New to owning a prius. Help!

If you have Costco membership, go there. Great value that is hard to beat, esp since the $70 off 4 tires promo seems to always run for Bridgestone or Michelin.

Sounds like you have HID headlights? Might be the common ballast problem.

Always check the oil level on a regular basis and fill to the top dimple mark.

Use 5W-30, any major brand of your choice. You can switch to 10W-30, but it is a thicker oil, and you MPGs might suffer a bit, but oil consumption might be a little slower.

 

You live in Utah, and with the low temps you will have in the winter, you should use 0W-30 oil, not a 5W or 10W weight oil. Also, I suggest you change your oil every 5K miles.

 

1. If you get lots of snow, you may consider Nokian WRG3 tires. If not I liked Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires.
2. Unlike filament bulbs, HID bulbs "burn out" by blinking on and off then eventually staying off when warm. High-intensity discharge lamp - Wikipedia If so, replace the bulb. (Read up on replacing HID Bulbs, check youtube for videos)
3&4. Check it weekly, use 5w30 conventional oil.

 

I'm in California driven nearly 400,000 lots of bad tires Pirelli and Toyo cost me 3mpg until tread worn down to 1/8"
Good Year integrity series are a soft tire that gets good regeneration when breaking and good gas mileage. But the best I've found is the Bridgestone Ecopia series ️


iPhone ?

 

congrats and welcome! how do you measure how much oil it is burning?

 

OP has a Gen2.

Gen2 (2004-2009) in US are specified for 5W-30 & 5K mile oil change intervals due to conventional oil.
Yes, she could use 0W-30, but make life easier for her.

Gen3 (2010-2015) & Gen1-Cs (2012-?) in US are specified for 0W-20 synthetic oil & 10K mile oil change intervals, due to the synthetic oil.


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We all know the reason behind 10K mile oil changes and using 0W-20 weight oil. Well maybe we don't all know Anyway this has been discussed before so if interested do a search. But basically its highly recommended that oil be changed at 5K miles, and 0W oil be used in harsh winter climates, as the oil will flow faster on cold starts.

 

Jennifer I just wanted to give you a little more information about what I have found to be helpful. I use Amsoil Synthetic, and I stand by that for my Pruis and any other cars I've owned. I drive a lot of miles and Iive in Wisconsin, I just put on 4 Continental tires, from Discount Tire, they are 90,000 tread life warranty and low roll resitance, I've had them on 4,000 miles and they seem to be working quite well. They are Control Contact Tour AS, and those are only at Discount, if you don't have a Discount tire near you, they are the same as the Continental True Contact. You are in the right place Prius Chat is awesome

 

Goodyear integrity tires are the biggest price of crap tires ever made. God awful.