Excessive Oil Consuption Significantly Worse in 2010 Model?

i have not read this complaint here. it is difficult to believe individual comment. mileage, maintenance and usage are so important. unfortunately, when you buy used, you can only know the first two. but if you're buying an average mileage 2010, with complete maintenance history, you shouldn't have any problems. and no, they have not changed the piston rings.

there are people here, with higher mileage prius, who have to add some oil between 10,000 mile changes, but that is not unusual for any high mileage vehicle.

 

I have a 2010 with oil burning issues since 50k miles. Dealer services up to that point

 

Right now it's at about 1qt every 3k, my 2006 gen2 is slightly worse. My 2010 is mainly a locally driven car, doesn't see much freeway action

 

2010 with 96000 miles and has yet to burn any oil.

 

We have a 2010, manufacture date Aug 2009, currently a bit past 50,000 km's. This is the first car we've ever had that (knock on wood) is consuming zero oil between changes.

That said, we're on the Canadian 8000 km or 6 month oil change interval; the oil barely get's a chance to settle down in the sump before it's out the drain hole.

 

I've always suspected some dealerships not using the proper 0w-20 synthetic oils on their changes. Giving you dino oil and going 10k miles will probably cause issues to the engines.

So with my new 2015, I plan to drain whatever I get from the dealer at 5000 miles

 

what are you talking about? they changed the whole engine!

i don't have oil consumption (@60,000miles), but from reading here gen 2 oil complains are closer to 200,000 miles, while the gen 3 is closer to 100,000 miles (if it happens at all). BTW, oil consumption is just an annoyance as there is no harm to the engine if one remembers to check oil levels.

there was a study that showed that ICE works harder in hybrids and has more deposits: interesting oil study by Infineum | PriusChat

 

My buddy has a 2012 with 100K on it. He performs oil changes at the 10K recommended interval. He told me his last change only had about 1.5 quarts left. This is the first he has noticed any issue and is starting to monitor more closely. Hopefully, it is a symptom of a more simple problem.

 

66K miles and no oil use. And that's in tough Alaska winters.
With that said, I could see how these engines would be prone to excessive consumption. .. starting/stopping frequency.

 

they changed the engine after 2010?

 

bchaney's question appears to be whether there were any changes in piston ring design during the almost six years of 3G engine production.

To the extent that oil consumption is reported on 2010 models, that is probably because they on average have logged more miles compared to the newer 3G model years.

In my opinion, oil consumption is a minor issue compared to many issues that a used vehicle might have - unless the consumption resulted from poor maintenance (such as extended oil change intervals) and/or allowing the engine oil level to decline below the lower dipstick dimple.

Bisco is saying that he is unaware of a piston ring design change within the 3G model year range from 2010 through 2015. I also am unaware of any such engine changes.

Jacek is correctly pointing out that a new 1.8L engine design was implemented for model year 2010, compared to Classic and 2G Prius which had 1.5L engines.

 

Well, I just wish somebody would get to the bottom of these persistent reports of some seemingly well-maintained Prii starting to drink oil---especially whether it's because they're using 0W-20, or because they're not. Does anyone even know whether the issue has more to do with rings and cylinder walls, or with valve stem seals?

At about 48,500, mine is consuming very little, so far. I'm not sure whether that's a good omen, long-term.

My previous car went over 600K miles without any radical increase in oil consumption, although it was never very low, even when new.

 

You are worried about a problem you don't have. Don't worry about it.

 

Never seen any consumption issues with either GII or GIII, but Pearl and Pearl S are low mileage vehicles. Do note that Pearl DID use almost a litre in the 8000 km interval, but that was made up by fuel in the oil. Ditto for Pearl S.

The Prius engine IS NOT a "harder working engine" as implied in the "study". In fact, it works decidedly LESS hard. It does not, for example, pull the vehicle hard under acceleration, as it is assisted by MG2. And starting and stopping it is not a problem either, as proved time and again, in other "studies". In fact, because the Prius engine is not worked "hard" it does not often heat up the oil as much as "normal" vehicles, to vaporize the fuel (and water) that accumulates in it. Hence the level does not seem to drop over the change interval. And the reason the Canadian models still use the 5000 mi/8000 km change interval is our vehicles operate at lower ambient temps. so the water and fuel buildup is worse than in the southern and central US.

Finally, in other "studies", engines that actually use some oil (not excessive amounts, but up to a qt. in 1000 mi) tend to last longer. The reason is the rings get -good- lubrication, and the vehicle tends to be maintained better (owner has to keep an eye on the oil level). I hardly ever check the oil level in Pearl S because it doesn't use any, but if it did I would be checking it often.

 

2010, 82600kms. It's been 5mo since my last oil change. I just checked the dipstick and it is near the max line. I've only had dealer oil changes and asked for 0W20 every time since ownership. I try to stay at the 8000KM recommendation but have gone up to 10000km between services.

I rarely check oil level so I can't say for sure if my car is consuming it or not. But today's data point makes me feel pretty comfortable.

 

That's interesting. It's also old-time conventional wisdom. Whether it has been rendered obsolete by today's technology or not seems to be an open question.

 

I have a 2010 sitting at 79k miles, burns 1/8-1/4 quart (100-200 ml) per 5k mile OCI (I use percise measurement for all my drain and fill and keep track with oil consumption) so far I'm using mobil 1 afe 0w-20 I do plan do 50% mobil 1 high mileage 5w-20 and Mobil 1 afe 0w-20 eventually (cams are getting a little noisy under acceleration) 5k OCI from previous owner from dealer to 58k mi then I took over and I mostly drive highway 70%-30%. I always try to get my engine to do a full heat cycle (get engine water temp to 185-195*F) and I rarely do short distance (all trips > 5 mile)

On the other hand my 2007 camry on guzzles oil like mad around 1qt -1000 miles we even did the oil consumption test at the dealer and they said its normal/ within spect to do that I came to a conclusion of by the time you reach the 5k/6mo oil change interval your oil sump be bone dry, we when bold and see how long our oil last by the time We hit 3500 miles the low oil pressure light was beginning to flicker on and off (oil below the oil pump pick up pipe)

 

It depends on what is causing the oil consumption. Oil consumption can be caused by bad valve stem seals, lose piston rings, blocked oil return holes, cylinder wall wear, or broken piston rings.

I think that many Prius engines consuming oil is caused by blocked piston oil return holes. I have seen it on older Toyota engines. And couple of users here have reported that the trick to clean the piston oil return holes have fixed their oil consumption.