N*F*B: My sister's Corolla is having problems...

[Jay 02 TA ws6]

... why does my sister's Chevy Prizm (a re-badged Toyota Corolla) consume its entire resevoir of oil in less than 2900 miles????? The car has like 45,000 miles on it.

I kid you not. When she woke me up this morning just minutes before my alarm was set to go off, and told me she thought she didn't have any oil in her car because it was making a horrible noise, I told her she's crazy and to go away and never wake me up again... but she dragged me out of bed, and I checked the oil level. I WAS SHOCKED! The dip stick was bone dry. I couldn't believe my eyes. So I dipped it in again. And again. Nothing. There is no oil on the garage floor, so the car is actually consuming oil -- enough to burn through an entire resevoir in LESS THAN 3000 MILES ... Luckily, I had a couple half-fills of Mobil 1 sitting around left over from oil changes in the Trans Am, so I dumped those in, and it went to the minimum fill line on the dipstick. OK, so I told her to turn it on, and the noise was gone.

I told my mom to drive her to school this morning, and to take the car to the shop later today...

[fastTa]

Bad rings or probably more likely some bad valve stem seals. Oil is overrated....it just adds weight to the car anyways.

[raroZ28]

I told her she's crazy and to go away and never wake me up again...

lmao! that's hilarious. Does the car smoke? Piston rings will cause some nasty blowby when they go bad. Valve stem seals def. a possibility. Take a few minutes and check her compression....

If it's good across the board, piston rings probably not it. If it is low on a couple cylinders, pour some atf down there, and check it again. If it raises the compression, the piston rings = shot.

Post the comp. results if you take one.

[Aaron4TAMU]

A blown head gasket could be the culprit too. If you get the chance, check your engine coolant to see if any of the oil has gotten in there.

[raroZ28]

A blown head gasket could be the culprit too. If you get the chance, check your engine coolant to see if any of the oil has gotten in there.

Aaron makes a good point.

But you said the dipstick was clean right, so that's probably not it. No smoke, no leak... Man that's a tough one. Compression check will rule out whether it is head gasket or piston rings.

Adding the atf to the spark plug hole... On cylinders that have low compression, when you add the atf, if the Compression goes up, piston rings - Compression stays the same, head gasket probably blown.