2014 Prius burning oil. Advise

Here are my 3 ideas on what do to.

1. Don’t worry about it and just keep the oil topped off. Gives you a nice excuse to regularly check your fluids.

2. Berrymans B12 piston soak treatment. This seems to be the only magic bullet that actually works for people. It worked fantastic for me so far, (I went from burning 1 quart per 1k miles to 1 quart per 8k miles), but general consensus is that it only lasts so long. Personally, I’m happy to do it every 3 or 4 oil changes if necessary.

3. Rebuild the engine with updated piston rings. I find this to be doing too much as I’ve driven over 100k miles while burning oil. It's bad for your catalytic converter, but it can't be that bad. I would instead just ride it out until the head gasket goes then you can just get a new engine or have the pistons done along with the head gasket... depending on how much you drive that could be years from now. Just remember that you have to regularly check your oil now.

 

How much oil is she burning?

 

BG hybrid repair kit

 

None of that stuff actually works.
The ONLY way is to remove the pistons and rings and clean them.
But replacing them with the updated ones is the best thing to do.

Also, how do you drive? Like it's an F1 car? Or like it's a Prius?

 

The best advice is to ignore anyone who advices chemical cures. Low tension rings are so bad on gen3 Prius engines that Toyota replaced thousands free before the cars even had 60,000 miles.

Low tension rings were a car disease that infected many Toyota models including Camrys, Corollas and Rav4s generally from 2007-2014. The difference is Prius has a more severe failure mode with expensive catalytic converters and blown head gaskets.

Some end up with really excessive oil consumption the old fashion way - scored cylinder walls that can cause a quart every 600 miles.

For a 30 episode attempt to fix the problem with chemicals, including B12 and Valvoline Restore spend a few days with DIY Dave. Oil Consumption Experiments - YouTube

Spoiler Alert - nothing worked even though some seemed to have short term oil consumption reductions.

 

I'd take $10 short term fix (that's worked for me for 6 months and saved over 6 quarts of oil so far) and just do it over an over instead of an engine rebuild on an otherwise working engine any day. Go ahead and ask around how much a piston ring replacement might cost you.

 

PCV valve is made from metal parts. I've only had to soak/clean them with carb cleaner and they look like new. Should help with oil burning since a clogged valve will build up pressure in the crankcase causing more oil to slip past rings.

SM-A536V ?

 

The spring in the pcv valve weakens over time and heat.....
I'm glad it's a $10 part and easy to replace...