My 2010 Prius, It's official, 1qt oil every 4,000 miles

Yes! It had just had a new cat converter put in, and I said why not! Its been such an AMAZING car from so long it was worth it to me to try to clean up the inside of the engine if I could. I'm not really sure if it helped a whole lot as I'm not able to moniter the oil level. My brother drives it right now and lives two hours away. He still has to add oil every so often. He also commutes up and down a steep mountain, so that does not help!

 

I wonder if it's better to always go in the usual direction? Could cranking it backward mess anything up? And the $64 question: which direction is the usual direction, lol? I'd be inclined to determine that, and always crank in that direction. Might be just superstition, but who knows.

I've got a vague recollection from my Honda's with screw adjustment valves, that you didn't want to reverse rotate. Maybe...

 

Exactly! This is why I have switched to Mobil 1 0W40 weight oil!!!

 

Been using for 15,000 miles, runs fine! 0W20 is a political mistake.

 

5-30 is too thin. If you live in Alaska then get 0-30. Otherwise I use 0-40 in Florida. It's much hotter in Utah and Nevada. I'd probably get 10-50 for that summer climate of 120F. Realize that I don't need to start my car in sub zero temps. And the difference between cold and hot is 60 to 9 cSt. So it's even thicker in colder temps. So what's the issue with 0-40 in my climate? my oil is 13 cSt when hot. It never gets below 34F here, ever. Moreoften it's 75F here at night.

Ever wonder if this engine would't be worn at 120k had it been run with 0-40 instead of that water they suggest for economy?

 

It is a piece of evidence but by itself not conclusive.

Yes, any sign of an oil LEAK needs to be checked and fixed first.

 

Would you (or anyone else) have a link to that reference?

Thank you for posting!

 

How did that work out, did you find decreased consumption?

 

It’s been posted before on Priuschat. Just use
0w-40 Mobil 1. BTW The only true synthetic Mobil 1 oil is this weight.

 

I found my oil consumption dropped from thicker oil and ironically from driving this engine at full RPMs all day

 

No, not at all.

When it warms up here, I'm going to try an alternate remedy: same piston soak, but then pressurize the cylinder (either with air, or by hand-turning the crank). This method was apparently used by GM dealers when they had a similar oil burning issue with some of their early Northstar engines. It makes sense to me.

 

I'd be inclined to put the fluid in, then install spark plugs, then hand-crank.

 

I would be very cautious of doing this for fear of hydraulicing the pistons. If there is sufficient amount of fluid in the cylinder, this could result in a bent rod.

 

Though possible, I wonder if that would require a long cheater bar or something.

Not sure if hand cranking would cause bent rods or if the fluid would pass through the rings slowly until enough resistance is felt by hand.

 

So you used that Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner and let it soak for a number of hours and noticed no difference in consumption?

 

I'm thinking that too. I'd suggest cranking it beforehand (with the plugs in), so you have a feel for normal resistance. I used to do that a lot, checking valves on Hondas. I'd think if you go slow with the cranking, when the fluid's in, you can't do any damage.

 

Yeah, your probably right but you have to be conservative with amount of treatment you dump in the cylinder.