Agggh! My Prius burning oil, what to do now?

That should be on all cars, mandatory.

Some years ago I read about a female that bought a brand new BMW, from LA area. Drove to the mountains in Winter, stayed overnight. Next morning she had a frozen cracked block. She didn't know.......................

 

I was not kidding about selling my wife's Prius. Its in great shape, that nice metallic green, except a few bumper dings and that little motor issue. The car is in WNC if you are interested in making an offer. I will be calling area salvage yards next week.
We decided to go back to a Subaru, they did finally make some gains on their gas mileage at least and we really hated the Prius's traction problems.
While I accept full responsible for putting my trust in Toyota as one of the last companies to build high mileage motors and believing the oil rarely needed checking on a car this new ('06), I suspect that there is some, as yet unidentified problem with the rings or pistons in this engine. I checked with my mechanic who did my postmortem and he said that the PCV valve and the oil pickup screen were both clear and couldn't be culprits in this case. He said the inside of the engine looked good and clean for 120K. I still think it's amazing to see that much oil get burned that fast (~6000 miles since it had the oil changed at the dealer). Check that oil often for me folks! I know I will now too! B

 

You may be acting prematurely, your wife's car, that may be critical. Of course, I can't speak for your wife so will relate to my wife. She backed over the bushes twice, the first time she damaged all 4 corners of the car,
Including rubbing the garage door jam. Recently she panicked at a shopping center and did major damage to somebody's van. Things she can't do, check oil, 12V bat level, water levels, starting sequence, back up safely.
She finally quit driving, that was the best solution. You may want to take control of the Prius and obtain a better idea of what is going on.

 

That sounds like a good New Years resolution!

 

My Gen2 is now consuming a small amount of oil in between oil changes. Bought new spent its life on Mobil 1 changed O & F every 5000 miles driven daily. Oil is checked every Saturday before starting the car.

If the G3 motors are using it must be the Atkisson cycle doing it. Never any reports of smoke in the tail pipe unless the engine is toast.

My oil loss is minor. But if your dealer serviced over its life its a death sentence as it seems dealer service removes all owner obligation to open the hood. You'll never know its using oil and the tech will not check it first before changing. And even if he did it would be wrong as it takes quite a while for all the oil to drain back on modern cars which use oil driven VVT. There's a whole little oil section for that oil system including its own little oil filter. It will always measure low without a few hour wait for oil drainback. There's quarter of an inch on the dipstick of oil stuck in the top of the motor.

Oil loss was worse with 0-20. I changed over to some high performance oil with heavier weight Redline 10-30. Engine is extremely quiet now (has ZDP package in this oil) and very smooth. I go 10,000 miles now. Has slowed down the oil loss. Amsoil has excellent engine oil also. Trans fluid not so much. I wouldn't use trans fluid in a Prius unless it was specifically for Dex 6 application.

Its important to keep the oil at the top dimple only. The upper interior of the motor is sling lubricated. And the upper interior parts are the first to fail on an oil starved Prius usually the piston wrist pin or connecting rod.The oil can't get slung if the crank can't hit it. And if its so low in the pan the pickup is going dry around corners and throwing a check engine light its absolutely not slinging any oil either. The top end valve/cam section does not have the load on it like the main bearing/piston assy does and will survive oil loss better. But I bet the top end of a oil starved Prius is probably extremely loud.

And the guys with the wives my wife wouldn't notice if she was dragging a deer behind her. Its my responsibility to take care of her car. She has nothing to do with it except to smash it up once in a while. I'm grateful when she fills it up. And if you must go to dealer for an oil change make sure you check it the next morning. Btw, more bad news if you bought dealer pre paid maintenance for your car they use Dino Vat oil. The dirtiest crappiest oil you can use. And its pneumatically injected with a very inaccurate gun so they always give an extra shot or 2 so its not under filled. So its always over filled.

So every Saturday before I start the cars I check all the oil. And I drive her car. Oh look there's a dash light on......lol...

 

Isn't it wonderful? If you're not burning oil, I would just leave it alone for now, lol. Here's member nutzaboutbolts excellent video on spark plug access. Yes, it is nuts: you need to remove windshield trim, wiper blades, wiper motor and arms, and cowl. Lots of wrenching :

 

Yeah I think it would be helpful for block heater install. I just had the dealership do ours, when we purchased.

 

no, it's not that. if rings were not seated, there would be oil consumption from the day one.

there is no such a survey, but it's pretty obvious that people who pile miles fast drive mostly hwy.

and yes, we do know prius uses "softer" rings, for better fuel efficiency. it's there in the engine specs.

oil rings are responsible for scraping oil and not compression. that's no1 ring job. so, stuck oil rings will NOT lower compression.

as for the ring staggering, that important for the initial start up only. later the rings rotate, and they have random arrangement.

those sensors add complexity and cost. they are also known to fail. a few engines were burned up in Merc or BMW due to those sensors kaput.

looking forward for those. i can compare to the pictures to those i took in my RAV4 (non-oil burner).

 

Why is it green? Lightning issue? Otherwise, not bad. My cars have worse carbon, probably due to city driving. Didn't check prius yet due to access issue.

 

they have a bit of ash on the ground strap and ceramic insulator. the discoloration is called corona: Corona stain | NGK Spark Plugs UK

 

when i had an oil burner corolla, i noticed little oil burning in the first 3000 miles of new oil and then a quick acceleration of the burn.
but, when i did some piston ring cleaning, oil burn would slow down in the first 5000 miles of new oil. now this is with a car that had issues with piston oil holes prone to plugging up (hot pistons).