Driver's Side Engine Knock & Burning Oil. Help!

[CruiserNotRover]

Hey Mud,
I purchased my 2004 Land Cruiser about two years ago with 125,000 miles. Currently has just shy of 139,000. I've always thought the engine was a bit loud and after searching on here I found a few comments stating that these have a "loud idle" so I never thought much of it. Well that's obviously not what's going on here.

Now that I've done a couple oil changes I'm realizing it's using/burning oil and a lot of it. Just took 3 quarts to top it off after changing oil less than 3,000 miles ago. Albeit, nearly 2,000 of that was towing the largest uHaul trailer from almost-Canada to almost-Mexico (hurray warmer temps!).

I should mention, there has never been even a drop of oil on the pavement after parking it (even sans engine skid plate).

That being said, the noise/knock seems to be getting louder and is clearly coming from the drivers side only. I just pulled the four spark plugs from the drivers side and they were all pretty caked with corrosion/some kind of build-up. The threads are also coated with oil. The passengers side plugs were pretty clean. All coil packs looked excellent! I did replace all plugs to see if that would help. However, after letting it idle for about five minutes it didn't seem to change. I can report back after driving to/from work tomorrow.

I have never had a check engine light come on. I have never broken down. And no, I'm not producing a mass amount of white smoke behind me like Uncle Buck's Merc!

Is anyone familiar with this issue? Has anyone experienced this? Even on a Tundra, Sequoia, etc with the 4.7L 2UZ-FE.
Whenever I search for an answer on here, I come across "I've never heard of a 100 burning oil", every single time.

I will attempt to post a video of it running, or at least a couple pictures of the spark plugs.

Thanks in advance!
-Jake

 

[CruiserNotRover]

Hey Mud,
I purchased my 2004 Land Cruiser about two years ago with 125,000 miles. Currently has just shy of 139,000. I've always thought the engine was a bit loud and after searching on here I found a few comments stating that these have a "loud idle" so I never thought much of it. Well that's obviously not what's going on here.

Now that I've done a couple oil changes I'm realizing it's using/burning oil and a lot of it. Just took 3 quarts to top it off after changing oil less than 3,000 miles ago. Albeit, nearly 2,000 of that was towing the largest uHaul trailer from almost-Canada to almost-Mexico (hurray warmer temps!).

I should mention, there has never been even a drop of oil on the pavement after parking it (even sans engine skid plate).

That being said, the noise/knock seems to be getting louder and is clearly coming from the drivers side only. I just pulled the four spark plugs from the drivers side and they were all pretty caked with corrosion/some kind of build-up. The threads are also coated with oil. The passengers side plugs were pretty clean. All coil packs looked excellent! I did replace all plugs to see if that would help. However, after letting it idle for about five minutes it didn't seem to change. I can report back after driving to/from work tomorrow.

I have never had a check engine light come on. I have never broken down. And no, I'm not producing a mass amount of white smoke behind me like Uncle Buck's Merc!

Is anyone familiar with this issue? Has anyone experienced this? Even on a Tundra, Sequoia, etc with the 4.7L 2UZ-FE.
Whenever I search for an answer on here, I come across "I've never heard of a 100 burning oil", every single time.

I will attempt to post a video of it running, or at least a couple pictures of the spark plugs.

Thanks in advance!
-Jake

Driver's side plugs:

 

[CruiserNotRover]

Passenger's side plug:

 

[CruiserNotRover]

Here's a video:

 

[awesomeissquid]

The first plug you posted looks really coated with oil. Was there oil in the tube when you pulled that one? It is possible that could be the seals to the tubes. Do you have any oil wetness or stains on the engine block?

On another note, have you tried to see if you have any oil either in your air intake pipe or at your throttle body?

 

[nissanh]

Replace spark plug tube seals. Those are leaking oil into the tubes. Use OEM seals. Also do the valve cover gaskets at the same time.

 

[neoworm]

That's more of a tick than a knock. Sounds like a valve from the video but I also heard an LX with a cracked exhaust manifold that sounded like that as well.

 

[97 AZ LC]

Get a stethoscope and see if you can narrow it down further than just driver's side. Also do a compression check cold and warm.

 

[CruiserNotRover]

The first plug you posted looks really coated with oil. Was there oil in the tube when you pulled that one? It is possible that could be the seals to the tubes. Do you have any oil wetness or stains on the engine block?

On another note, have you tried to see if you have any oil either in your air intake pipe or at your throttle body?

There were up to a few drops worth of oil in each spark plug tube on the drivers side. Thankfully not enough to fry any of the coil packs though! Passenger's side tubes were dry. Otherwise the engine is pretty clean, no wet spots anyway. Gonna start by replacing the spark plug tube gaskets and valve cover gaskets to hopefully fix the oil consumption/leak issue.

I haven't checked the throttle body or intake manifold yet. I remember cleaning the throttle body maybe a year ago and it wasn't too dirty. Will definitely check those. Thanks for the recommendations!

Replace spark plug tube seals. Those are leaking oil into the tubes. Use OEM seals. Also do the valve cover gaskets at the same time.

That's what I was thinking too. Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I will start with replacing the spark plug tube seals and valve cover gaskets and see what happens! I appreciate it!

That's more of a tick than a knock. Sounds like a valve from the video but I also heard an LX with a cracked exhaust manifold that sounded like that as well.

One of my coworkers listened to my engine and thought it might be a cracked exhaust manifold as well! I mentioned that it is a common problem with the 100 series. If replacing the spark plug seals and valve cover gaskets doesn't alleviate the knock/tick I'll definitely check out the manifold. Thanks!

Get a stethoscope and see if you can narrow it down further than just driver's side. Also do a compression check cold and warm.

Do you know if I'm able to rent a stethoscope/compression tester from an auto parts store?

 

[CruiserNotRover]

I appreciate everyone's input so far! There are a lot of good ideas so far. I'm going to stop at Toyota this week and grab parts to replace the spark plug tube seals and valve cover gaskets. I'm thinking that should alleviate the oil consumption/leak.

If that doesn't fix the knock/tick, I will check out the exhaust manifold.

I am also running a thinner 0W-20 synthetic oil due to the winter season. However, now that we moved South I will probably change it out for 5W-30 synthetic to make sure it's not running too thin in the warmer temps.

Thanks again! I will keep you posted.

 

[awesomeissquid]

There were up to a few drops worth of oil in each spark plug tube on the drivers side. Thankfully not enough to fry any of the coil packs though! Passenger's side tubes were dry. Otherwise the engine is pretty clean, no wet spots anyway. Gonna start by replacing the spark plug tube gaskets and valve cover gaskets to hopefully fix the oil consumption/leak issue.

I haven't checked the throttle body or intake manifold yet. I remember cleaning the throttle body maybe a year ago and it wasn't too dirty. Will definitely check those. Thanks for the recommendations!


That's what I was thinking too. Thanks for confirming my suspicion. I will start with replacing the spark plug tube seals and valve cover gaskets and see what happens! I appreciate it!


One of my coworkers listened to my engine and thought it might be a cracked exhaust manifold as well! I mentioned that it is a common problem with the 100 series. If replacing the spark plug seals and valve cover gaskets doesn't alleviate the knock/tick I'll definitely check out the manifold. Thanks!

Do you know if I'm able to rent a stethoscope/compression tester from an auto parts store?

You can rent a compression tester. The stethoscopes are pretty cheap. I think I got mine from harbor freight for ~$6?