Dipstick bone dry after oil change with 32k maintenance.

[ArthurKotb]

I'm 75 and I do all the maintenance I possibly can on 3 Toyotas, my 115 hp outboard motor and my 23' travel trailer. I still crawl under the cars and change oil, maintain a record of what needs to be done and when. I do whatever repairs I can and I make YouTube videos to share with others.

I got tired of my Toyota dealer's shop ripping off protective covers, like on the distributor, splash guards in the wheel wells and the rubber access cover for the oil drain. They have damaged the plastic lug nut covers on the wheels because they don't remove them before unscrewing the lug nuts. I'm tired of over-torqued lug nuts, missing dashboard screws, grease on my steering wheel and a host of other things.

I am fortunate to have a local auto repair that is approved by Toyota to do warranty work as well as regular repairs. They can't do everything but what they can't do I will have done by a shop other than the Toyota dealership.

If I'm taking a vehicle in, you can believe I'm pretty desperate. I don't like anyone touching my cars. I've managed to do some pretty costly and difficult repairs on my own. I have worked on my own cars, etc. since I was a teenager and will continue as long as I am able. I guess after that it'll be the glue factory for me... maybe the bus.

 

[CutthroatSlam]

The engine runs smooth... but i still dont trust it.
I dont want them to break down my engine and examine it, if they cant even do a simple oil change....

My advice, smoke two joints then smoke two joints. Take care of head.

 

[chrisridebike8]

if you have any of that 2 quarts of oil they pulled out, send it to blackstone to see if there is anything weird in there (like bearing material). Run a compression test. if both of those are good, live your life and have the dealer warranty the engine until whatever mileage you think is reasonable.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

The engine is likely perfectly fine, maybe shaved off a little life off the end at worst (given that these will last towards the 200,000mi/321,000km easily if you take care of them, I wouldn't worry.)

If there are no persistent DTCs (i.e. DTCs that you clear and keep coming back), no knocking or excessive ticking/tapping noise (beyond normal operation), and the engine performs as designed; then you're probably fine. The engines are robust enough that 2.1qt/2L of oil, while not ideal is at least enough to get cycled through the engine and maintain oil pressure. Given that you probably drove less than 30mi/48km home from the dealer, I would wager that you likely had plenty more oil in the engine when you parked the vehicle.

As for what you should do? Well, given you paid for a service and that service was done poorly and could have caused serious harm to your vehicle, I would be angry too (and I was in your situation at the beginning of the year with my own parent's vehicle). First thing I would do is make sure everything is documented properly and that the dealership takes responsibility for the poor service they performed. Given that it was a ToyotaCare 20k Boost Service and you wouldn't have paid for anything, it's a bit hard to compensate you beyond an oil change voucher or car detail voucher (the usual go to consolation prize for these types of issues most dealers start with). Unfortunately when it comes to the the Lube Bay/Lube Line side of things, the quality of "technician" (I use that term lightly) is highly variable and between that, the dealership's/Toyota's policies on how fast they expect the turnaround on oil changes (I think they have gotten to something like 20min for a single guy 10min for a 2-man team? I forget honestly, not subject to those requirements myself), and how organized the dealer is (we've had enough issues with exactly your situation including having to put new engines in, that the lube bay has a check sheet that needs to be signed off for each step they should be verifying torque on everything before it gets parked) that this type of thing still happens.

I would request to sit down with the service manager ans/ or service director to voice your frustration (ideally in a polite and professional way, but that's up to you). If you feel like they're just blowing smoke up your ass and/or they are just blowing you off, file a complaint with Toyota's corporate office, nothing may come of either interaction; but it will be recorded somewhere. I would also hang onto all of your oil change receipts until the powertrain warranty expiresand a copy of the repair order from this oil change with the updated notes indicating the cut o-ring; in the event something does happen to the engine, that will give you the strongest position against the dealer and/or Toyota trying to wiggle from any warranty coverage.

Hopefully that helps.

 

[I4CUTigers]

I took my 2020 4runner TOR for its 32k KM maintenance to stay within warranty. I got home and the next day noticed a huge puddle of oil at the bottom of the garage. Looked at the skid plate and it's fully drenched and dripping in oil. Luckily i did not drive the car for long after oil change, waiting for the dealer to come fix it.

Did not get a CEL or any other warning... and refuse to turn the car on..... dealership is sending people to fix it..

Should i get a new engine? new car or extended warranty?

Simply unacceptable.

Odds are if it’s on you garage floor, and not slung all over the undercarriage, you lost the oil after you parked.

 

[Buba1]

So which Toyota dealer is this in Ontario? I'm from the area and would like to avoid them for any type of service, even though I do most things on my own. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to disclose it, but if I were you, I would let everyone know about this dealership.

 

[Charles Bronson]

The engine is very likely fine given that it's not making any strange noises, not throwing any CELs, and drives fine.

If it were me, I would collect a used oil sample in about 1,000 miles and have it analyzed. My biggest worry would be elevated metals in the oil indicating a rod bearing issue as bearings are what usually die when the oil is run low/lack of oil pressure.

