2012 Prius is burning oil. Replace Engine or Move On?

welcome!

how many miles on her?

have you cleaned the egr circuit?

how many quarts/ 1,000 miles are you burning?

 

So is the battery 2 years old, or around 6 years old? This is one of the major costs on high mileage Prii.

There are various fixes mentioned/shared on this forum. Would you be interested in working on it mechanically, or having it done for you? Cost can vary greatly as I understand.

moto g(7) power ?

 

@bisco nailed a lot of factors; in particular I'd second this. It's not uncommon for an engine to burn "some" oil. How much and how fast the oil level is dropping is important for any decisions.

 

I have 205,000 on a 2010 GenIII and a engine that burns both gas and oil. This is not the worst problem to have, kinda like the 1960-1970s automobiles that leaked oil or smoked after a few years of driving.

You should first clean the EGR circuit and if it is clogged please do not skip the cleaning of the intake manifold and those darn little EGR passageways going to each cylinder. I skipped the manifold cleaning and got alot of misfires. I now burn less than a quart of WALMART Mobil 1 0-40w every 700 miles and about 80 quarts (20 gallons) of gasoline every 700 miles. So a total of 81 quarts of petroleum (gas and mobil 1 ) every 700 miles.

You can check the oil level maybe even every week, add a little when needed and keep driving. Oil is cheaper than another engine.

 

I bought my 2010 with 163k (US Miles) on it, in very early 2018. Now it has 180k on it. I've done 3~ oil changes on it. It's burnt oil since I've had it and I have to top off between 5k oil changes. I believe it's not more than the 1.1quart per 600 miles (something like that) but I don't know how much it really is. I was thinking I could get it to 200k and be happy with that. I'm still scratching my head about getting nice tires for those 20k miles or not. I used to do about 6k a year but now I'll be doing about 4k a year. My drives got shorter and my mpg has gotten even worse because of that. I get about solid 38mpg now (14~ mile commute) and before (20~ mile commute) that I got 39-40.

A good habit is to check the oil every gas fill. I still run the 0w20 oil. Valvoline advanced full syn. It's the cheapest I can get with a filter. 0w20 doesn't seem very common at autozone.

 

I know 2 people who will disagree with your suggestion about checking oil.

You pay more for engine oil at auto shops compared to Walmart. 0w-20 is every where at Walmart and much cheaper.

 

How fast is the oil going down ?
That is, how many miles before it hits the "low" mark after being "full" ??

ALL oil in an old engine turns black. It is supposed to do that.

Using a little oil is NOT necessarily a sign that you "need a new engine".