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2014 prius v eats oil only on road trips

Discussion in 'Prius v Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Dusty rug, Mar 5, 2021.

  1. Dusty rug

    Dusty rug Member

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    this happened the last 2 times i went on 4k+ week long road trips where after what i admit are long down hill roads, after it gets fully charged it would eat the oil so much i end up having to put in 1-3 quarts in as soon as i can since the oil pressure sigh came on an the oil level was low, what do you guys think its causing this? i use 0w 20 full syth only and change it either 5k or 6 months, so illed like to think i maintain it well enough.

    forgot to mention is doesn't burn any oil in my home city of denver or the mountains, only seems to happen when i go to lower attitudes.
     
  2. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    I find high speed driving (>70) will often use oil. However the 2010-2014 models had a bad piston and ring design that causes much of the problem. The best thing to do is change the oil every 5k and watch the oil level frequently. Running it low can be bad. Also the egr cooler and passages get clogged up and should be cleaned thoroughly at least every 100k.
     
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  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Sustained, high rpms will always consume more oil. I made a hurried trip to Boston a few years ago that consumed noticeably more oil than my normal driving does.

    Pull the dipstick every fillup, and maybe carry a spare quart or two with you on those 4k+ trips. Don't let that light come on, ever.
     
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  4. Dusty rug

    Dusty rug Member

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    thanks for the advice ill look into cleaning the egr soon, i was thinking maybe installing an oil catch can to help with this, but knowing the pistion defect issue, i am going to being 5 quarts when i do my next road trip, would you guys think it would be a good ideal to replace the head gasket, i heard that replacing it might help with this defect and why im at it maybe install piston sleeves, i got a feeling if i do it myself itll take about a week but im wary about taking off the timing chain.

    i did change the transmission oil after my last road trip so im iching to give it an hard break in
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    how many miles on her?
     
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  6. Dusty rug

    Dusty rug Member

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    right now about 150k runs perfectly, im sure if millage applys the same here as it would with a non hybrid car, im pretty happy with it besides having to replace a defective water pump, which was about an hour job lol got an oem pump to replace it too haha
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    definitely jump on the egr circuit asap
     
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  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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  9. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Mostly ... check oil frequently, don't let it get low. Maybe drive a little more slowly on those long trips.

    EGR ... ok, there's a popular school of thought here about that, go for it if you want. Or at least ask the car for its current EGR flow numbers and make a judgment.

    Head gasket preemptively? "Piston sleeves"? Don't open a can of worms fixing what ain't broke. The cast-iron cylinder liners in the block (if that's what you meant by sleeves) are spiny, and nonreplaceable.
     
  10. Dusty rug

    Dusty rug Member

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    thanks for the link, i thinkin im gonna do a full cleaning this weekend, cant wait to see how filthy that egr is gonna be!
    well i thought you could put sleeves on pistions, though my only experience is an old tractor engine, mostly the head gasket since im pretty annoyed with this oil disappearing act, though i think ill wait untill its an real issue to deal with it.

    before i do the egr cleaning what kinda number range am i looking for?
     
  11. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If you pull up the last test details like this:

    [​IMG]

    you can see that the value has to be under 0.99 kPa to fail, and in this example the last test came out more than ten times that, so this car doesn't seem on the verge of failing the test any time soon. It's kind of a judgment call; what would be helpful would be if we had more people who would post their numbers from before cleaning and also post photos of what they found inside. That would help us all be better judges of what the numbers can tell us.

    The value is in kPa, a pressure unit, because what the car is really measuring is how much the pressure in the intake manifold changed when the EGR valve was opened.
     
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  12. Dusty rug

    Dusty rug Member

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    155996691_222537479609481_2038709251293069425_n.jpg my scan tool only shows me this in psi so im pretty sure its not healthful unless i have to test it why im driving, what would you saw is the best way to see detailed info, looks like from that pic your using some kinda software on pc, i know that they have the few thousand dollar software that shops use for high detailed scans
     
  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    1.6 psi converts to around 11 kPa, looks about the same as mine. I haven't looked in my cooler, but the downstream pipes and manifold passages had about a paper-thin layer of carbon I scraped off.
     
  14. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    Some shops, and many DIYers will use a 'mini-vci' cable (20 usd) with techstream (dealer technician software) installed on a windows device (or emulate such). There are higher quality cables that cost more and may enable additional features within techstream.
     
  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    OP already has a scan tool that will retrieve the last value of the EGR flow test. It happens to show the value in psi rather than kilopascals, but that's just an easy conversion.
     
  16. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    The scan tool shows the PSI min and max also.

    Denver has the lower than 87 octane gas available? Hopefully not using that especially when going down to sea level?



    moto g(7) power ?
     
  17. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I think I would prefer to convert the value it displays to kPa, and compare them to the kPa min and max shown in Techstream (which are constants, so they can be taken from the photo upthread if Techstream isn't handy), rather than comparing the psi values as shown.

    Why? Well:

    value = 1.6 psi = 11 kPa

    11 kPa / 0.99 kPa min = test value about 11 times the minimum, looks pretty good

    but

    1.6 psi / 0.1 psi = test value looks 16 times the minimum (!), an overestimate.

    Why does that happen? Rounding. The min 0.99 kPa is 0.144 psi but the tester is rounding that to 0.1, introducing an error of over 30%.

    Also, when you look at the 'max' value in kPa, you see 655.35, which kind of shouts out (to anybody with a computing background, anyway) "we don't care about the max, this is just a min test". But converted to psi, the number 95 just isn't such an obvious tell.
     
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  18. Dusty rug

    Dusty rug Member

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    sorry for late reply, got side tracked with work. i completly cleaned out my egr , it was a little dirty, didnt really see a change in the psi though. so ill keep thinking about why this car drinks oil when im going 75-80 mph on road trips
     
  19. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    Searched up this problem online. Got a possible cause as clogged PCV. Of course the poster mentioned (s)he changed it, but never came back to report the results...

    moto g(7) power ?
     
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  20. Tim Jones

    Tim Jones Senior Member

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    Sounds like you need a new engine.
    My v has 269,000 and uses one quart per 5000 miles and I drive it at 70 most of the time.
    And I have replaced the head gasket. And I don't love my car.....