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Do you change your oil every 5000 or 10000?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by iskoos, Jan 1, 2020.

  1. fil100

    fil100 Junior Member

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    Just changed oil and filter on my 2010 with 253.000 km. Plan to change it every 10.000 km from now on. Previous owner had receipts for the old changes and sometimes they have used 5w30 oil.

    Still - used no oil since last change at 243.000
     
  2. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    Lucky you. Are you certain it still has original engine? Engine (or pistons&rings) replacement wont be mentioned in service book even if it’s covered by manufacturers warranty.

    By the way, have you checked underbody? You are from Norway so unless underbody is coated there may be rust, because factory applied protection is very weak. I just finished spraying 2 cans of Dinitrol ML which is one sort of penetrating inhibitor. It penetrate rust and stop it. As per my experience (over many years) the stuff works well but downside is that it wont last many years. But it’s easy&quick to apply. Sprayed 2 cans last autumn, now sprayed the rest of rusty areas.
     
    #62 OptimusPriustus, Jul 31, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2022
  3. fil100

    fil100 Junior Member

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    Can have been changed, but the seller that sells a lot of old used priuses have never heard about excessive oil usage here.

    The underbody does not look too bad, mosty surface rust. I have filled the holes with fluidfilm and used a coat of bitumen-base on the rest. Maybe too late, but can help I guess....


     
  4. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    Generally it’s not good idea to seal rust with any bitumen like coating. It must be stopped chemically or by removing it and then apply coating. Is there lot of used Prius for sale in Norway? I should visit Norway and buy one:) Here Prius is quite rare and to find a good one is bit hard
     
  5. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Make sense, I wouldn’t buy a car from a seller dealer if they said yes these cars that I’m selling you burns oil.
     
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  6. fil100

    fil100 Junior Member

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    Yes of course they will say anything to sell.... but to my experience Toyota had problems with older Avensises regarding oil consumption here.

    A lot of priuses for sale here. I guess its because people buy electric cars. If you use electric cars the toll on roads goes down up to 90% and you also get a 25% discount when buying new.
     
  7. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Toyota has had a lot of low tension piston ring oil burners.
    • 2007-2011 Toyota Camry HV (Hybrid)
    • 2007-09 Toyota Camry 2.4L (07 Camry is the worst)
    • 2009 Toyota Corolla
    • 2009 Toyota Matrix
    • 2006-10 Toyota RAV4
    • 2007-08 Toyota Solara
    • 2007-09 Scion tC
    • 2008-09 Scion xB
    • 2010-14 Prius 1.8L
    • 2005 Avalon V6 (vvti gear)
    • 2007-10 Sienna (vvti gear)
     
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  8. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    That's scary. Scary enough that I don't think I'd buy another Toyota. if it weren't for the ECVT I wouldn't have bought the Prius over the Honda hybrid
     
  9. Sonic_TH

    Sonic_TH Active Member

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    The Prius is only as good as it is, due to the eCVT [planetary gear set] if it had a conventional automatic, or a CVT, it would be a money pit and it would have died long ago.
     
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  10. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    2001 Avensis 1.8L vvt. Had one of those and at around 60kkm it was time for new rings. Warranty covered even though local 4year warranty had expired. They just checked VIN and immediately said you’ll get new rings. Somehow these long lasting oil burning issues have not hurt image. Perhaps they’ve handle the cases so well.
     
  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    With the Prius the cut-off for free ring replacement is a paltry 60k miles.
     
  12. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    The five years cutoff killed it for all the 2010-2014 gen3s that needed it a few years ago. Even then the dealer had to seal the oil drain, fill cap and dipstick for 1100 to 1300 miles to qualify. No sucking it out the dipstick tube.

    2D58E063-4FEA-44D8-9803-255D8031FA21.jpeg
     

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  13. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    The sealing is understandable. There are all kinds of weirdos out there trying to get free stuff. Getting free engine to improve vehicle value would get them to euphoria
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah, 5 years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first. The 60K is a cruel joke.
     
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  15. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    MDC sells to the public. I got service manuals from them!

    Just one thing “Oil Maintenance Required” = Check oil level/condition on dipstick at 5k mi/6 mo., change every 10k mi/12 mo, (or 1 yr, whichever comes first)!

    My instrument cluster says Maint req’d but I wouldn’t complain about it….
     
    #75 jzchen, Dec 4, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2022
  16. Paladain55

    Paladain55 Active Member

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    98 corolla was the grand daddy of this issue if i remember correctly. They just more or less went full force around the housing crash and carb implementations.
    For example if people don't know what low friction piston rings mean it more or less means you can hand assemble the piston rings on an engine and even press them in by hand or out if you were disassembling. The old normal ones were hard to install and needed compressors and stretchers to install and even needed a hammer to come in or out. But they were slightly worse on gas mileage. Since they have such little tension they can literally just freeze up and not make a seal with the wall anymore in bad cases of people not changing the oil enough. We can all argue amongst which oil change intervals are best but lower is always better. It just becomes too expensive and not beneficial compared to the longevity benefit it provides at a certain point. So most people won't do a 1000 mile oil change or like race teams change the oil after every outing etc... lol
     
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  17. douglasjre

    douglasjre Senior Member

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    Seen way too many turd gen Prius burning oil. Seems to be a combination of jiffy lube and long intervals. 5,000 mi with mobile one is my interval now. I've done an oil pressure test and found that 0w40 is the weight that gives me reasonable oil pressures consistently. If I lived in a cold or environment I might use a thinner oil. I'm in Florida and I pull trailers. Not everybody has to use the same oil It's okay. That's just what I'm doing
     
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  18. Paladain55

    Paladain55 Active Member

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    What is a reasonable pressure? What pressure are you getting? Also, what does the shop manual say on spec oil pressure? 0w-40 is probably just fine its actually not that much different than 0w-20 which is suprising. lol
     
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  19. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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  20. PriusII&C

    PriusII&C Active Member

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    Assuming that the pump works properly, there is no oil leakage, and there is no dilution to the oil, what's the drawback of low oil pressure? Doesn't that indicate the engine is too hot (works too hard)?