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Oil (1ZZ-FE)

9K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  VC ZZW30 MR2 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone , I bought my first Toyota MR2 (ZZW30) a couple of days ago ,so far no issues but I've checked the oil and it's very low under the mid point on the stick , I contacted the previous owner about the issue and he replied that he never filled the oil all the way up to avoid overfilling , is what he said true ? never heard of this issue before , should I top up my oil? I'll do an oil change in less than 1000km
Previous owner told me that it doesn't burn significant amounts of oil and that the engine was rebuilt at about 140.000km now it has 188.000km on the clock , also what oil do you guys recommend ? I bought a Shell Helix Ultra Synthetic 5W-30 previous owner told me that he puts Semi synthetic oil , so it probably has semi synthetic oil in it right now, I couldn't find semi synthetic 5W-30 at the store I went to , is it a bad idea to put some synthetic oil with the semisynthetic it already has ??

Update
I'll go to my mechanic today to change the oil and top it off
 
#8 ·
A 1ZZ-FE should not burn oil 48.000km after a rebuild. If previous owner filled it at middle from dipstick, it's ok, meaning that there is not burning oil issue during 48.000km.
But, this is not a thing to do. The 1ZZ-FE knowned to be oil burner. Key to keep engine running well is to replace oil every ~7000km (to me). It prevent oil stalvation.

As new owner, thirst thing is to know how much oil engine burn :
  • repace oil and filter (quantity is 3.8L for the engine)
  • see when oil dipstick show "full"
  • replace transmission fluid (1.8L maximum - Redline MT90)
  • drive 5000 km and see if dipstick show lower oil level
  • if no burning oil, all is good - if yes, you know that after xxkm you should replace oil

5w30 become too thin for high mileage (non rebuild) 1ZZ-FE. When engine start to burn oil, time is to go for higher oil grade (10w40).
If still oil burning issue on high rpm, go for 10W60 full synthetic quality like Motul 300V. Replace oil an filter every 5~7000 km (5000km in my case).
 
#13 · (Edited)
Just FYI this discussion on engine oil just took place a few days ago & is worth browsing through

 
#19 ·
Update: It's been about a year since my first post about this topic, the car turned out to be indeed an oil burner, I first started using Valvoline 5w-30 semi-synthetic oil then I switched it to Repsol Elite 5w-40 synthetic oil and finallyI've ended up using AMPOIL Max 4 10w-40 Synthetic oil because it's thicker and very cheap, at first with the Valvoline 5w-30 the car burnt about 3-4L in 5000kms but I was driving very carefully because the MR2 Spyder was my first RWD car so I've rarely went over 3000RPM at first also it's kinda funny but I was kinda not used to the power it had (133whp saw it on a Dyno sheet the owner provided with the car) my previous car was a Yaris with 68hp that's why even 133whp seemed a lot of power to me , when I started revving it harder the oil consumption increased dramatically after 5000kms of checking my oil almost daily and toping it up when necessary I changed to the Repsol 5W-40 with a consuption of 6L in 4000kms at first it didn't get burned very fast but after a while the oil started to break down quickly and burnt up again at an alarming rate when revving the car above 4500RPM which I do regurarly , 4000kms later I changed it to 10w-40 which gets burned at a rate of 1.5L at 1100kms so far, I check the oil every day before every drive , besides that the engine runs fine and makes probably the same power as it had when I got it, I currently can't afford to rebuild the engine so I keep toping it off with cheap oil until it either breaks down or I have enough money to do a rebuild or swap in a 2ZZ,the car doesn't burn much oil at low RPMs but especially the last few months I rev it up to redline very often as I love to drive it fast on the touge, I've noticed that the car doesn't emit any blue smoke at low RPMs but after revving it up above 4500RPM especially when I hit the limiter and let off the throttle the exhaust makes a loud bang and then after a while lots of blue smoke comes out so that's my case with my oil burning issues after 1 year and about 11000kms of ownership I still enjoy the car and love driving it, I'll soon post my full experience with the car as today marks my 1 year anniversary with the car
Thanks for reading
 
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