30,000 miles between oil changes

be sure to check to see if all recalls has been performed and maintain the 5k oil change intervals

 

How can you be sure it didn't get an oil change in between? What records are you looking at?

FWIW - My Outlook had an oil life monitor that would let it go 10K between changes. That made me concerned, so I sent the oil for analysis. The oil was still good, but likely near the end of it's life. Assuming it did go 30K between changes and that it wasn't run out of oil, it likely did OK. Not a good situation, but worse things can happen for sure.

 

If you determine this is the case or just can not veryify, do an oil/filter change now and again in 500 mile. If will not fix any wear, but it will clean out the system and prevent further issues. Then service as usual. Might want to get or do the transmission fluid change now while your at it. Well documented here.

 

It's probably fine. On modern engines, that don't have any malfunctions, with normal driving, with synthetic oil, can go at least 25,000 without any problem. The oil filter on the Prius is a little small for this kind of mileage, but if it didn't completely fill and open the bypass it should be good. Even if it did, still probably no problem. If it doesn't use any oil between oil changes it is definitely good. We Americans waste a lot of things including oil. The minimum drain interval in most of the rest of the world is 12,000 miles. I once ran oil 148,000 in a Renault using bypass filters and oil analysis without any problem. I run about 30, 000 a year with the Prius with a bypass filter and only change once a year and the filter every 2 years. 227,000 on it now and I still do not have to add any oil between changes. Many truckers run 100,000 between oil changes with oil analysis. At worst you may only get 250,000 miles out of the engine instead of 300,000 before it starts using oil.
Older, carbureted engines or engines with poor fuel management that allow a lot of oil contamination, like GM products, are another story.

 

What, he actually told you that he didn't do any of his own maintenance or interim oil changes between those sparse dealer services? Wow, at least he's honest.

Personally my key question to him would have been: "did you at least top off the oil from time to time?". If not topped off, there would have been a serious risk of him running that thing dry on the 30k interval! That would be my biggest concern.

 

Chances are it's fine - especially if the main dealer used synthetic oil. Oil change intervals here in the UK for a petrol engine are usually between 15,000 and 20,000 miles with engine warranties upto 100,000 miles.

Also, I knew a taxi driver who NEVER changed his oil. He topped it up, but never changed it. His cars ran upto 200k miles no problem, though they often sounded rough. His argument was the money and more importantly time saved, more than made up for the possible engine failure. He never had one.

Now obviously I'd not go as far as to saying follow his advice, but I think you'll be ok with that gap. More worrying would be if the oil level was allowed to get too low. That could cause more damage.

 

It is obvious that your car was poorly maintained.

I think you will need to own the car for a while, to decide if there is anything to be concerned about. I would suggest that you monitor the engine oil consumption carefully. A Prius with 53K miles on the odometer should use little or no oil.

If you see that the engine consumes a noticeable amount of oil between oil changes that will be evidence that excessive engine wear resulted from the poor maintenance practices.

 

I've opened up quite a few engines that had long intervals between oil changes.

They are like beautiful woman with CRABS or the CLAP.

It's called blissful ignorance.

 

The oil change interval for the Prius in the UK is 10,000 miles, and always has been. Running synthetic oil to only 5000 miles is just a waste of good oil.
I know in the US there is grate reluctance to accept this interval, but many cars here now run to 20,000 as the normal interval and the oil is still good.
The Prius does not put heavy demands on it's oil with it's power output and maximum rpm being some 30% down on the original specification engine design and the amount of fuel burnt by about the same amount. It also has periods where the engine is not running at all both with the car still moving, and while stationary at lights etc, when normal cars, and the cars the original engine was designed for would still be running.
While I do not suggest running to 30,000 miles on every oil change, I do not believe any damage will have been done at the cars present low millage.

John (Britprius)

 

I'm sure that this question has already been asked here, but I'm relatively new to ownership and I think that it's relevant for this particular topic:

How long is the engine actually on the the mileage it's doing?

I'll try to expalin the Q better and where I'm coming from.

For my usual commute to the office, it's almost all down hill and as such, the engine doesn't turn on for very long at all. It's approx 12/13kms and the engine might only run for 5 mins at the start of the journey and for a few mins during it. Whilst the car is still clocking up miles on the ODO, I don't believe that the engine is clocking up mileage, if I'm making myself clear.

