Oil Burning Prius...Common Factors?

i think you can lose oil through burning in the combustion process.

 

Every car I've ever changed the oil on has some odd-ball amount, it's no big deal. When you say full unit, keep in mind there's various units in use around the world, it'd be impossible to keep everyone happy.

That said, you're likely fine putting in 4 US quarts, more-or-less right in the middle of the spec range. A lot of folks like to set it on the top mark though: ensures more oil at work in there, and gives you more leeway, in the event of some consumption.

I buy oil by the liter, at the dealership. First time around I buy 5, pour in 4, and and an extra 200 cc from the 5th (metric spec is 4.2 liters, to put the oil on top mark). For the next 4 oil changes I buy 4, and keep contributing 200 cc from that bottle, at each change. So far it's consuming zip between changes, so that 5th bottle tends to last.

This is actually unusual in my experience: typically with our previous Hondas, oil level would drop at least a cup between changes.

 

your logic shatters me//

 

But the point is that if you're not checking, then you won't know if you have issues until something catastrophic happens. For example, if you find your car is consuming oil because you checked it, then you have that chance to fix it or dump the car while the problem is still minor. If you don't check it and run it out of oil and destroy the engine (worst case), you've substantially reduced the value of the car if you do decide to get rid of it.

 

you're driving a low mile '13. i can't argue with that.
i haven't seen any oil burning on my owner, well maintained pri, including my daughters '08 with 100k, and my neighbors '04 with 140k.
i don't bother with my 2012, with 40,000 miles, unless i'm going on a long trip.
the times i have checked, there's no movement on the dipstick.

for people with a used or high mile prius, i would check once a week or every fill up.

 

Consider re-using your used oil containers. A lot of oil recycling places are amenable to just pouring out your container and returning it to you. Or even better, allow you to do it yourself, have a waste oil tank open to the public during business hours. This reduces the quantity of oil-fouled containers in the recycle stream.

 

Just to argue with myself: guess you've got a used gallon oil container to deal with, anyway. Nevermind.

Maybe if someone was selling bulk oil, where you brought in your container, they pump in a measured amount?

 

For those of us that also own aging Fords and Chevys, we tend to get a bit paranoid especially as the miles add up

 

But if you buy the extra quart and you onlt use half of it you have another half quart for the next change.

 

don't try common sense on us. we're onto your shenanigans, mister.

 

My 2010 Prius started burning more oil around 70k miles. It started heavily burning more oil at 130k miles, at which point I switched to 5w20. I do a lot of highway driving, and I live in the deep south so hot climate btw.
I'm now at 170k and having to add a few quarts of oil once or twice between 5k oil changes. Upon heavy acceleration the oil burning fumes come into the cabin with a strong odor. My MPG has steadily gotten worse. Was getting 40 MPG at 100k miles, 34 MPG now. Of course the many times I reported this to the dealerships they tell me its normal.

So yesterday after heavily accelerating off a red light my check engine light came on. I took it to the dealership this morning. I missed a lot of what the guy told me and Ill try to post the results here/part needed, but what I recall is them telling me the engine had a lot of soot in it and he needed to replace a valve and scrape out some pipes. He said it would cost me about 1,000 bucks and that it was probably from bad gas. I asked if it might have been from the extraordinary amount of oil it burns, and he said yes.

 

That's become a familiar sad story, except starting even earlier than usual. Olscratch, how fast have you typically driven your Prius on the open roads of Texas? At what intervals has the oil been changed? The owner's manual does admit "An oil of higher viscosity may be better suited if the vehicle is operated at high speeds, or under extreme load conditions." Vague, huh? The manual also claims oil consumption as high as one liter per 1000 km is normal.

 

Typically doing 75-77 MPH. Very little city driving in comparison.

 

might be more cost beneficial to replace the engine.

 

BAD RINGS in the motor. My dealer said he is seeing a lot of Prius's like this. He thinks Toyota will have a recall on the prius. Camry and Rav-4 has allready been recalled for this reason. This recall should be good for cars under 150,000 or less than 10 years old

 

how much consumption will qualify for a new rebuilt engine?

 

If I remember right Toyota considers anything up to 1 quart/600 miles normal consumption....I don't. I checked my Prius every week for the last 10k interval. It ended up burning 5.2 quarts or .312 quarts/600 miles. It burnt more on interstate highway travel versus town driving. I am contemplating just changing oil every 5k miles now. One of these weekends I want to clean the EGR pipe and maybe just a new IM, if I can swing it. Car now has 160,000 and it started burning oil around 90,000. Hopefully Toyota does a recall and I still qualify. My Prius also has the rough start any/every time, but has never thrown any DTC except for P0300 thru P0304.

The car still runs good and gets good gas mileage (46.5 mpg) with Continental tires, but the oil consumption and rough starts makes me not want to buy another Prius