Bought my car new. Never missed an oil change or scheduled maintenance. Dealer did almost all service as recommended by manufacturer. At 90,000 miles, the oil light suddenly came on, and I found myself 3 qts. low. No leaks. It ain't the PVC valve. I read some of the sane, sensible, sound advice I got here and from the Car Talk site, and consulted with the dealer and a couple of independent mechanics. I placed a paper towel up to the tailpipe to see liquid oil forming on the towel. It ain't the PCV valve. It's piston rings. My '88 Corolla had 151,000+ miles on it when I traded it in for full value. Now at 93,000 miles, the 2001 will not live to be two-thirds the age of its predecessor. The shock of having to shell out $$$ for another car is awful. The disappointment and disillusionment with the Toyota Company runs just as deep. I'm now shopping for a Honda. :-/

I purchased this 2001 Corolla in December 2000. It worked great for the first few years, but It started consuming oil more and more. Currently it uses a couple quarts of oil every 1,000 miles. This is my 3rd Toyota. With the first two vehicles, I rarely changed the oil more than twice a year. To have to put oil in a car every 1,000 miles is ridiculous. I can't believe that Toyota is not aware of this problem. If these guys don't dome clean about the problem, I think my next car WILL NOT be a Toyota. Too much pain add oil every other week!

This first showed up in November 2009 when my wife told me the oil light was on and I found the oil was dry. I thought it was odd because she drives 80+ miles round trip daily for work and always gets the oil changed every 3000-5000 miles. We filled it and the oil light came on again in December. We took it to the dealer and they asked for a 500 mile driving test. We went back and they found nearly a quart down after 620 miles.

Their suggestion right out of the box was to replace the engine. The dealer service adviser kept pushing me toward a used engine they had available immediately for $4500 because the cost for tearing down the engine just for diagnosis would have $2000 to start. We'll keep looking for a solution, but for right now, it's once weekly oil checks and a gallon in the trunk.

The dealership said they had never seen this before. It took only fifteen minutes of Googling before I found that this is a common problem with the Corollas of a certain mileage.

My wife and I are the past/current owners of 1992, 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2008 Corollas. My parents had a 1969 Corolla that lasted until 1992 and that experience taught me the quality. This oil problem and the current recalls show me that Toyota no longer stands for quality.

Same problem as the 2002 Corolla. Car received regular check-ups including 60,000 mile check up before taking a 2,000 mile trip. Light flickered a couple times when starting the engine but went off. After I got home was driving to a service station and the engine rattled and light came on....absolutely no oil. Dealer says the car burns oil due to grade of gas we get in Michigan...a foreign car repairman says its the poor grade of oil the dealership uses....dealer implied it was my responsibility to check the oil. I never had problems before and always had it in every 3,000 miles. Another said something wrong in the piston causes it to burn oil, but it will not show in the exhaust. Foreign car repairman said they get these problems all the time. Why is there no recall or any notice that this is a problem. I am now doing an oil consumption check and was told not to add oil or check it but to come back after 500 miles to see what the consumption is. In the meantime, I am looking for another car, but not a Toyota.