why is he a tool for driving a camry?

yeah, i don't mind admitting i'm wrong when it comes to the oil question (i guess i forgot we're not all driving formula 1 cars lol) but i totally don't get this either

I know a car isnt a person, but like a doctor you are allowed to get a second opinion from another mechanic.

The other thing, as others have said, could be any of a number of causes. Go see a mechanic ftw.

Edit: as in most cases, seeing an expert is infinitely better than asking the opinion of a bunch of anonymous people on a totally unrelated web forum.

I'm gonna set it straight for everyone here. Most of you are on the right track but have a few details mixed up.

A. If you're burning blue smoke out of the tailpipe, that means you're either in need of a re-ring, as the oil rings are allowing oil on top of the piston, where they are burned into smoke and expelled through the exhaust valve or,
B. Your exhaust valve seals are worn, allowing oil into the exhaust from the top of the cylinder head. You should never see blue smoke in the tailpipe under normal operation.

Thinner oil vs. thicker oil. It is highly recommended that you stick with the manufacturers oil weight rating for the most part. However, as an ASE certified engine specialist I have used THICKER oil in car with high mileage. When engines are built, the usual tolerances for gap clearance for your crank and rod bearings, generally fall between .003" - .005" but in rare occasion may be as loose as .007" and tight as .001". Depends on the maker. As time wears on, these gaps become larger, say .0005" for every 100,000 miles. The only time I switch to a thicker grade of oil for any given vehicle, is if I can still hear engine ping (which is a very light tap) right after an oil change. Old oil will start to ping in high mileage engines after about 1,500 miles. BOTTOM LINE - new engines have very tight gaps in the bearings that touch the crankshaft. If you have an oil consumption problem, (where blue smoke is coming out of the exhaust) Putting thicker oil in your motor will not allow proper flow through the gaps between crucial bearing surfaces on the crank. This could cause premature bearing wear due to inadequate lubrication and could lead to very expensive engine repairs down the road. The best thing to do in a blue smoke situation is to decide. Either you pay a mechanic like myself to find and correct the problem or, you deal with it and prepare to pay attention to your oil levels. And constantly adding oil to your engine does not substitute an oil change, even if you do change the filter every few thousand miles, as sludge still does form up.

Lastly, SYNTHETIC OIL - Synthetic oil by definition, is a lubricant made by man with little or no natural petrolatum. Synthetic oil molecules are much smaller and more uniform in size, allowing better distribution of forces and pressures that help to reduce friction between steel surfaces that make dynamic contact, (piston rings and cylinders for example) It is because of these smaller molecules that people commonly find more oil leaks, as they are capable of leaking down between smaller cracks and crevices. A good example to understand what I'm talking about is 2 jar of marbles. one jar has small marbles all the same size whereas the other, has all different size marbles. The jar with the smaller, same-sized marble represents synthetic oil. Obviously the other jar represents conventional oil, in which the larger marbles will sometimes plug tiny leaks. Oil weight has nothing to do with it. Weight is determined in a lab by SAE and defines the oil's ability to protect at certain levels of friction and temperature.

I think that about covers it. If I missed anything, feel free to comment.

The dates of the posts, apparently.

Lots of research though...

Sick bumpe.

I wish KK would post more.

lol, how on earth did you come to a 4.5 year old thread to give that advice?

Also, I thought any thread past whatever recent date the forum was upgraded was in the archives and not possible to bump anymore?

You should have said this oilier.

Yeah but then I might risk being wrong on the Internet more often than once every 4.5 years

blood is thicker than oil

Grunching: I don't know.

kk,
update on that 88 Camry plz,
thx

All I know is that I had a '93 Accord, and in 2008 (after this thread, completely unbeknownst to me at the time, had already lived and died) at 150K+ I started using "high mileage" oil. The car used to leak all over the place - I ruined at least 3 street-fronts in front of various houses I lived at and you can probably still see the results on the Google Map pictures thing. No more leaking after I switched to high mileage.

Now, that might not necessarily have been the best thing for the car, but it definitely solved the annoying leakage without the hassle of actually doing things right and seeing a mechanic.