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126k mile gen II consuming oil

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Goolash, Dec 26, 2017.

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  1. Goolash

    Goolash Junior Member

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    Ok, so my searching finally led me to wikimotors, where I found this. The important details to me are pasted below:

     
    #21 Goolash, Dec 28, 2017
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  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Just idly curious: Bricktown, New Jersey, USA??

    I think extreme oil consumption can "brick" the Catalytic Converter.
     
    #22 Mendel Leisk, Dec 28, 2017
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  3. Goolash

    Goolash Junior Member

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    So, in summary, I believe I started off with a bad assumption, namely that modern cars don't normally burn oil at a "mere" 100k+ miles, and that therefore oil burning in my Prius is unusual at it's age. At this point, I now believe that my engine is burning oil like any engine would in the last half of its life due to normal wear, and I will feed it extra oil as needed, watching for the day when more drastic measures become required.

    As an aside, I've noticed numerous rumors of a Toyota re-spec of US genIIs from 5w30 to 5w20. I cannot find any official info from Toyota supporting this, beyond the re-spec in Canada. In my current location, we see temperatures from -30F in winter to 100F in summer, so I am not going to mess with that at this time. I may make the change to high mileage oil, however.
     
    #23 Goolash, Dec 28, 2017
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  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Per @bisco, what's the consumption rate? A quart to 1.5 quart between oil change for example, or more?
     
    #24 Mendel Leisk, Dec 28, 2017
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    post #1, 1-2 its per oil change. assuming 5,000 miles, that isn't great, but not horrible. probably important to narrow it down between one and two.
     
    #25 bisco, Dec 28, 2017
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  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Ah whoops, thanks for bailing me out, muddled: was asking regarding @DONNA MILLER consumption rate.
     
    #26 Mendel Leisk, Dec 28, 2017
  7. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Yes, Prius engine oil consumption is customary after 100K miles, and the problem only accelerates if you allow the engine oil level to drop below the lower dipstick dimple.

    Since you are worried about the engine oil consumption rate, I would not go to a thinner oil which 5W-20 is, relative to 5W-30. However in the summer you might try 10W-30 or 10W-40. Then go back to 5W-30 for the winter.
     
    #27 Patrick Wong, Dec 28, 2017
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  8. Goolash

    Goolash Junior Member

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    You're probably right. I was considering the lighter oil based on a theory that the piston rings are gunked up and not properly sealing. A lighter oil seems like it would help loosen the gunk without detergents, thus trading off a short-term increased oil consumption for a longer term improvement. The gunk theory seems unlikely at this point, though.
     
    #28 Goolash, Dec 28, 2017
  9. Goolash

    Goolash Junior Member

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    I keep meaning to mention, that was an extremely approximate approximation. The oil level travels from full to the bottom of the dipstick over the course of about 5000 miles.
     
    #29 Goolash, Dec 28, 2017
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  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    That's 1.5 litre, 1.6 quart. Not that bad, as long as you top up. Our kids cars, two of them, are like that. I changed the oil and filter on our daughter's Pilot recently. If the oil had been topped up I should have drained 4.3 liters. I got just under 3 quarts, about 2.8 liters, basically 1.5 liters low. That was in a little over 9000 kms. The car has 130K km's.

    When I talk to her about checking the oil in between oil changes, it's like I'm speaking a foreign language, seriously. :(

    upload_2017-12-28_13-18-1.png
     
    #30 Mendel Leisk, Dec 28, 2017
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  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    keep a close eye on it. every fill up would be a good idea, and keep it topped up so you don't risk going below the bottom mark.
     
    #31 bisco, Dec 28, 2017
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  12. Goolash

    Goolash Junior Member

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    Yeah, I have to admit, back when I was a poor sailor driving a hard used third-hand 3000GT, I was religious about these things, but buying my Prius brand-new, the fact that it is aging snuck up on me, despite telling myself not to let that happen, partly because it just doesn't feel or sound old when I drive it. In fact, my 3000 had fewer miles on it and was drinking a steady diet of every fluid except coolant and brake when I sold it.
     
    #32 Goolash, Dec 28, 2017
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  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    my daughters '08 has 98k. i just checked it, so far so good. albeit, half an inch above full.:rolleyes:
     
    #33 bisco, Dec 28, 2017
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  14. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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    What does Toyota consider excessive oil usage? I had a Mercury Topaz years ago I bought new and I thought it used too much oil so I took it back to the dealer and they did what is called an oil study. They changed the oil and filter and ground a notch in the dipstick to mark the REAL full mark and told me to bring it back when it needed oil and they would put it in. I forget the final results but they would not touch the engine as long as it didn't use a quart every 750 miles. That was during Fords Q1 years, what a joke.
     
    #34 padroo, Dec 31, 2017
  15. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    Last year, I had arranged the local dealer to replace the plugs as part of the 120k service and was moderately surprised when they called me to offer to change the PCV valve for to cost of the part ($11.50) as it needed doing, and they were in the area anyway :rolleyes:. Not that I'm any great fan of any dealer, but they saved me the labour cost, as well as the hassle of doing it myself! :)
     
    #35 WilDavis, Dec 31, 2017
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