Misgivings about 2010 Prius

To the OP: I see you're quite angry, but should be angry at yourself. Anyone who visits PC's 3gen forums can clearly see that EGR system pluggs up sometime after 100,000 miles. It's up to the owner to do some cleaning before one gets stranded out of town. I cleaned intake and pipe at 75,000 miles and it was not even very dirty. Will clean the entire EGR about 120,000 miles. BTW, you should be pleased you got 141,000 trouble free miles, except that oil burn that is a minor annoyance.

 

What steps did you take to clean theEGR system?

 

I hate to tell you but a 141000 miles the wheels are falling off.........

 

What's the question again? I said I cleaned the intake manifold and EGR pipe leading to the intake.

 

the real problem is that the cars are not designed to go beyond 100,000 miles. if they were, the maintenance manual would include more items, such as egr cleaning.

 

No, you are missing the point. You should check oil regardless what car you drive, as they all tend to have oil consumption as they age. My son has a Saturn car. Would you like to hear about his oil burner?

 

Or tranny oil change, or fuel filter change.

 

exactly.

 

i think they had a massive tundra engine problem a few years back. the thing is, overall, toyota is great, but that doesn't mean everything is perfect.

 

Then I'm missing another point: why did you buy a car whose Owner's Manual very specifically discloses that it may burn 1.1 quarts per 600 miles (or 1 liter every 1000 km)? It is very clearly printed on page 422 of my 2012's manual. I don't remember which page it was on in my 2010's manual, but clearly remember finding it in there somewhere.

Perhaps instead, you should have bought something like my 2014 Forester, which places its limit at 1 quart per 1200 miles, the slowest listed rate of any car I have ever owned. Unfortunately, that series has also developed a reputation as oil burners.

 

My girlfriend has a 2013 Mini she bought new. Has less than 40k miles on it. Last oil change was 5000 miles ago. She called me two months ago when her oil light came on at work. Mini was down 3 quarts of oil. I check it frequently now and have to add oil every couple of weeks. Some cars use oil.

 

What maximum oil burn rate was listed for that Sienna van?

This Toyota is the fifth brand name vehicle to be in my household. It's disclaimed oil burn rate is not meaningfully different than those of the previous brands, including my first Subaru (i.e. not the 2014).

 

I'm not sure Subaru is a good example to use. Subaru clearly has an oil burn 'reputation'. Not good in my book.

The fact that you quote the owners manual is pretty silly. yes, it does say that...but only to cover Toyota's butt for possible legal retaliation. Toyota clearly never 'intended' a burn rate of 1 quart per 600 miles...I can guarantee you that. The fact that the note is in the manual makes it very obvious to me that Toyota was 'worried' about the potential long term viability of these engines.

My 2010 is also a 'burner'..but seems to have slowed down a bit now that I have done quite a bit to mitigate it (see other threads).

I have stated this before...but I have never had other vehicles burn oil at a *noticeable* rate. These are all Mazda and Hyundai vehicles...some with quite high mileage. Our 2004 Mazda MPV has 175K or so and does not burn oil at a noticeable rate. Mazda/Hyundai do not have any 'oil burn' notes in the owners manual either. For some reason I often seem to get berated by people here when I bring this up....very strange.

 

I agree...some of the 2010s clearly have a defect that has not been addressed by Toyota. As for myself, I'm ok with the slow rate of burn...for now. However, if it ever get to the '1 quart every 600 miles' point...I'd be extremely upset...as you are.

 

As already pointed out, this is not materially different that the several previous brands of cars in my household. They all had similar disclaimers and frequent oil check requirements. Sure, most individual units didn't burn anywhere near that much. But the risk that some would was always enough to warrant the disclaimer.

 

If I had a car that burned a quart of oil every 600 miles it would be going away. That may be acceptable to some, but I wouldn't deal with that. Especially on a car that's supposed to be environmentally friendly. That being said, I check my oil at least every couple fill ups, and if I do loose oil, I check it more often.