Oil Consumption & Strategy for Carmax Maxcare Warranty (1 Viewer)

[bigdata77]

Hi All,

I’m new here and I’m really nervous about my situation. I have a 2013 LX with 57k miles, and a Carmax Maxcare warranty through January of 2025.

I recently had a scare while driving close to home……the oil light flickered at me. It went off in a second or so. I was about a mile from home so took it straight there and parked it. After a cool down, I pulled the dipstick and the oil wasn’t registering on it!

I was 3,600 miles from last change (but that was almost 2 years ago due to working from home). I’m guilty of not having checked the levels since that last change. Shame on me.

I immediately changed the oil and filter. I measured 5.5 quarts coming out of the pan and filter. There are no oil spots on my parking area at home, and needless to say, this trucks been sitting a lot. I also changed the PCV. The old one had a good rattle.

I decided that I need to log more miles on it to help diagnose the issue, so we drove it 800 miles this past week on a vacation. I checked the oil every stop and seemingly didn’t lose anything material.

I bought the truck almost 3 years ago at 47k miles. It’s been solid in limited action.

I want to make sure I’m able to get to the bottom of this and take full advantage of the warranty if necessary. I had a local Independent shop look it over and all they noticed was timing gasket seepage, but not a substantial amount…..and again, my parking spot is clean.

Any advice on next steps?

Thanks!

 

[TimCFJ40]

Whoever changed the oil last underfilled it and didn’t check the stick after. If the oil light just barely came on, you shouldn’t have any long term effects. The oil level where the light comes on is not the level at which damage occurs.

Either change your own oil or at least check after a change and you should be good to go.

 

[bloc]

Unless you did the change yourself, I agree. If you burned almost that much in 3600 miles you’d see a drop in 800.

Monitor things from here out but I believe it was under filled.

 

[bigdata77]

Underfilled on the previous change is certainly a possibility. Also worth mentioning is that when it flickered at me, I was going down a fairly steep hill. I have traveled this road many dozens of times. I guess I would have expected to see this flicker before now…..nearly 2 years later.

Think it could be a combo of under-fill and low consumption over time, thus causing the indicator light?

I guess time will tell now. I think I may invest in the jowett kit to make it a little easier.

Thinking that if I see it start to drop, I’ll get an oil analysis and get it into the local dealer for an official consumption test process.

I’m also going to have my wife start using it as a daily driver to rack up some more miles on it to avoid missing my warranty window.

Thanks!

 

[bloc]

Sounds like a solid plan. UOA could give you some peace of mind even if it doesn’t consume anything detectable.

It flickering at that point yes could be a little consumption but also a slight bump you hadn’t hit before causing the oil to slosh a different way. End of day the oil was too low but not enough to cause damage. If you had towed heavy regularly the oil temps likely would be high, but outside of that Toyota puts so much oil into these things you can be 3qt low and still be in pretty good shape.

 

[paulunm]

Change your PCV and monitor oil level every time you fill up with gas.

 

[tbisaacs]

Underfilled on the previous change is certainly a possibility. Also worth mentioning is that when it flickered at me, I was going down a fairly steep hill. I have traveled this road many dozens of times. I guess I would have expected to see this flicker before now…..nearly 2 years later.

Think it could be a combo of under-fill and low consumption over time, thus causing the indicator light?

I guess time will tell now. I think I may invest in the jowett kit to make it a little easier.

Thinking that if I see it start to drop, I’ll get an oil analysis and get it into the local dealer for an official consumption test process.

I’m also going to have my wife start using it as a daily driver to rack up some more miles on it to avoid missing my warranty window.

Thanks!

I’ve had this happen on the trail, FWIW. When the truck is pointed straight down on a very steep grade the level sensor will trip. I of course panicked and checked it and it was between the two dots on the dipstick. I think the level sensor is on the back of the pan.

 

[TeCKis300]

Whoever changed the oil last underfilled it and didn’t check the stick after. If the oil light just barely came on, you shouldn’t have any long term effects. The oil level where the light comes on is not the level at which damage occurs.

Either change your own oil or at least check after a change and you should be good to go.

This.

OP, I wouldn't overthink it. You caught it in time before any damage could occur and I agree the light is setup before that threshold.

If in the last 3600 miles, you did mostly short trips, that would also been a reason for some consumption. Oil rings and tolerances are loosest when the engine is cold. Some consumption is and can be completely normal. And perhaps combined with some underfill.

 

[bigdata77]

This.

OP, I wouldn't overthink it. You caught it in time before any damage could occur and I agree the light is setup before that threshold.

If in the last 3600 miles, you did mostly short trips, that would also been a reason for some consumption. Oil rings and tolerances are loosest when the engine is cold. Some consumption is and can be completely normal. And perhaps combined with some underfill.

Almost exclusively short trips. I can’t recall more than 2-3 times prior to this past week where I’d taken it further than 30-45 minutes from the house. The typical trip was probably 6-7 miles each way.