Service advice for Prius Prime after 2 year warranty ends

After free oil changes are over,I intend to change oil every two years. It just isn't getting used enough to warrant annual changes.it even 10k changes. Once the engine runs close to 10k I will start to think about changing the oil. I will be checking the oil level regularly looking for oil loss, oil burn.I also will ensure oil gets a good warm up once a month with an extended HV drive. I will do oil charges myself.I can't see wasting oil or money, on unnecessary changes since engine runs so little.Do watch for oil burn as that became an issue on my gen 2 prius after 80k. It burned 1/2 qt every 5k. Not terrible, but worthy of monitoring.now with my new prius prime I will try to prevent the oil burning by keeping an eye on oil usage.

 

I am a DIYer and have always changed my own oil. Use Mobil 1 in all of our cars. When I checked the oil on the car, I looked all around the engine and couldn't see the oil filter. I assume that I may have to remove a panel under the engine to access it. Interesting thought about reusing the oil rather than disposing of it. Anyway, I have a year to figure it out. Jimbo - Good guess, but we are actually just across Puget Sound from Seattle.

 

Good thread on the subject:

Official (OEM) Toyota Prius 2016 (Gen 4) oil-change instructions | PriusChat

One wrinkle: Toyota switched back to disposable oil filters in the last year or two, you might encounter that. Torque value should be on the box.

 

I don’t understand spending in the neighborhood north of $25K for something then trying to save $20 once a year.

 

It isn't all about the money.
The Prius attracts those wanting to reduce petroleum use. Using the same oil change interval for a plug in as any car that runs an engine whenever it is started, is a wasteful use of petroleum.

 

How much fossil oil goes into the production of synthetic oil?

 

Actually, synthetic motor oils are mostly made from petroleum, with natural gas being another feedstock.

Modern motor oils full into, or are a blend of, one of three groups defined by the API.
Group III are highly refined petroleum oils. Group I and II aren't as refined, but aren't used in motor oils anymore. Will come back to this group.
Group IV is the first synthetic group. It covers poly-α-olefin(PAO) lubricants. PAOs are made from alkenes, which are simple hydrocarbons we mostly get from cracking natural gas and petroleum fractions.
Group V is the other synthetic group, and it is a catch all for anything not made from mineral oils or PAOs. It is mostly esters that make it up. These can be produced from a non-fossil fuel source, biodiesel is an ester, but we have to go back to the Group III.

Castrol brought a mostly Group III oil to market in the US that they marketed as a synthetic, since it performed as well as the traditional full synthetics that were just Group IV and V. Mobil sued, but lost, and all the major oil brands changed their "full synthetic" formulations to be a a blend with Group III oils as the base. I think the 0w- oils may make more use of Group IV or V.

Regardless of how they are made, motor oils with their additives are harmful to people and the environment. Best practice would be to reduce the frequency of oil changes to reduce the amount used and gets spilled.

 

We're not pouring our used motor oil into storm drains. Well not recently, lol.

Counterpoint: if you walk round the back of our Mr Lube there's a little streamlet running from their place down to the salmon stream. Every so often they pressure wash their area and flush all the spillage down into the stream, really sad looking.

 

Accidents happen.
Had some bottles of used oil to take in for recycling sitting by the corner of the garage in the winter. Knocked them while moving the trash can, and one essentially shattered in the cold.

 

Yeah they have a tank round the back of Mr Lube, for DIY'rs to dump their used oil, which is kinda their cross to bear, likely the source of a lot of the spillage. I bring a heavy duty No-Spill container I use for drained oil. I put a large funnel in it, and the oil pan drained oil goes directly into it. But the area around their tank is always a bit of a disaster.

Last time I was there an employee rushed out and insisted on doing the pour-out for me; I'm guessing they're having problems.

When I was a kid...: around back of the service station, basically off the edge of a bit of a rock outcrop, is where the waste oil went. And the filters.

 

We all have different life experiences. I grew up on a farm and we did everything ourselves. I was taught never to pay someone to do something for you that you can do yourself. I also learned that if I changed the oil myself I knew that it was done correctly and it gave me a chance to verify that there were no problems like leaks or rust or bad hoses under the car. I also knew that the oil would be the one I bought rather than whatever the oil change person decided to use. The fact that it cost maybe half as much was important, but not the most important. I have a garage and all the tools I need and can do the job in about 15 minutes vice spending two hours driving somewhere to get it done. And you should understand that some people enjoy working on their car(s).

 

Hey, I can do it myself AND screw up, lol.

 

Had a couple free oil changes from the dealer with the Sonic. On the last one, the tech must have thought my 1.4L was the 1.5L, guess he missed the turbo, and over filled it by a quart.

