New to owning a Prius - Noises are they Normal?

This is normal. As the ICE warms up, it goes into stage at which it can shut down completely at the stoplights. That requires some kind of self-calibration of the engine idle speed. It revs up a little, and then down and then shuts up completely. Mine does it but only once over my trip to work.

P.S. - You have a very sensitive ears for all these noises

- Alex

 

Once you find out what the normal (full) level is on your drive. As long as the car maintains that level you are ok even if it is not the level the dipstick reads on level ground. If it goes down top it up to the driveway level.

John (Britprius)

 

Exactly. It does not matter if the level falls as you use the car a little as long as it is not below the low mark, but it should preferably be half to full. It s better to be slightly under full than over full. Over filling the oil on the Prius causes problems, and should be avoided.

John (Britprius)

 

Preferably to the full mark dimple. Very easy to hit that after you check in the am. Don't be surprised if its eating alot of oil.

Change the oil asap and use Mobil 1 5-30 and the oem filter found at the dealer for $4.50. Buy a few.
The car takes exactly 3.7 quarts of oil with a new oil filter.

 

Yeah checking at work is fine just make sure the car has sat for a few hours. Check it every other day for a while. You may be lucky and own the only 150K+ Prius that does not consume oil.

 

you know, I've been using synthetic and never really noticed them using much oil. and, every 5k when the maint light comes on, the old oil isn't even very dirty looking.

 

I was getting this on and off for quite some time and never figured out what it was. It was very faint and I could only hear it when the car was at a stop and the engine was off. I think I realized at some point it was come from or near the inverter area. Interestingly it has not returned since the inverter pump recall was performed.

This is not the same loud annoying beep you get when backing up.

 

No Prius has only low oil pressure warning. When it comes on it may already be too late.

 

You can find the answer to that question yourself, grasshopper.

Check it weekly at the outset, if there's not much drop, you're overdoing it, increase interval.

 

Prius doesn’t have any smart monitor on oil change interval. So just select interval that you like and use that.

 

Sounds ok to me. Hopefully it wasn't changed at a dealer which means it got vat oil. Getting it changed at the dealer is somewhat troublesome to a car that may be eating oil as the oil change guy will never check the oil before he dumps it so it could be running very low all the time and the owner never knows it till one day they hear a engine knock. They bring it to the dealer and get the bad news and trade it in on the spot. Dealer sells it at auction. Guy buys it and we get to meet him here with a sad auction story and a car that has a bad knock. Lots of folks keep driving it and that ends not well. Seen lots of those guys. They think they stole it auction. Not so much.

So many people think this car is so special only the dealer can open the hood. Which is great for the owner as it relieves them of all responsibility. Till the engine blows up and dealer says you should have checked your oil its empty. Then there like hey only you guys changed the oil. Dealer says so what...we didn't empty the oil.


When I buy a used car I change all the fluids. Because just in the mechanical of changing the fluids I sometimes stumble across issues. Your car may have its original transmission fluid. In fact if all the receipts you have are from a dealer I can almost guarantee it.

 

Oh and the oil idiot light comes on after the car is almost empty of oil. It really sucks. That one time light on event usually cause it to eat oil as it damages the oil rings. Unless you keep driving it and then it damages the mains.