299,999+ Mile Club

Before I see this, I was excited that my 04' passed 190K this week, with only problem of consume 1qt oil per 1K miles.

 

Do you park it next to a VW ?

 

Somewhere a Sheik is smiling

 

Icing on the cake. What really makes said Sheik happy is the FIFTY GALLONS of oil bought to push the average US car those 1000 miles.

I'm not sure how AllenZ handles the oil consumption, but if it was me I would not be doing any periodic oil changes. That would work out to 10 qts every 10k miles. Compare to many an owner who performs a 5 qt. oil change every 3 - 5k miles.

This has come up for discussion before, by the way. I am not sure how much pollution the consumption is causing, but the oil use itself is really a non-issue.

 

When I had my Seville, the Northstar engine would use a quart of oil every 1000-1200mi., which was normal. I wouldn't do a change until the oil counter was down to 5%.

 

I thought people might enjoy this pretty graph of what happens in an oil tank that gains a qt of oil every month (1k miles) to replace the quart lost, such as AllenZ might have. The graph bars all have 4 qts, but as the months pass new quarts are added and then are serially diluted. Just eyeballing the graph shows that by 6 months an equilibrium is developing in which ~ 80% of the oil is 6k miles old or less; and really old oil is just a few percent of the total, such as we might see with an imperfectly emptied tank.

 

Just a little over 300,000k. My odometer is stuck at 299,999.

1) Did you replace the HV battery pack? No
2) Did you replace the hybrid transaxle fluid? 3x
3) Did you replace the brake pads? Front only
4) Your lifetime MPG (if available)? NA
5) How often do you change your oil? What brand / product did you use? 5,000 miles
6) How about post a picture of 300,000 miles on ODO?
7) Are you the original owner? Yes
8) How many miles under your ownership? All of it
9) Feel free to add anything else you wish

 

Sage,

Love the presentation. Much better than what I did plain with math formula. I was trying to prove that by adding 1qt per 2K miles (at that time), it is safe to change oil every 20K miles. The bad news? we still have to change the filter, maybe 20K interval?

 

Hi Allen,

Glad you liked the graph
I have thought about the filter too, and I am unsure. I'd probably err on the safe side with a good quality one, and yearly changes. That is just me though. If you leave the oil cap on you can remove the old filter without too much mess.

Or perhaps consider one of the rated long life filters. I don't have any useful experience to mention.

 

I am using one of Toyota's Camry filter (longer than Prius'). Theoretically it should last a year no problem.
The NEW good news is, I probably only need to change filter every other year now. The bad news, the reason for that is because it consumes 1qt/500 miles now (my weekly commute distance)
Maybe soon or later, I need to consider replace the gasket somewhere, as my mechanics recommended.

 

Good caution for those of us who are new to the low ground clearance of the Prius. I will be more careful with this car (compared to Tundra pickup).

 

That is a great sample size for data analyses! Does the company keep records of repairs and at what mileage the occurred for each car? Would they be willing to share that information? That would help the rest of us anticipate when we might have each type of problem with our vehicles.

 

When you get it fixed, could you tell the rest of us whether it was valve stem seals, piston rings, or a specific gasket like the valve cover gasket? I would like to know to anticipate what kind of work I will have to do on mine later. Thanks!

 

Sure. I Just bought a Toyota brand PCV valve and valve hose, will replace those first. My mechanics is not sure where are the problems, so we start with the cheaper components.

 

I rarely go on this site, but I had to report that I have a 2007 Prius with over 308k.

In that time I have changed the brake pads once, changed the oil every 5k, tires every 35k, spark plugs twice, both headlights and I need another one, wheel bearing in the front- that's it.

I bought the car with 3k miles.

 

Odometer at 300k. The reason the tire pressure light is on is that the people who put on my tires busted the sensor gauge. Oh, I needed a catalytic converter. Toyota wanted $1500. I had an independent muffler shop do the work for around $200. Be very careful with this Toyota ripoff. This had caused my check engine light to go on.

 

I notice your TPMS light is on, is there a problem with the system or just a low tire? Have you ever changed the transaxle fluid?

 

The tire store busted the sensors. I can't see fixing it. Never changed the transaxl fluid (what is that???)

 

We have a second Prius that we bought last November, an '08 with 34,500 miles. It now has 70,944 miles.

 

I understand why the light is on, don't blame you there.

The transaxle fluid is the fluid inside the transaxle. (Think transmission fluid) Toyota claims it is lifetime. Folks here on PC recommend 60K intervals. Sounds like you are doing something right though since you are over 300K

Best of luck to you!