 

[Philip.]

I’d like to know the dealer as well. I have had a super bad experience with one already In the GTA ( Toronto ) I do my own oil changes and doc everything but I had a stuck pad rotor groove warranty issue that went sideways fast and have not been to a dealer since. I need to find a good Toyota tech that can do some more involved work for me so def curious.

Problem is due to some health issues in my family ️ I’ve not been putting kms on this 17 trd off road. It only had 38k so definitely needs some eyes on it.

Feel free to DM. Thx

 

[Mr_Dobalina]

The 2 most likely causes: pinched o-ring on the filter housing cap (I've had that happen twice on my VW Jetta) or failed drain plug gasket. Both easily fixed.

Other less likely but not uncommon causes: cracked filter housing from over torquing cap, stripped and loose drain plug from over torquing the plug. Unfortunately, both also totally plausible coming from a dealership service department.

There's nothing wrong with your engine. The oil warning light would have come on well before damage was caused. They're designed that way. If there is an abundance of oil under the truck on the garage floor it leaked out while sitting there overnight or however long you parked it. If you had problems you would have gotten them before you parked it.

I wouldn't run it. I would look for the source of the leak but I typically do my own maintenance so I tend to inspect things after someone else has worked on one of my vehicles.

As for Germam cars, IMO and experience they are reliable for the first 4-5 years. Then the problems start. I've been lucky with my Jetta, it's almost 10 years old and I've had no significant issues. I also think people tend to not be as diligent on their maintenance after the first 2-3 years so things can start to fail.

I can't agree with you more that the dealership is SUPPOSED to be the place with the professional experts that know how to work on the vehicles they sell BUT the truth is dealerships tend to hire new mechanics fresh out of school who have been trained on how to plug in a diagnostics machine and press some buttons. They are not top of their class mechanics and they don't put an emphasis on how to actually do quality, detail oriented mechanics (i.e. wrench turning). They are paid as little as possible and only when they are actually working on something so the process then becomes quantity over quality, push as many jobs through as they can. The details suffer, things get missed and stuff like what your are experiencing happens. I'd wager that you'd be hard pressed to find a mechanic at a dealership with more than 5 years experience working there. If you did, they're probably the senior person on the shop floor.

I understand that not everyone has the skill, time or desire to do their own maintenance and that's ok. It's not for everyone. What I always recommend is finding a quality, small, independently operated shop that can handle your maintenance. They keep records and Toyota cannot void your warranty for having your maintenance done and documented somewhere else unless they can prove without a doubt it was done improperly. Improper maintenance happens far less at small shops because the mechanic working on your vehicle is often the business owner and cannot afford for the work to be done wrong. Their livelihood is at steak so they pay attention to what they're doing.

Some of this is assumption based but most of it is experience over a few decades and a lot of different makes/models of cars and trucks. I stopped going to dealerships for anything other than recalls or warranty work and even then, I try to avoid them.

Hijack here... I have a 2016VW Golf Sport wagon with 96K on it. It started burning oil. slowly at first and now over 6+ quarts between its 10K oil changes. Not a drop of oil in our driveway.

I changed the PVC valve about 20K miles ago.

I took it to the stealer and they could not find anything that would cause it to do this. It cost me $350 to diagnose. I know they looked hard because they are always trying to steal your money.

They basically threw up their hands and said at this point it would be more practical and cost efficient to replace the engine for 10K vs. continuing trying to troubleshoot.

Any ideas on what's going on here?

 

[Pavement Tested]

Hijack here... I have a 2016VW Golf Sport wagon with 96K on it. It started burning oil. slowly at first and now over 6+ quarts between its 10K oil changes. Not a drop of oil in our driveway.

I changed the PVC valve about 20K miles ago.

I took it to the stealer and they could not find anything that would cause it to do this. It cost me $350 to diagnose. I know they looked hard because they are always trying to steal your money.

They basically threw up their hands and said at this point it would be more practical and cost efficient to replace the engine for 10K vs. continuing trying to troubleshoot.

Any ideas on what's going on here?

All manufacturers have an acceptable amount of oil consumption over the span of an oil change interval. I'm pretty sure 6+ quarts over 10k miles is well outside that level.

I'd guess bad piston rings or bad valve seals. Those are the only 2 ways for oil to get into the combustion cylinders to be burned. Unless it's a turbo car, then oil could leak past one of the seals since most turbos are cooled and lubricated by engine oil.

Does it smoke at all? White smoke would be indicative of burning oil. You'd also be able to smell it. Did they do a compression test? Did they borescope the cylinders? That's a bit trickier if it's a diesel. A diesel engine can also hide burning oil since diesel fuel in itself is closer to oil than gas in volatility.

VW has had some class action lawsuits about oil consumption due to faulty piston rings. Seems they've mostly been settled. Most of the info I found is on the 2.0L turbo engines but it's not outside the realm of possibility other engines could have similar issues.

It should be noted that if an engine is consuming oil excessively there is a higher risk of damage to emissions components like O2 sensors and catalytic converters, causing other failures and making repair bills get out of hand.