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Excessive oil consumption: Does using thicker oil help?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Preeeus, Jan 9, 2019.

  1. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    I would club up to 0w-30 first before going to 0w-40 if car have never had oil thicker than Xw-20. And it being winter, stay with 0w-X.
     
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  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The high mileage oils work by swelling rubber. So IF the oil is getting by valve guides for example, it'll help.
     
  3. Preeeus

    Preeeus Member

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    We think it's common enough that it warrants a Toyota factory recall. See 2010-2014 Prius Excessive Oil Consumption on 2ZR-FXE Engine | TOYO Headquarters
     
  4. Preeeus

    Preeeus Member

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    We called Toyota at 800-331-4331 and filed a case. Despite all the people complaining about this on the internet, they claimed they haven't received many calls regarding oil consumption with the Prius! :confused:

    They said we have to do an oil consumption test, although they doubt they will help even if the Prius fails that test.

    BTW, there is a warranty extension for the EGR Valve, could that be related at all?
     
  5. xerox6135

    xerox6135 Member

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    How many miles on your 2013, How often did you change oil? Have you owned it since new

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  6. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Frequent oil changes are more often necessary with the phasing out of 60-90k life rubber timing belts and the reversion to timing chains has increased the necessity of lower viscosity oils. Timing chain lubrication passages in modern engines are narrower and smaller. Dirty oil restricts flow and heat carrying abilities by reducing flow rates of oils as would higher viscosity oils. As oil gets dirtier, more micro abrasive particles are suspended in the oil-particles smaller than even the oil trapping capacities of the filter media. Obviously, more wear would be imparted upon all engine components including the piston rings.

    Frequent oil changes are a guaranteed way of delaying the onset of oil burning in any engine. Personally, I will never wait 10k miles for any oil change, even with the highly touted long lifespan synthetic oils.
     
  7. tvpierce

    tvpierce Senior Member

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    Currently 130K miles. Bought it at 93K miles. According to the history I retrieved at Toyota owners website, the oil was changed by the dealer(s) at 10K mile intervals.
    I have a spread sheet on which I've recorded all the maintenance I've done, including every once of oil I've added since I purchased it.
     
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  8. tvpierce

    tvpierce Senior Member

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    This is not a traditional oil change frequency issue like you discribe. It's not a wear problem, it's a build-up problem.
    10K miles on quality full-synthetic oil is not too long a change interval (OCI). I've done synthetic 10K mile OCI on every vehicle my wife and I have owned in the last 25 years. Most were high mileage cars because I tend to buy well maintained, high mileage used vehicles from private parties.

    I've had mostly Toyotas, but also a Mercedes, two Volvos, a Nissan and a Mitsubishi. None has burned more than a quart in 5K miles.

    The '92 Mercedes (timing chain) and '93 Volvo turbo (timing belt) each had more than 300K miles on them when I sold them, and burned less than a quart between 10K mile OCIs. My current '02 4Runner (V6/timing chain) has 160K miles and burns zero oil in 10K miles -- which is incredible.
     
  9. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    That might have been true for older engines where the engines were designed with piston rings with optimal expansion pressure for long engine life without the current increase of blowby contaminants passing through the gap between the piston rings and cylinder walls. The increased use of direct fuel injection (in converse to carbureted and early throttle body induction systems that wash over the intake valves to continually clean the intakes) increases the continuous contamination and dilution of engine oil over time. Accordingly, frequent oil changes help increase engine life.

    Reduction of friction in the piston rings and direct fuel injection increases efficiency and consequently mileage at the detriment of engine life. So don't expect the current crop of engines to last as long as those of yesteryears.

    Frequently removing the microcontaminants of blowby with an oil catch can and frequent oil changes is the key to increasing engine life.
     
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  10. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    We just sold our 98 4runner in July of 2017 when it had 263 k miles and it burned zero oil:).

    Great car but after 17 years of my wife’s ownership, we got the itch:

    Out with the old.....

    Im sure it’s main purpose now is off-roading as the diff locker was a GREAT feature(y).
     
  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Toyota seems to have woken up on that; as of 2015 model year the Prius pistons and rings are revised, to the part numbers indicated in the attached oil consumption related TSB.
     

    Attached Files:

    #31 Mendel Leisk, Jan 11, 2019
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2019
  12. farmecologist

    farmecologist Senior Member

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    Hmm...I wonder if someone could feasibly replace the pistons in a 2010 with the revised ones. No not me though! (y)
     
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  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah, reading through the TSB, unless Toyota authorized it, quite an undertaking. Salvage engine, maybe low-mileage 4th gen, could be more expedient.
     
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  14. tvpierce

    tvpierce Senior Member

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    Yes. Per the TSB Mendel posted, that's exactly the remedy. If you experienced the oil burning problem within 60K miles, Toyota would have paid for your engine to be torn down, and replaced the pistons and rings with the correctly designed parts.
     
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  15. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Yeah, that's only within the core warranty period.

    The OCC and more frequent oil changes are the way to go. The recommended oil change interval is a balance between the ideal shorter for longer engine life and the "inconvenience" to the owner is having it done. OCC's are not factory installed, because it requires owner monitoring and service which is an additional requirement on the owner.
     
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  16. Preeeus

    Preeeus Member

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    The 4th gen engine can be a direct replacement in a 3rd gen vehicle?
     
  17. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    A while back I worked out the (US) dollars for the TSB replacement part list. That's assuming you don't pull the transaxle, just the engine:

    upload_2019-1-11_14-20-16.png

    Looks like pretty much everything in that gasket kit. This is just a screen grab from one EBay seller:

    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Preeeus

    Preeeus Member

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    Thanks! Did you happen to get a quote for the cost to install?
     
  19. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The TSB above budgets 16 hours to install. Would be that be optimistic? That's my first thought, reading through it.

    And it suggests to send out the piston/arm assemblies to a machine shop to press the pins out swap the pistons, and to heat them up facilitate extraction. There's also a fair bit of palaver about marking this'n that to avoid part mix-up, measuring piston pin diameter, plasti-gaging the bearing races (for possible replacement), and on and on. For a competent rebuilder maybe this is old-hat??
     
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  20. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Theres an entire thread that covered that.
     
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