Engine Kicking On After Start

Well that is super weird. Definitely no visible seals to detect tampering anywhere under the hood. Maybe under the car? Didn't look there. I guess I'll be stopping in today to see what's going on.

 

No paper record. I will definitely be recording the next conversation. Service tech said I was lucky I brought it in when I did so it would be covered under warranty. I didn't ask questions when he said that but I assumed it had something to do with the timing of the oil change and the safety inspection 17 days prior.

It's really sounding like they are trying cover their bums for messing up the safety inspection. They had the oil level wrong and they had the condition of my brakes wrong.

 

I stopped into the dealership but the guy I worked with before wasn't there. I talked to another guy who looked up my records and said he thought there's really no way it will be covered unless there's a tech bulletin he doesn't know about. I told him how I'm in the oil consumption test but there are no seals to prevent me from tampering. He said it doesn't sound like I'm actually in the oil consumption process then.

I then told him about my experience with my safety inspection and he made a comment about how the service tech guys all work on commission so he was probably mad and lazy when I declined the hundreds of dollars of upcharges.

Putting a couple things together, I'm thinking he put me in a fake oil consumption test (no seals) to prove to me I need to purchase a new engine and claim he never said it was covered under warranty.

He comes in a 7am tomorrow so I'll be there with quite a few questions.

 

Just a quick update:

Decided to just wait until the 1,100 - 1,300 mile mark. I called to ask if I could bring it in early twice (once spoke to a certified Toyota tech and the other time getting a message from the service rep who helped me initially) and they both said I need to wait and that they couldn't do anything if I brought it in early. I'm not sure why they'd be so set on making me wait if it's not really in the oil consumption process especially at the risk of damaging the engine further (dip stick shows no oil now). I have about 300 miles to go to hit the low end.

I also didn't want to go in the day after speaking with a new rep to have my initial service rep all prepared to answer my questions.

On a different note - I got an email asking for feedback on my initial appointment (the safety inspection on 12/30). I left an honest and detailed review and got a voicemail the next day from the service manager telling me that they did in fact mark my oil wrong (i.e. didn't even check it) and he'd like to offer me a few free oil changes to gain my trust back. I haven't returned the call yet and probably won't until the whole oil consumption test is over but I figured it's not a bad thing to have the service manager on record telling me that his shop lied on my initial safety inspection in case something goes wrong with the oil consumption test.

 

Well an unfortunate, though expected, update:

I brought the car in yesterday after 1200 miles of driving for the oil consumption test. They told me I was down about 1.75 quarts in 1200 miles so I failed the test. "Unfortunately your year and model are not under warranty". So if I want to fix it, I have to pay $3,500 for them to replace the pistons in the engine. He said "this is a deal for the trouble you've been through with us and this car" meaning the botched safety inspection and me recently purchasing the car.

I asked the service rep why he told me it would be covered and he denied it. So then I asked why he made me think it would be covered and he said I was confused because he was only talking about the consumption test being free of charge. I guess I mistakenly took the following quotes to assume he was talking about replacing my engine:

"You've got a very small engine leak but we don't want you to have to pay to fix that when we might get you a new engine after this test"
"It's a good thing you brought it in when you did so it's covered otherwise this could be a really expensive fix"
In response to me saying "This is one of those rare times where I guess I'm rooting for there to be something wrong" - he said "Yeah, I would too!"

Anyway...
Anything I can do on my own to help this burning oil issue? I'm definitely not paying the dealership that lied to me to fix it. Looks like it will cost me about $8 of topping off oil every 1,000 miles so at that rate it would take another 400,000+ miles to even hit the amount of the piston fix.

 

Appreciate the info! Seeing as I topped my original budget ($8,500) when I purchased this vehicle in December, I definitely don't have $3k+ to spend on this car for the foreseeable future. I purchased because of how much Toyota brags about the Prius being a low maintenance vehicle and my previous experience with the Prius. This would be the most I've ever spent on maintaining a car. I don't mind dropping $500 every now and then for brakes and other typical issues but this seems pretty ridiculous.

It's even more ridiculous because Toyota knows it's an issue hence the oil consumption test and subsequent warranty. Are others upset about this oil test / warranty? It seems like quite a sham since the oil consumption bulletin is from November 2016 and covers 2010-2014 engines with the warranty being 60 months or 60,000 miles which means the 2010-2012 (and I'm sure many of the newer) vehicles were never covered even though Toyota admitted there was an issue.

I'm honestly considering selling and being transparent about the issue to recoup some of my investment and purchasing a higher mileage Prius v and just hope it doesn't have the issue. I bought a 2012 v with 190k miles about a year ago for $5k and that one is rock solid.

 

I have a meeting scheduled with the service manager next week so I'm going to explain my whole thing and see what happens. I don't suspect they'll offer me much, but I've had a pretty terrible experience and I'm not afraid to go to Yelp, Google, Facebook, etc with the details of my experience. We'll see.

I've got my first kid on the way in April so I could really only swing about $1,000 on a fix for this since it doesn't seem like a necessary deal. I don't have a problem adding a quart every 1,000 miles - it's just a nuisance.

Good to know!

Where is all that oil going? I have no leaks underneath and a tiny leak under the hood.

 

I went in yesterday and spoke to the service rep. The original quote was already discounted. He said the normal labor rate is 129.99 and he gave it to me at 125 for my troubles. Can't come down more than that. That seems more like a joke than anything.

As for the other questions - yes, they'd send out to a machine shop. Yes to new head bolts (at least that's in the quote).

My question is - what happens if I don't do the fix and just top off every 1500 miles? Long-term engine damage? Any other mods or maintenance (thinking EGR system, oil can install) that can help prevent long term damage if there is the possibility? If there's no possibility of long-term damage, I may just top off every 1500. Otherwise I may just resell the vehicle (being honest about the issue unlike my seller), and buy a higher mileage Prius v to make up the different in money I lost.