 

Motor oil deteriorates very little just due to time. Any moisture in the oil is vaporized during a 20+ minute normally warm engine operation. I've run marine diesel engines with the same oil for years following the guidance from oil analysis. In some cases the engines were low-hour standby generators, in other cases the oil was continually centrifuged.

Used motor oil is used for road paving asphalt, or re-refined into a quality new oil, or mixed in small quantities into crude oil to be refined.

Mr. Troll gave a good rundown of the types of base oils. Group II and the unofficial II+ are used in non-synthetic oils such as 5W-30, etc. Only in the U.S. and Canada can Group III (very highly refined petroleum) be marketed as "synthetic," but they are a very good product in any case. The "Group" of the base oil is determined by the sulfur content, the percentage of saturates (percentage of oxygen atoms that has been replaced with hydrogen atoms on the molecule), and the viscosity index (relative change in viscosity from 40°C to 100°C). The additives he mentioned are essential and include anti wear agents, anti friction agents, friction modifiers, pour point depresants, anti oxidants, anti foamants, viscosity index improvers, dye, etc. Group I oils are low quality and suitable for some industrial lubes, some gear oils, hydraulic oils, transformer oils.

 

That 20+ minutes of engine running can be a rare occurance for a PHEV though. While the water isn't bad for the oil, it forms acids which are bad for the engine. Additives neutralize those, but get used up over time. Changing the oil every two years minimum is good practice. An oil analysis will let you know if you can longer, but they tend to cost almost as much as an oil change.

A lot of used oil also gets burned. Use to take mine to a shop that used it for heating. Most of that gets burned likely ends up in ship bunker oil.

Group I and II oils haven't been used in car motor oil for decades, which is a major reason why we can go longer than 3000 miles or 3 months these days.

 

its not the $20 for the oil change, which cost more than 20... its the time i have to spend taking care of it.
if i DIY there is time to buy oil, time to buy filter, time to do the job, probably 2-3 hours of my life gone. multiply that by 5. 4 cars and a boat.
if i get it done somewhere its probably closer to $60.
my time is worth more than 20 or even 60 an hour. if i have to sit at dealer for free 5k checkup i'm annoyed.
i want long service life with minimal maintenance. its not the $20 i'm being stingy with, its my time.

 

Yep

Or more. When I did it with my '04 after the warranty period was over, it was just so I could be comfortable going to a 10K change.

Re air filters. Check them yourself every so often. You can knock the leaves and stuff out of the cabin filter. I haven't checked the Prime cabin filter but saved a bunch of money washing the dirt out of the Gen II cabin filters with a bit of dish soap. Unless they've gotten ripped by something, one $19 filter was good for several washes.

Of the 2 dealers near me, both would bring the cabin and engine filter to the waiting area to show me if they needed to be replaced. One dealer charged 20 minutes of time plus the price of the filter to replace the cabin filter (which takes 1 minute if you are really slow), the other said "it's already out of the car so we don't charge time since we have to put it back in whether or not it needs replacing". Neither charges time for the engine filter, go figure. The times I had my car at that sleazy dealer I told them to put it back in and I'd replace it myself. Idiots.

 

No.

 

Some people just like to wrench.

 

The computer manages the engine temperature, so a rule of thumb that might apply to a regular car isn't necessarily relevant for these cars.

There is a coolant loop that uses the exhaust to heat coolant and heat the engine more quickly. And even if the engine is only running some of the time in HV mode it is running at relatively high load to get the best brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC). That happens when the engine is driving the wheels and charging the battery. Plus the computer can manage the engine temperature by having it run longer or at higher load by charging the battery more often, if needed. For example driving with the heat on makes the engine run more often to maintain a high enough coolant temperature.

About 2/3 of my miles are in EV mode, and I minimize the number of trips where the engine comes on at all. In other words most days the engine doesn't run at all, rather than having it run for the last mile of my commute everyday. If I'm driving in HV mode it is almost always a long trip with plenty of time to warm up. So if I change the oil at 10,000 miles there are probably only 3300 miles on the engine in HV mode. The Prime uses 0W20 synthetic oil, and it can definitely last longer than that.

I also avoid things that would cause the engine to not fully warm up, for example turning off the car before the warm-up cycle is complete (if the engine is running while it's parked, it's not done yet). And I avoid using EV Auto where the cold engine will be asked to drive a high load if you press the accelerator too far. The only thing that's probably unavoidable is when the engine starts to provide braking on a long downhill, but it automatically completes a warm-up cycle after that, so it's probably not too bad.

Some synthetic oils are guaranteed for 20,000-25,000 miles or 1 year (Mobil 1 annual protection or Amsoil Signature). So with those I could theoretically change my oil every 75,000 miles and it would probably be fine (but definitely not covered by any warranty). Once the warranty runs out I think I'll do a little more often than that, maybe every 15,000-20,000 miles (which is probably 15-20 months).