engine oil went dry

No we don't agree.

The last car I owned was a Corolla.
It always used about a quart every 5K miles. It seems that was a little high for that model.
At about 80K miles, it started using a bit more.......like a qt. every 3-4K miles.
Before that was a Cadillac; it started using a bit more at 110K.
Before that was a Ford truck...............
EVERY car I have ever owned that went over 80K miles started using a bit more oil.

JUST BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE REPORT NO EXTRA USEAGE AT HIGH MILEAGE DOES ***NOT*** MEAN THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD EXPECT THAT.

And I guess I am "marginalizing" the problem of increased oil usage at higher mileages because I think it is not a "problem" but is just something one should expect might happen.......no matter what brand or type of engine you have. They ALL wear with use. Some more than others by model and some more than others within a given model.

Anyway, what's the point of fretting about it ??
It is what it IS and there ain't much if anything you can do about it.

 

If I owned an American car that took 5 qts to fill and required oil changes every 3k miles I would be less observant. The Prius does not have a lot of oil reserve and the change interval is 3x longer, so I am more careful.

 

Like I thought, you didn't understand my point, yet you raised a lot of noise.

Here are my points again (and I can't make it any clearer):

There are many posts here and otherwise showing that it's common for both gen 2 and gen 3 Prius to develop severe oil consumption by 150,000 miles, and sometimes, much earlier than that. The Atkinson cycle engines involved are 1NZ-FXE and 2ZR-FXE. Yet the same engines in Otto cycle service are NOT KNOWN to have any oil consumption problems whatsoever, regardless of mileage. Specifically: 1NZ-FE in Scion, Yaris, and Echo and 2ZR-FE in 2009+ Corolla.

The corolla you had with oil consumption had probably 1998-2003 1ZZ-FE engine, well known for piston oil holes issues. I had one of those and had oil consumption starting from 70,000 miles or so. Cadillacs are also very well known for oil consumption. Don't know about Fords.

Looks like your personal experience biased you to think it's normal to have oil consumption in modern cars, while it's not entirely correct. Some engines (by the design or mistakes in the design) are predisposed to have oil consumption and some by design rarely ever have any consumption unless abused.

 

For someone who is not trying to be insulting, you sure have a strange choice of phrases.

And I do not mis-understand your point at all.
And I do not think that my opinion can be written off as just so much "noise".

Again, what exactly IS your point in making a big deal about this ??

There is something in the design of the Prius engines that (apparently) causes them to use more
oil after ~150,000 miles. So what ?? So do some other engines; so do a LOT of other engines.

Making other owners aware that his is likely to happen is one thing.
Speaking like you somehow think Toyota has screwed everyone who has bought one of those models is quite a different thing and not a fair or reasonable stance to take, in my opinion.

I'm done......since you aren't listening......and/or don't really care what anybody else thinks.
I love discussions; I hate pointless arguments.

 

It goes both ways.
Over and out.

 

Listen I think the discussion needs to be separated into two different topics.

Should you regularly check your Oil level? Should you NEVER let it get too low?
Yes.

Should the Oil be completely dry or gone in 5000 miles?
No.

This is NOT a 10-15 year old vehicle. It's a 2010 with 75,230 miles on it.

Yes, check it. The moment of discovery, shouldn't be every 5000 miles at the dealership. You don't want to be relying on the fact that the engine isn't "knocking" or when you DO hear the knocking it's probably going to come seconds before the engine totally fails.

But No, that isn't a "normal" amount of consumption for 5000 miles on a vehicle with that amount of miles on it.

 

Hi All,

I am also facing a similar oil consumption issue with my 2010 Gen III Prius, now with 102.000 miles
I usually drive fast but without flooring it constantly, and I mainly do 25 miles highway trips, 2 times a day, so I go two times a year to the dealer to perform the regular maintenance.
Never noticed any oil consumption and everytime I checked the dipstick it showed the oil in the correct level, with a clean gold colour. I admit that I could do more frequent oil level checks though ...
I had total confidence on the car, since it never failed me.

After the last maintenance on the dealer, I did around 7500 miles without checking the oil level, and one day I saw the orange triangle flash one or two times in the corners. Ignored it at first, since nothing seemed wrong.
Then, on a long and fast curve, I could clearly saw the orange triangle flash again but now followed by the 'Low Oil Pressure' message.

This was the only time I could clearly read the message. The other 2 or 3 times the orange triangle flashed so rapidly that I thought it was the tipical ESP warning light, since it showed only while cornering.

