Losing Alot Of Oil And My Engine Management Light Is Flasing

[woodydoobydoo]

hi could any one help me out i dont no what is wrong with my car i have a toyota celica vvti 2001 gen 7 i keep toping up with oil very 200 miles and my engine management light is flasing on and it stays on aswell and i have white smoke coming from the exhaust and its has lost a bit of power. And when i am at the traffic light ect my car shakes from the engine cheers stuart

[Black Knight]

Sounds like a blown head gasket.

White smoke is normally steam from the coolant getting into the bores.

The oil consumption could be from the head gasket having gone (allowing oil into the bores to be burnt off) or the old favourite of oil consumption on these engines (again oil gets into the bores and is burnt off)

The engine running faults and light on are probably from misfires or similar due to loss of compression I'd guess

[woodydoobydoo]

thanks for the reply will i need a new engine

[Black Knight]

Well firstly I haven't seen the engine so I'm making a guess based on your description. However if you're not clear about what you're looking at and explaining I might be giving you a dubious diagnosis.

Take it to a garage and get them to have a look at it.

The smoke coming from the back will either be a clear white or a more bluish colour. If it's white it's likely to be water getting in the bore. If it's blue it'll be the oil that you've noticed going missing. They'll also likely do a compression check which based on the running problems you're having I'd expect to find a loss of compression.

If it is the head gasket it shouldn't need a new engine but it will need some fairly hefty surgery. Essentially take the cylinder head off, skim it flat and put a new gasket it.