Burning 3.9qts every 1000 miles

No but the vehicles BEHIND him are !!!

(Actually not really funny.)

 

Consider adding a quart every 333 miles?

 

I still say you could run that thing on other peoples' drain oil, given how little time it spends in there. But in a way your car is my hero. Just the absolute boss of skirting the edge of oil starvation and going a little further. Keep doing what you're doing!

 

Well then it is possible that there is a significant LEAK causing the oil to disappear.
Have you looked for an oil "signature" where it is usually parked ??

 

This is a funny post. Im glad it finally puts an end to the "prius has no oil light if you run it to the light the engine dies."

Ive heard of old civics running like months on no oil. As long as you have some oil the engine will be just fine. It sounds like the typical prius issue just worse than most. The oil holes in the piston are dirty and it pushing oil up past the rings and burning it off. Yeah id recommend the piston soak or just a ton of sea foam in the oil, but at this point since you tried, it might not work and seafoam isnt cheap.

Just keep adding oil every time you fill up the gas tank... Cheers!

 

Almost no car has a "low oil level" light.
ALL have an oil pressure warning of some kind.
Depending on the actual driving conditions at the point where the oil pressure goes low......or to ZERO.....you actually CAN
burn up the engine in just a minute or two. And that includes hybrids too.

What he is doing by waiting for an oil pressure warning before he adds oil is NOT a wise thing to do.
He has been extremely lucky. There is no "skill" involved.
Most people are not that lucky.

 

Probably oil getting past the valve seals too.

 

lol im not saying he did anything skilled. Ive been working on cars and engine for over 15 years and never agreed it was super bad for the engine to run the oil down to the light. Not saying its good but thats what the light is for. Toyota knew this motor burned alot of oil thats why they said it was normal in the manual. Im just saying Fattmatt running it down to the light over and over just shows your engine isnt damaged or going to die soon because your low oil light came on. Even at 1qt left the oil pump is stillworking to cover the engine in oil. A little oil going a looong way.


"Probably oil getting past the valve seals too."

I think your prob right about this one. Just has lots of oil caked around letting oil get by all over.

 

I think you're flirting with disaster waiting for low pressure light. Low pressure is just what it says, and it's really 11'th hour, like running the gas down to vapours. That said, @Fatmatt86 seems pretty skilled at it, surfing that edge, lol.

 

At 1200 miles per gallon of oil in a high compression engine I bet she just burns off the top lube nice and clean

Honestly he could run $0.99 a quart HD30 and things would still be fine

damn straight, he could run drain oil and he can still get away with the 10,000 mile oil and filter, considering it would be a quart of oil out and a filter.

I would just run whatever $5 a 5q jug clearance oil is on the shelf, no point in using anything special

 

Have you tried a heavier weight? I switched to rotella 5w40 I think it was, and oil consumption slowed right down. It appears to be the worst at highway speeds.

 

No that isn't the reason at all.

Many/most/all car makers have a similar "policy" in writing somewhere and it is because they don't want to be swamped with warranty claims from cars that use a little oil.

AND.....that light means that the oil pressure is low or non-existent.
If that happens when flying down the freeway and there is no good place to stop......AND you don't have any oil with you........

If you don't understand how that can be a bad thing, you aren't much of a mechanic.