Gen2 Prius lost engine oil

Yes, these engines are known for high oil consumption especially after 100k miles. A lot of high speed driving (highway trips) can accelerate that consumption. You need to keep a close eye on it.

 

I was under the impression that Gen 2 ICEs were better about oil consumption than say, Gen 3. I am new to Prius and Toyota, just got my '07 Prius in late July. It has gone through almost two quarts of oil since then and I did drive it on a highway a lot. Almost 3K miles since I got it and I would say 60% of those are highway. My fuel consumption is excellent (around 49mpg), but the oil consumption is eating into those cost savings as I am using 5W30 Mobile 1 synthetic at $5/quart. I am still very happy with the car, but this oil consumption thing is not great. Has anyone tried using thicker oil? 10W30, perhaps? I realize the fuel efficiency will suffer, but how much? And more importantly, is it worse for the engine in the long term?

 

The car seems to burn oil faster at highway speeds, so you would use more oil on the highway.

If you're changing oil every 5000 miles, you can switch to a regular dino oil or synthetic blend. That'll reduce the cost a little on the oil burning

 

I have not changed the oil in this car yet. Previous (and original) owner said he switched to full synthetic for 10K mile OCI. I am good with that and I suspect my highway driving will decrease. I'll stick with the current situation and see how things go. So far I have very few minor gripes about this car. This oil consumption is the most serious issue so far. The car has 178K miles on the clock now.

 

I'm not sure I would go 10k oci on an older car with high mileage. Maybe on a newer car. Just seems a bit too long for a vital fluid change

I'm actually going to change my gen3 cars to 5000 oci, just to play it safe

 

Well, if I am adding a quart of new oil every 2K miles, then the oil in there is naturally replaced. I realize the filter is still the same, but the lubricating properties of the oil are renewed every time I top off. I'll definitely give it some thought, though.

BTW, what oil filter is best for these cars? I have a Fram on right now. I hate the orange cans, never used them myself, so next change I am planning on using a better filter. I tend to go with what manufacturer uses, i.e. a Toyota filter in this case or whoever an OEM is for Toyota. I never liked Fram products because I once saw cross section of one. It was a long time ago, but still, my trust in their filters is low. I may be wrong, of course.

 

I buy OEM Toyota filters online, costs about $4.00 each. Haven't had any issues with the OEM stuff

 

That sounds great. I am a big believer in OEM. Where do you get your filters? Amazon? For my Volvo I buy a whole case of Mann folters and they end up costing around $6, which is great.

 

I get all my OEM parts from Camelback toyota's online site. They offer free shipping after $150. So I buy filters and stuff whenever I need to make up some money to get free shipping.

I also have a local supplier that charges around $4.00. But it's just so much easier getting it shipped straight to my house.

 

How many miles on it?

It's not abnormal for an engine to consume a little oil between changes, it's a machine with tolerances. Our 2010 Prius is the FIRST car we've ever had that seems to consume no oil, all our previous Hondas, when new, maybe a cup top up was required between oil changes. As they aged, up to 2~3 cups.

 

I usually buy my Toyota OEM filters either from Amazon or an online dealer, whichever is less expensive.

 

I sudgest to start from cleaning PCV and EGR valve. You can soak them overnight in LA'S totally awesome.
Then, oil flush 50\50 with you current(new!) oil with diesel. Trow ICE in service mode and let it ilde 30-60 min. Did it few times, if clean oil is gonna start came out, flush you engine with 1qt of your oil to clean oil pan, change filter and fill ICE with fresh oil.

 

What's "LA'S"?

 

Was that your only question in that post? Reading it made my head hurt.

 

Choose your battles...

 

That reminds me of when IBM trained customers on servicing the PC. You always resolved the first trouble code since the others may be caused by the first one.

 

First thing IBM ThinkPad and server support would ask: "Did you flash the BIOS?"

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I have about 200k miles (167k + 36600 (odometer swap and service records ) plus an unknown amount of driving between feb '14 and aug '14 so like 203k-208k and I use kendal full synthetic and in about 4k miles I burn about 1/2qt. - 1qt. I change at least every 7k miles and my engine is not been my problem. I found kendall at the 99c only stores (which there not anymore lol) for 2.99 a qt. honestly I am not regretting switching to full synthetic even if I had to buy it online for 50 bucks a case which is a little more I would do it. 5 to 10 bucks extra over 5000 miles (a qt or 2 of synthetic) is 0.1 or 0.2c a mile respectively and honestly nothing to complain about.
my $.02
terramir