Warning light when turning left?

Having light come on at turns is a classic symptom of low oil.
Unfortunately I have customers who use this as their sole indicator as to when to add oil.
Scary.
It is definitely waaaay to low by that point.

 

Well, It's a bummer that we have to check oil dipsticks. I thought we were done with dipstick checking 30 years ago... Can't wait for all electric vehicles now.

 

Yes, my clean dipstick reinserted showed clean no trace of oil... I had to start prius and let it idle few minutes before showing oil at low level on dipstick.

 

I have say that is not a great procedure to follow. While the engine is off and sat for a minimum of 5 minutes (according to the Toyota Repair Manual, I know Edthefox will beg to differ) you need to read the dipstick and add oil until it is at least above the F mark on the bottom of the dipstick. At just on the F mark the oil is still 1.6 qt (US) (1.5 L) too short. When you consider the total volume of the sump is 3.9 qt (US) (3.7 L) 1.6 qt (US) represents 41% of the total volume, it just does not make a good practice keep the oil that low.

 

Correct, Prius was parked for three hours and I open hood to check the dipstick. It's hard to believe that dipstick is clean no trace of oil. I will check again since filling oil yesterday.

 

Fyi. My 07 doesn't use much oil, but I switched to Mobil 1 recently and oil burn is minimal.

 

I wonder if Toyota has a threshold for oil consumption (e.g. > 1 qt/1000 miles?) where an engine rebuild is considered? Certainly it's possible to carry oil to add periodically, but I have to believe that eventually reliability becomes an issue.

 

Yes they do, it is > 1 qt (US)/600 miles.

It is not hard to believe, if you never check your oil.

Why didn't you check 5 min after you added oil? Once it registers on the dipstick just keep adding 0.5 qt (US) at a time, until the oil level is between 2/3 and full. Don't overfill!

Then to get an idea of the oil burn rate, check at every fuel fill. Once you get an idea of the rate at which it burns oil, select an interval (once a week, once every two weeks, etc) and check and top up as required at that check.

 

Currently I've used 1/4 qt. with 2400 miles on the odometer. With conventional oil I would probably be almost a whole qt.

 

I am curious about what the best practice is regarding managing the engine oil level. I'm not quite at 1/2 qt low after 5000 miles. Should I be always be trying to keep it up to the full line, can I let it go till a qt low and then just do an oil change at 10,000 miles, or just not let it get below 1/2 qt low? I check the oil level about every other week or so.

 

@Raytheeagle or @danlatu what do you recommend?

 

I keep our cars at 2/3 to 3/4 level on the dipstick. I check the level every Saturday to ensure the level doesn’t creep low and if it does, I add some.

Been doing that for 20 years and so far has worked well .

 

I would do an oil change. Its cold in pa now, you have moisture and fuel inside your crankcase(oil pan) from cold starts. This water and fuel break down the oil. You could have your oil analyzed at black stone labs to see how much life is left if you want to stretch those oil changes to 10k and just add oil. But this test cost 28$. I do 5k winter and 7.5k summer oci.

 

Does it make a difference that I'm using mobil 1's 10,000 mile synthetic? They promote or "guarantee" that it will hold up for 10,000 miles or 1 year.

 

Are you joking?

 

They also have 15k 20k 25k 30k motor oil out there but when contaminants like fuel and water are introduced in the crankcase during the cold season, oil will break down. I am sure in perfect conditions it could last with a perfect running motor. I would question wether the oil filter would hold up at these mileage claims. The only way to find out is to send it in for testing.
Amsoil 83.50$ for an oil change & filter + 28$ @10k and + 28$ @15k for testing. 140$ for oil change and testing?
I would love to see the test results if someone wants to try it.

 

Bmw no oil dipstick! What if the oil level sensor fails?

 

Way too pricey for me, both items.