmon]

when I asked about oil loss in mine, people seeme to feel it was likely valve stem seals, which I still haven't bothered to replace

[rob454]

How many quarts are you burning in between 5,000 miles? I'm seeming to have to add a quart every 2k.Edit: In your post above I see that you are in the same boat as me. Let me know if you ever plan on attacking those stem seals. I may be interested in doing this too.

[SmAshley]

Are you showing any physical leaks ? spots on the ground or build up under the hood anywhere? The PO420 code is most likely because of those "valve bleeds" they told you about you should most likely get those changed before your CAT becomes a solid mess...and your O2 sensors become contaminated.

[cq358]

[djkeev]

Quote, originally posted by rob454 »Hi All, The motor does have a lot of valve noise at startup so I had a shop look into it and he said it is just "valve bleed" and typical of a car at this mileage. The rod bearings are still good as well.ThanksRobValve bleed on this OHC system?!?! ha! you've been snookered!There is no hydraulic valve lash system on these cars. The tappet clearance is adjusted through a complicated and time sucking procedure of measuring tappet clearance as it sits, removing the old tappet shim, measuring the shim, doing some math to figure out what size shim you DO need, locate that shim and install it. Double check the clearance and move on to the next one. There are 35 different thicknesses of shims.The engine should be cold, not frigid, just overnight cold, the valve clearances you want are....intake .006 - .010 / exhaust .010 - .014 I'd suggest that you Find a new mechanic that knows what he is doing and how the engine he is diagnosing actually works.Rod bearings are as good as new? Did they drop the oil pan and pull rod caps off to verify this?? The whole story you tell here smells of a poor diagnosis but that's just my 2 cents.To have pulled rod caps off you would have had a diagnosis bill the numbered well into the hundreds of $$'s.Before dumping big money on an engine, have a compression test done. IF that shows good, I'd invest in having some new valve stem seals installed. The seals dry up and allow oil to be sucked down the intake valve shaft with every opening of the valve to allow fuel into the combustion chamber. When they do new seals, they can properly adjust your valves as well.This isn't all of your oil loss most likely, but there is a high probability that it is most of it.You might want to check out your timing chain tensioner as the source of your start up rattle as well.Dave

[Base white vibe]

Rob,I had a problem losing oil with Cat codes and misfire codes.I started using high mileage oils Quaker state 10-30 and I stopped losing oil.I was using about a quart a week.Now I use no oil at all.I change it frequenlty like about at 2500 miles.I have around 125,000 on my vibe (2004 4 cyl base) no mods and I get about 33 mpg around town.Sometimes the oil gets to thin and it passes the rings and seals/gaskets.Hope this helps~

[Base white vibe]

Rob.I live in florida that is why I use 10/30 oil the manual said it is ok to use.I thought I wasnt smoking either until a friend said "you know your smoking at the tail pipe" it was faint but it was smokingDo not use any heavier oil wieght than 10/30 I switch back to 5 / 20 in the winter.Hope it helps.

[cq358]

apparently the problem is cause by stuck oil ring after carbon build up in higher millage engine. The number of oil hole deemed insufficient to spread constant stream of oil around oil ring , such that ,it create uneven wear at the cylinder liner.Toyota has redesigned the piston starting from 05 with more hole at the oil ring to ensure ring will go freely in all operating condition. They also had enlarge the oil holes as well.You can either buy an engine from a wreck 05+ corolla or change the piston head.Please go to the link below for follow uphttp://au.toyotaownersclub.com...11848