Is there a way of knowing if a specific engine (2ZR-FXE) is subjected to oil consumption?

I've yet to see a comparison on reliability of this engine in an Lexus versus in a Prius and have never heard of premature head gasket failure for Lexus engine... It's possible the designers at Lexus weren't as stupid as Prius in terms of short-lived piston rings and bad EGR design.

But your best indicator is how many of these engines make it 300K miles without issue... See how many people you can find online with a CT200H that are in the 300K mile club.

There's no such thing as a 300K mile club in the Gen3 forum on here because Toyota is stupid and failed on this engine design.

 

Partway through model year 2014 they switched to higher-tension piston rings and revised pistons (mostly to accomodate the different rings?), supposedly less prone to oil consumption issues down the road. One of the two attachments indicates the VIN at which the revision occurred.

 

But Lexus wasn't as concerned about a tiny bit more MPG with the bad piston rings, so don't you think it's possible they didn't take that risk? Or are the inside parts of an engine specific to that engine type with no mods, which Lexus does with many of Toyota's parts?

 

I think the CT200h is basically the same engine, piston rings and all. Just speculating though. Since parts.Toyota site pooped the bed it's kinda hard to check. In this video is a CT200h with blown head gasket and runaway oil consumption, it's around 200K when the issues were enough to bring it in.

As far as how much the low-tension piston rings improved mpg, this is a bit of a sand pounder:

Toyota Prius MPG - Actual MPG from 8,862 Toyota Prius owners

(note the "big" 0.1 mpg uptick in 2015 model year mpg, practically lost in the noise)

 

Yeah, looks like the Lexus CT200h switched piston rings in model year 2014. The pistons need to change to, since revised rings require different (wider) grooves.

https://parts.longolexus.com/oem-parts/lexus-piston-ring-set-1301137260

 

If the vehicle had its oil changed at 5k miles and the EGR was cleaned before 100k the engine should have a lesser chance of using oil. It’s all about maintaining it. At 124k miles and no usage

 

About the best you can do is have a look at the back of the car. Is it particularly sooty at the tailpipe?

Driving around for 5000km with a couple of dipstick pulls will answer this perfectly, but not much else will.

 

The TSB is Toyota. Lexus might have a similar TSB?

google search :

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2016/MC-10132914-9999.pdf

Excerpt:


The seven digit suffix in above VIN:

2180953

Is a greater number than your VIN, and considering it’s 2011 model year: you’ve got the low-tension piston rings.

 

The original rings don’t have as much outward springiness, and the engines with them have proven more prone to develop excessive oil consumption down the road, say around 150k miles and onward.

 

Not sure. There’s evidence too of the oil drain holes clogging, with orig pistons. Don’t know if new pistons did anything to those drain holes.

Just going with Occam’s Razor: the new rings are wider, won’t fit in the grooves of the original.

 

Is there a way we can find a photo of the new piston compared to the old piston to confirm?

 

Oil drain holes are a factor. Someone's personal experience with oil change frequency does not justify implying that remedy is effective.

 

Checking inside the end of the tailpipe will tell you something. Mine's still very clean in there, since I have only 142232 miles.

 

I’ve a vague recollection there’s a video comparison. @Georgina Rudkus may know: it was by a mechanic with rambling style and a Slavic accent; she’s linked his videos before.

again I’m pretty fuzzy on this.

Missed it: post #13 has that video I was thinking of, and yeah, it's another engine, but worth a watch. I think it's the ring revision that matters, the piston revision was mainly to accommodate different ring dimension; maybe nothing done to oil drain channels.

 

Somebody posted a photo of how old engines "burn" oil on here and was surprised to learn that a bunch of that oil is blowing out via crankcase ventilation rather than combustion. I've always wanted to calculate the carbon footprint for cars that require constant refilling of motor oil and need to better understand how much burns vs how much is lost in non-combusting ways.

 

If you are buying used and the car has 100k miles on it is too late, unless you bought a low mileage car that has had it's oil and filter changes every 6 months at less than 5k miles on the clock for each interval between changes.

It;s the detritus including sludge and varnish that clogs the oil control rings.

It would likely be possible to `achieve 300k miles if the oil was always changed every 3k miles.

Toyota was unwise to promote the 10k oil change at the expense of owners. They are not responsible after 5 years or 60k miles.