Oil consumption at 136k miles - too high

There was some mention of EGR on the 4th gen, that the amount of cooling in the EGR valve was going to be greater? Not sure what that proves, or why they would make mention of it. Seems an esoteric item to be mentioning, at the early stages of new model reveal.

 

I wonder if I am already pass the point of no return and a valve soak wouldn't really do too much. I'm @ 200K and have been burning some oil for some time. Rates fluctuate all the time but definitely burns.

 

My 05 burns about a qt every 3000 miles but it's not linear consumption. For the first 1000 miles after an oil change, it burns very little (< 5 oz) and it increases fairly linearly thereafter. I haven't noticed fluctuating burn rates.

As long as the burn rate doesn't increase, I'm fine with check and fill as necessary.

 

If EPA mandates x3 detergents in gasoline, wouldn't non-top tier stations also be required to use it? I have no idea, but very good point if true.

Cheers!

 

Maybe he's saying top tier has "3 times" as much additive, not an additive called "x3".

 

That makes sense. There's a BP station on my route to work. About 7 cents more than the no name gas.

As far as high mileage oil goes (75,000 miles plus), I think it's just an additive that swells the gaskets so the engine doesn't leak. There's probably something else in there, but the gasket swelling helped me a lot.

My 1999 Ford Ranger (145,000 miles) has an oil pan leak. High mileage oil slowed the leak way down. It used to coat the crankshaft RPM pickup with dirty oil and cause the engine to misfire. Since using high mileage oil for the past few years, I haven't had a problem with misfires. That RPM pickup stays clean now. I used to spray electrical cleaner on it every few months to clean it.

If the high mileage oil does something else, I'm not aware of it.

 

Exactly.. was too lazy to spell out "3 times" on tablet.

Go to Top Tier Gasoline site and read they have some techno-marketing info on this.

I found that toptier gas does not cost any more than on other stations and in case of Costco or Valero it most likely to be cheaper. Even if it were snake oil, it doesn't cost any more, right?

Also when you travel GasBuddy app marks TT gas stations good luck

 

I downloaded GasBuddy. The local BP station is 2.09 and the lowest no name station is 1.96. A 13 cent difference. Shell is 1.99, and another BP is 1.99. So, yes, you are correct that Top Tier is about the same price. I think the outlier BP for 2.09 is because it's a very small town with no other stations near by.

I'll just have to figure out which Top Tier is along my route to/from work at a good price.

Edit: even if I go to the BP 2.09 station, it will only cost $1 a week more. It's worth it to not have to go out of the way to save 10 cents/gal. I have an hour drive and it's all about time management.

Thanks for the info.

 

No prob. We used GasBuddy on long trips and sometimes driving another 17mi could mean 30-40 cents less per gal. They just started marking down TT recently. BTW they also have a website, so you can check it from computer (and not waste your data)

 

Any update on your findings?

A couple of comments:

Firstly, thinking it's ok to run whatever oil you have laying around the garage is absolutely ridiculous. When a manufacturer specifies an oil weight (in this case 0) and a type (full synthetic) they are doing so for a reason. No, it's not because of a deal they have with the oil companies. It's because that engine runs best, or quite possibly needs that oil specification to run well in the long run.

Multi-weight oil is always the lower of the two numbers on the bottle. If it says 0w-20, it is zero weight oil; if it says 20w-50, it is 20 weight oil. The additives in the oil allow that lighter weight oil to perform similar to a higher weight oil at running temperature. So, when you run 5w or 10w heaven forbid, in your Prius in Wyoming for **** sakes, there are bound to be problems. In colder temps you should always be running the lightest weight oil your manufacturer allows. I live where it never snows and regular tops 100 in the summer, and I would never consider putting 5w or 10w oil in my Prius.

Also, I read that Toyota considers this normal:

• Oil consumption: Max = 1.1qt / 600miles

That is according to the manual (section 4-3, p. 428......thanks Art's: 2010 Toyota Prius Maintenance) I find this absolutely frightening. I will sell mine before it ever gets anywhere near that level of consumption!

