Not in the Evo...in a 00 Corolla.

After about 1000 miles I was 4 quarts low, and that's all it holds. The car doesn't smoke, we did a compression test and the seals seem to be in tact, and it's not leaking anywhere. Last time I changed it, plenty of oil came out, I put the 3.9 quarts in. It started making strange noises (obviously) the other day so I checked the oil level....none.

Where is it going?

 

check to see if your pcv valve is stuck open, but it sound like valve stem seals, gone bad, they barly smoe to when they go out, im a tech at lexus, and the rx300s and es300s do this. also pull you valve cover and make sure you dont have eng sludge

 

If your cat is working properly you may not see smoke as the oil burns.

 

Check your coolant and do a compression test. You're either burning it, or it's leaking through your head gasket.

 

yeah what otter said....if its not leaking then its either going into the coolant or into the combustion chamber.

 

it's just not on the stick? you could only be down a quart or so unless you dropped the plug and nothing came out. what weight oil are you using? you very may well just be burning some.

 

None in the coolant, compression test completed with no problems detected.

I know it was more than a quart low because the engine was making a horrible noise, turns out it was the timing chain flapping around because the hydrolic tensioner wasn't working cause there was no oil to make pressure with. We added a quart, nothing on the stick. Added another quart, nothing on the stick. Added a 3rd quart, finally saw it below the "low" mark, added a 4th quart and it was back to full.

We did pull the engine cover, didn't appear to be any sludge buildup.

I did get a CEL for P0420 recently, but it has a brand new cat on it. My buddy told me it might be a dirty MAF and sure enough, the MAF was coated with crap, so we cleaned that up and the CEL hasn't come back. I'm gonna drive it more this week and make sure that was the problem.

 

check the back of the head on it. If I remember the o-ring for the timming chain tensioner dried up and leaked on those. Its been a while but just take a quick peek at the passenger side of the head.

 

Quick update, the CEL is back on...assuming it's the P0420 code. Fuggin thing.

So, what burns thru oil, ruins cats, doesn't leak onto the ground, isn't going to show up in a compression test, and doesn't cause smoke? If oil is getting into my gas, could that also explain the rather poor acceleration?

 

Not sure if this is your problem or not. But my wife has 98 prizm (aka corrolla) that has always had a strange leak. The oil some how manages to get on the mat mounted to the underside of the hood. Ours isn't using oil near as bad as yours though. I think I only add a quart every thousand miles or so. I never have figured out where the oil is coming from but maybe it could point you in the right direction.

 

Valve seals? How many miles on the Corolla?