What I'm trying to ask, and I'm sure that it differs for every driver, for example, for every 1,000 miles, how much of that is the engine running? So if the car does 10,000 p/annum, and is only on for half of that, if I do 20,000 over two years, the engine has only done 10k? If this were the case, the person whose car has covered 30k between services, the engine may have only done 15k? And those that are changing every 5k, the engine may have only done 2.5K, which would seem like an awful waste. Furthermore, I believe that the Prius, as with alot of Hybrids will be babied along as we are driving them exceptionally easy to get the most of the mpg, so the car itself is being looked after and not beat on like a TDI, where no matter how you drive it, the mpgs are not as badly affected unlike a standard petrol car!

 

Hi Tony. I depends a lot on the driver and the route, but for most people it's probably 80% plus. It may be less for some people who do a lot of relatively low speed "around town" trips, but for anyone doing a lot of miles it's probably more than 80%.

It's also worth pointing out that any time that you're going over 42 MPH then the engine is always turning, even when it appears (on the display) to be not running. (Technically it's running but without fuel injection.) Also worth pointing out is that while the engine generally gets an easy time at low speeds, under high power demand conditions however (like mountain passes), the little Prius engine can get one hell of a caning in trying to lug a 3500 lb car with a 1500 cc engine.

BTW. Personally I do have some relatively slow trips where the engine is probably only running as little as 50 to 55 percent. On a distance basis though, trips like that are going to be in the minority.

 

Ah, cheers for that. Nice to see the stats/figures on it as I was wondering since I bought mine. In my case for the morning trip I never go over 60km/hr, so I really don't think that it switches on much at all, but as you said, the little 1.5 sounds under a bit pressure on the way home, when it's all uphill. It no mountain pass, but you can hear it working away. I'd never hear a sound from the V6, as it was ticking over only in the city.

I bought the Prius as I do a huge amount of tipping around, less than 50/60 km/hr around town and I find that I'm getting better at the P&G and hopefully keeping the engine off

 

It doesn't matter.
You've bought the car, and there's no such thing as retroactive oil changes.
You're married to the car now, so anything that happened before you signed on the dotted line is irrelivent

Going forward?
If you want this marriage to be a long and happy one, you're going to have to put a little work into it.
Probably most importantly...you need to monitor your oil usage.

This is because most engines that "suddenly" use oil, don't.
People don't look at dipsticks these days, and thus when you reach the 10,000 mile oil change interval you may be one or two quarts down. This can go on for years with the owner blissfully unaware that their little motor is slowly damaged by long intervals and low oil volume.
"Suddenly?"
You're throwing codes and you need a new catalytic convertor and you're using 1-2q per thousand miles.

My tank range is 500 miles.
I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I check my level every fill up, but i will at least check it every other fill up!!!
This is far less than is recommended, and it probably still places me in the top 5 percentile for maintenance checks.

Once you've driven your car for a few thousand miles you'll be able to determine whether or not you have anything else to worry about where the motor is concerned because generally speaking if you're not using oil and your efficiency is high, then it's almost impossible for you to have motor problems.
Or...
If it runs good?
It is good.

Good Luck!

 

As a fellow Britt I should have welcomed you to PC, where you will find many people willing to help with any problem you may have.
Be aware the forum is mostly "but not only" US based and that there are some significant differences between the US and the UK/EU Prius, mainly in the areas of:- The fuel tank, cooling system, rear brakes, wheels and tyres, entry systems, and service intervals. The engine and transmission remain the same.
I run a 2008 Prius now a whisker under 100,000 miles. It has no measurable oil use between 10,000 mile intervals using 0w/20 oil and still looks clean when it is changed. This oil improves further the mpg of the Prius.

John (Britprius)

 

Hi Toni!

It's true that the engine in the Prius spends less time running than in a conventional car, but when it is running, it runs under much higher load. The lower RPMs partially compensate this, but not completely.

Also, being "babied along" isn't necessarily easier on the motor oil. If, depending on your route and driving, the engine is not running fully warmed up for a good portion of the trip, then condensation and fuel dilution tend to accumulate, contaminating and degrading the oil sooner.

Yes, the Prius is generally easy on the oil, but perhaps not quite as much as one might think based on running time alone.
,

 

That's very good news. One of the things I was going to mention in my previous post was to just watch the oil consumption closely for a few thousand miles and that (in my opinion) will tell you all you really need to know.

During the extended non serviced interval, the engine was either run low on oil or it wasn't. It was either damaged or it wasn't. If it's still having minimal oil consumption then you'd assume nothing bad has ever happened to that engine, so I'd say you've got absolutely no worries. And since the consequences of the "non service" to components other than the engine are largely irrelevant at this point, I'd say you've lucked out.

BTW. I'd still run a few slightly shorter than normal oil change intervals just as a precaution and to allow a bit of extra cleanup. Then just stay with the standard oil change interval and expect a good long life out of it.