After being able to read the message, I stopped the car and waited a few minutes before checking the oil level while starting to get very worried. Has I suspected, the oil did not show on the dipstick, so it was definitely low. I went to buy 5 quarts of 5W30 oil to top it up, and had to put about 2,5 quarts on it.

After this episode, I went to the dealer and exposed the issue, since all the oil changes have been done there. I started to think that something had to be very wrong with the last oil change (maybe they did not change the oil, or did not fill it up properly ...) but I couldnt prove anything. Maybe the car has been using oil before and I never noticed, but at the time it seemed to me that the problem must had been caused by external factors and never wanted to believe that the problem may indeed be true in a Gen III Prius.

After reading many posts here I now see this is a known issue and Toyota should not ignore it. It definitely seems to me that these engines, or at least some of them, suffer from premature wear on certain usage conditions.

I reported the issue few miles before the Hybrid System Warranty expires (here it expires at 100.000 miles, I reported the issue at 99.500 aprox), and the dealer told me that we had to do an 'Oil Consumption Test' to retrive appropriate data in order to report the issue to Toyota, since the Hybrid System (which includes the Internal Combustion Engine ) is still in the warranty period.

By now, I find the car is using 1/2 a qart for every 1900 miles, and I guess this will only get worse with time.
The dealer told me that Toyota does not repair oil burning issues. They replace the entire motor if they assume the problem.
After reading the famous 1 quart per 600 miles threshold on the manual, my expectations are low.

I have had other Toyotas before, none of them had these kind of issues.
After this episode, the quality perception I have from Toyota decreases a lot.

Regards to all.

 

i don't see this as a 'known issue'. yes, there are some prius that consume some oil between changes. i don't see enough here to get the impression that there is a defect of some sort. perhaps you're right about the dealer messing up, and running the car 2 1/2 quarts low caused permanent damage. i would stay on the dealer, as well as toyota. all the best!

 

I'm surprised someone from Portugal uses American Quarts and miles, rather than litres and kilometres.

It could happen I guess. Let's see a picture of the OP stood next to his Portuguese registered Prius. Maybe if he holds a recent newspaper and a hat - just so we know it's him and not a random picture from the web. Being a 2010 registered Prius it would of course have 2010 Portuguese registration plates

Otherwise it's another one hit wonder with some strange fault not reported elsewhere on the forum.

Will they rise to the challenge?

 

Why are you surprised GrumpyCabbie ?
I intentionally converted liters and kilometers to miles and quarts since I thought it would be easier to the majority of the members to immediately understand the units...

I just told the story as it happened, and yes, maybe I did wrong labeling it as a "known issue". The similarities with the situation reported on the first post of this topic and all the other topics about oil consumption on well maintained priuses lead me to that unthought conclusion, and for that I leave my apologies.

I am a member of this community for some time, but with almost no participation, I know. Only 2 posts I guess. But I do read it frequently since I admire the spirit around it and the usefull information and experiences shared here.

As far as the situation Itself, I am not trying to find who has guilt or not, because I too am responsible to check the oil level, and probably should have done it more frequently.

Please don't take me wrong.
All the best.

 

Ridiculous.

Why would someone bother to concoct a Portuguese origin when the question is oil consumption ?

 

you learned the lesson and prevented the engine from self destruction. some people had to learn a more expensive lesson after having to buy a new engine. i had one oil burner and one oil leaker in the past. it sure was annoying, but didn't stop them from retired at old age with no premature death.

 

Because there are too many one post members with strange and bizarre posts lately. If he posts a picture of his portuguese registered car holding a newspaper and a hat then I believe they're for real. Otherwise, what with his perfect American English I call it one of the many troll attacks we've been having on here these last 6 months.

I don't buy it.

 

considering your perfect American English, you should be a troll, right?
you need to dial down your paranoia a bit lower.

 

It's in the Owners Manual, page 428:



Pretty pathetic, but hey.

 

so, on a 10,000 mile oil change that's how many quarts?

 

C'mon, look on the bright side: if you're consuming a quart every 600 miles, you don't need to change the oil.

FWIW, I've yet to see any drop in oil level between changes, on ours. And that's a first.

 

What else ?



See the units on the dashboard ?
Can you convert those km to miles ?
See the hat ?
See the portuguese magazine ? Can you understand what is written on it ?

See the message on the white sheet of paper ? Can you translate the portuguese sentence ?

Now take that compliment from the Pope, and god bless you

 

That's fairly convincing ...... Prius, hat, note in English and a magazine ..... Seems legit Grumpy

 

Cuphron,

I apologize on behalf of Grumpy -- he has better days.
And very cricket of you to not take offense