I want buy a Prius but need some help/suggestions

I have never heard about "unless running at higher speeds" and that doesn't make sense anyway. The first number in the oil rating is the cold viscosity number so if you live in the tropics or drive through death valley a lot there may be a case for thicker oil, in the Uk we do get relatively cold winters where you need the protection and flow at startup. The second figure is your hot viscosity and here it is rare for the fan to cut in let alone exceed the relatively low running temperature of our well engineered cars. Thick oil will cause more fuel to be used and in cold conditions can cause more damage during the warm up period where most of the wear occurs in any combustion engine.

 

I refuse to quote my regularly driven speeds as it may incriminate me

 

I have heard this too but in relation to some early synthetics with seal conditioners added. I am not aware of any synthetic oils with them in anymore and would recommend avoiding them if you do find one

 

I agree with you on all points except one. The difference in thickness in say 5-30 to 5-40 is very very slight and no loss really in mileage. I run a very high quality motor oil that’s 5-30 but at operating temp is essentially a 40 weight
And the engine runs much better. My g2 started to eat a tiny bit of oil and this 40 weight fixed that.
And the other poster saying if you run high speeds I agree 100%. If you drive the car really hard a thicker oil may protect more.
But yes your right in cold weather run a zero weight oil like 0-20.

Redline motor oil. Google it read reviews.

 

When you say run at high speeds I assume plenty of air cooling the radiator and the temperatures stable, maybe high loads or towing or even those that have a grille block would benefit and yes you are right there is little difference between 30 and 40 depending on the brand.

 

OW20 and 0W40 have the same cold weather protection. They both are rated at 0. Here in the USA we are seeing many GEN3 burning oil. The use of thicker oil will help reduce the chance of this happening. I see no drop in MPG. I average in the 50's.

 

I haven't seen the 0w30 or 0w40 available here but maybe I haven't been looking, good to know

 

Mobil 1 makes both. I use 0W40 as a preventive measure to future oil burning.

 

Having a good low viscosity oil and regular servicing reduces the chances of the piston oil-ways clogging up and causing oil consumption. I used to use Mobil 1 in my old Prius I might start again on my next service

 

You’re not the first one that happened to.

What did you want to know again ?

 

Oil burning can be an issue, so look for a low mileage car and change the oil to something more substantial then 0W20 and going forward change the oil at 5k miles. These cars a pretty much maintenance free, and give very little problems if any.

 

Im not a certified mechanic, just amateur lol, but one thing i know i cant live without is keyless entry, which is the sensors on the doors and the trunk that feels when u r close to them and just open when u pull the handle.


And what ive done on my testdrives is just driven it aggresivly, see if the acceleration is meeting up to my expectation, brake hard to see if it brakes, aggresive steering, drive on bumps.
One thing i usually do also is just check the brake pads, rotors and suspension. Just to get an idea of if the car has been mantained the way it should. just look at the rotors if they r rusted to sh*t or if the brake pads is worn out. To check the suspension just lean up towards the wheel arch, and hump it up and down, if its super soft and wiggles easly, its bad, if its firm and doesnt really want to jiggle then its good


Ill leave a few videos down here thats standard check-list for all cars from ChrisFix (a really good youtube mechanic), ill leave the specific things to look out for, for the master prius mechanics on this site. Its quite alot of em

One thing that needs to be checked tho, is the hybrid battery, check that it doesnt charge out within 10 seconds of electric driving for example, best would be if u had a bluetooth OBD2 reader and the app "OBDCarDoctor", that app can check how the hybrid battery is doing, it shows u wear percentage. It can also show other fault codes that the dude selling the car hasent told u about. I always diagnose the cars i buy before buying them. But yea, watch these videos down here

 

FT, what happened with the salvage ones you were checking out?

My tip is to look at the trip A and trip B. If you're still looking at a gen3, then on the right hand side of the steering wheel is a small button called "trip". Press it until you get to trip A and trip B and see what it says under # if miles and cons (mpg). If you see 500+ miles at over 50 mpg, then that's a good sign.

Even if it's lower it's not necessarily bad, but it's something I'd want to know before purchasing.

 

The ones you want from the third generation are the 2012-2015s. All third-gen liftbacks model year 2012 and newer came with a backup camera, USB / iPod input, an auxiliary jack, and Bluetooth phone / audio streaming, regardless of trim level.

I think I might have posted a variant of this here or on Reddit for the v wagon, but here's a quick set of if / then statements to determine the trim level, again on 2012 and newer:

• IF the top right button on the car's audio head unit is a play / pause icon, THEN it is a Two trim and does not have any additional equipment.
• IF the top right button on the car's audio head unit says "APPS" and there is a little voice icon on the left side of the steering wheel, THEN it is a Three trim that has a built-in navigation system and some other goodies.
• IF the car has all of that, plus Softex leather-like seats (as opposed to fabric), but has the smaller wheels with or without the plastic covers, THEN it is a Four trim.
• IF the car has everything said previously but with larger wheels, cool white LED headlamps, and factory front fog lamps, THEN it is a Five trim.
• Finally, IF the car has a crazy amount of buttons on the audio head unit (7 plus a knob on either side), plus a couple of extra buttons on the right side of the steering wheel, THEN it is the top-of-the-line Five trim with Advanced Technology Package with all the toys. Those are like unicorns.

 

i buy salvage rebuild every time i buy a car. you should buy for 50% less than retail and from a seller that has lots of feedback. i just bought a 2014 prius with 34,400 mi for $8200 about 2 months ago.

 

before and after repair on my 2014