Well maintained cars don't "consume" oil in appreciable quantities. For oil to get in the exhaust (which it is unless it's dripping out on the ground,) it must enter the combustion chamber. It can only do so by passing by the rings, or the valve seals.

I really hope you find a cure, but I'm guessing there is substantial premature wear on your engine.

 

I agree. Manual says to only use 5w20 IF 0w20 not available. It must be changed back to 0w20 at 5,000 miles. It does not imply it's OK to just use 5w20 every 5,000 miles.

Our turbo-jet aircraft engines can run on alternate fuels (gasoline w/oil added), but it's not allowed more than about 5% of engine hours. Lots of very expensive parts go bad. Jet engines normally use jet fuel (a high grade of basically diesel fuel with additives.). Avgas could be used in an emergency in the transport size jet aircraft I flew on in the military.

Not good running the wrong oil. That goes for owners using different transaxle fluid too.

 

Especially on Chrysler transmissions.

 

Or, equally likely, it's because that viscosity (not "weight") yields the best fuel consumption numbers in official testing, and the US EPA requires them to recommend whatever oil they use in that test. The committee of lawyers, engineers and marketing types that specifies 0W-20 in your manual is also responsible for claiming that up to 1 liter consumption per 1000km is acceptable---similarly for legal reasons. They also specify various other viscosity grades as acceptable in Australia in the same engine. Ever wonder why we don't hear of a lot of Australian Prii engines exploding? Or why my 2011 owner's manual also states "An oil with a higher viscosity may be better suited if the vehicle is operated at high speeds, or under extreme load conditions."?

 

Just to be contrarian: the Australian manual says you can use an entire gamut of "wrong" oil grades. Just saying.

 

clearly you know a little bit about oils, but not enough to school us here.

yup, all the way up to 20W-50 in austrialian prius.

 

I wonder why the discrepancy in manuals? For warranty purposes I'll just use recommended oil for American market.

 

Ouch...sorry Sir. I will try to use the correct terminology when using the PriusChat forums.

I've never wondered about this. Maybe because I live in America. The OP lives in America too...in a rather cold part of the country. He didn't mention he was towing anything, or going uphill both directions, though he does travel at high-ish speeds. Come to think of it, I don't hear of a lot of American Prii engines exploding either. What does this prove? Are you suggesting the OP should have been using 20W-50 this whole time? Question: When does most engine wear occur, at start-up or during driving at high speed?

You're right....I'm no oil engineer nor am I trying to school anyone.

 

As far as Australian Prii, the point is that using viscosity grades other than 0W-20 in a US Prius probably wouldn't destroy the engine, assuming you observe Toyota's Australian temperature restrictions. You would take a fuel-economy hit, especially at low temperatures. Whether the potential life of the engine would be longer, shorter, or exactly the same with (for example) 5W-30, I don't know. That answer might depend on conditions.

Sustained highish speed would be much the same as towing, as far as the engine knows.

 

IMHO it is not as much the weight as the base of the oil used. Here is some data of oil comparative tests from AMSoil site: http://www.amsoil.com/lit/g3115.pdf

The one you need to be interested in is ASTM D6335, TEOST (Thermo-Oxidation Engine Oil Simulation Test). The issue is that many so-called "full" synthetic oils are not synthetic at all, they are Group3 oils made from super-refined conventional stock. More about oil groups here:

Understanding the Differences in Base Oil Groups



So if engine has issues with oil oxygenation related built up, you definitely wanna use Group4 oils. To my knowledge M1 advanced 0w20 used to be mostly PAO-Group4, at least until recently, they might have switched to more Group3. Most of 5w20 oils are Group3 now, and will fair alot worse on D6335.

As CR94 I would question the wisdom of using 5w20 in Wyoming.. I mean it gets down to -40 (I forgot C or F) in winter there?

 

-40 F = -40 C. I've been there in winter. The wind chill is painful.