Burning oil, maybe keep engine against recommendation?

just monitor your oil and add as needed. check every 1000 miles

 

doesn't everyone check their oil when filling up with gas?
new motor cost thousands, common sense is free.

 

You appear to think that engine oil can only be added at the time of an oil change - or that there is no need to check engine oil level periodically during the course of your vehicle ownership. If you believed either of those statements, I hope you have now learned that both are incorrect.

Since you were made aware that the engine is consuming oil, it was your responsibility to check the engine oil level and add oil as necessary in between oil changes. This is really not difficult to do.

When you are refueling, with the car IG-OFF, open the hood, find and pull out the engine oil dipstick (yellow plastic handle), wipe it off with a clean paper towel, then fully insert into the dipstick tube. Pull the dipstick back out and look at the oil level. It needs to be between the two dimples on the dipstick, the higher, the better but do not allow the level to be above the top dimple. If the oil level is low, buy a quart of 5W-30 oil (name brand) and a funnel, and use both as necessary. The engine oil filler cap is located on the valve cover.

At this point the engine has been permanently damaged and will continue to consume oil at an accelerated rate. I suggest you continue to drive the car as-is for a while. If you develop the habit of checking the engine oil level at every other refueling, adding oil as needed, and the car does not produce visible exhaust emissions, you may be able to get significantly more miles out of the existing engine.

You definitely do not want to have the Toyota dealer replace the short block with a new short block - that will easily cost you $4K or more. If you decide that your engine had died, have a used engine installed (might cost $2K or so), and hope that the original owner of that engine was more diligent than you with respect to checking and correcting the engine oil level.

 

Unbelievable. So the first time the Prius is critically low of oil in January, and you still didnt check it and ended up critically low again - this time with metal shavings?!

This has nothing to do with dealer negligence.

 

you know its always someone else's fault....there is no personal responsibility anymore

 

Is the Prius leaking or burning oil? What kind of driving do you do with this Prius?
My '04 will burn a quart between 5k oil changes, but not every time. The piston rings can line up and cause a temporary oil burn condition.But, this is very occasionally. My thoughts would be if its the main bearings going, I would be looking for a different Prius. You could use the 2k to 4k you would spend on a better Prius.

People that don't take care of their vehicles have the same last name: walker. I hope you find a good solution to your problem. I better go check my oil....

LG-D851 ?

 

Priuses don't usually have oil issues, they have owner issues.
In other words.....the low oil isn't the problem......it's the symptom.
You're not dealing with dealer negligence....you're dealing with owner negligence.

Example: Craftsman tools have a fairly famous lifetime 100-percent replacement guarantee for their tools.
However (comma!) if you take a badly rusted screwdriver in for a replacement, then you're going to probably find out that in most cases rust is not caused by a manufacturing defect.....it's caused by owner neglect.

OK.....so I'll answer the actual question now and say that JC91006 is right.
Check your oil now.
Get help if you don't know how (hint: Owner's Manual)
Re-check it in 500-1000 miles and add as necessary to keep it topped off.

Repeat.

So.....
Here's why buying a short block is exactly the wrong thing to do:

1. You're taking "go-no go" advice from people who will profit from making the decision for you. At least get a second opinion.

2. California has a Smoking Vehicle Complaint Program. I think the number is something like 1-800-hug-tree. You can also dial #SMOG on a cell phone if you see a vehicle that's best used for mosquito control rather than personal transportation. This proves three things:
a. California has waaaaaaaay too many state employees.
b. California has waaaaaaay too many cell phone drivers.
c. If all this is news to you, then your car probably doesn't smoke enough (yet) to need a new motor.

3. You don't know how much your car is leaking/burning oil. yet. Opinions vary wildly about this but your motor isn't burning enough oil (yet) to ruin your catalytic converter. The Toyota manual says that "excessive oil consumption" is something like 1 quart every 600 miles. If you were burning oil at that rate, you'd have to have an 8-quart oil sump to have 1 quart remaining after 4500 miles at your estimated burn rate. (hint: you don't.)

4. You're probably still getting good fuel economy. If this is the case, and if you stop the cycle of abuse with the oil level now, then you probably have 50,000 miles or more of life left in the present motor.

5. Motors are available cheaper than the 1/2-a-motor that the dealer is advocating that you replace. You neglected the whole motor......not just the bottom half (short block.)
Replace the whole motor if you feel that you must, but get some hippie Prius Shop to do it.
They're cheaper.

6. Which makes more sense.....pulling a whole engine out and putting a whole engine back in, or pulling the engine, taking it apart, replacing pieces of it---perhaps correctly, reassembling it, and putting it back in the car???
Opinions vary on this, but let's pretend that Prius drivers are the very best drivers on the planet.
They still have to share the road with drivers that aren't!!
Like.....the cell phone jerk behind you that's trying to figure out how to dial #SMOG on their i-phone.

Accidents happen.
Cars get to go to the junk yard, sometimes VERY young cars with rear end damage.
(hint: they sometimes have good replacement motors in them -----just sayin')



Good Luck!

 

Busy schedule????
Not if you're a California state employee!!!

Seriously.......go and buy a quart of oil.
Don't over think that part! Almost any kind will do! (5w30 or 0w20)
It's not like you're going to hurt the motor much more!
If you still have paperwork from the dealer, they'll specify which type that they said that they put in, but I'm thinking that for your car an 0W20 was used.

Keep the sump topped off and determine how long it takes (in miles) for you to be 1 quart low, and then ask again whether or not you need a new motor.

I'm betting "no" for now.

Good Luck!!!

 

Yes this is the way to go. Just get yourself a time machine, go back to before Jan 2015 and monitor your oil more closely (or even monitor it at all).

Ok realistically, if there are metal shavings in the oil now it might be too late. You can try though. At least monitor it (closely) over the next few thousand miles and see if it's still serviceable.

 

*their