Should I Change Oil every 3,000 miles so Car Doesn't Become a Leaker?

Sounds like your mechanic may have gotten something expensive over the holidays that he needs some assistance with.

We have a 2010 Prius II with 146 k miles on it. Change the oil every 10 k miles with 5W-30 full synthetic oil.

At about 120 k miles I began to see consumption of a quart every 4500 miles. I have since done several things to reduce consumption to a quart every 6500 miles. Trying some experiments to see if I can reduce this further this.

Main thing I have done is reduce the traveling speed by 5mph (freeway speeds out here are 65 where I used to go with the faster travelers that averaged 70-75 mpg, now I travel 65-70 mph and have seen a reduction in oil consumption).

How many miles on your Prius? Are you starting to see oil consumption?

IMO, change the oil every 5 or 10 k miles , but every 3 k miles seems like there is an alterior motive.

Hope that helps

 

I doubt it could leak more than 4 quarts every 3000 miles. It would use less oil as a leaker.

Time to find a mechanic on your side.

 

I'm following Canadian 3rd gen schedule: 8,000 km or 6 months. The 6 months is governing; our usage with us both retired has really dropped. From the spring to fall oil change, see there was 3741 kms, which converts to roughly 2300 miles.

I see no appreciable drop in level, the oil still does go from amber to inky, viewing in a jar. DIY, the oil and washers cost me about $24.

It's a 1~2 hour chore, and we pour out the used oil, drop off the spent oil filter, down the trail at Mr. Lube.

Doesn't really answer the OP question, except to say: it's a cheap chore, especially DIY, both in $'s and time.

 

iPhone ?

 

I have > 80 k, change every 5 to 10 k and there is almost no usage. TOYOTA says 10 k but most shops want to do it every 5 k. Not a surprise, is it. Good synthetics should easily go 20-15k miles


iPhone ?

 

At 3k OCI (oil change intervals), you're all ready "burning" as much oil as an "oil burner".

For instance, my Energi has 20k OCI @ 4 qts. That's 1 qt per 5,000 miles of use.
Whereas, 3k OCI @ 4qts=26 qts per 20k or 1qt every 770 miles traveled.

 

How often do you check your oil......really?

If you never check it, I'd be tempted to club down to a 5,000 mile OCI.

The reason isn't so much that the oil looses it's ability to lubricate the pieces/parts, or even that it gets overly dirty from combustion by-products BUT if there's a veeeeeery slow leak (like the infamous timing chain cover leak) or if you start burning oil then then the fact that the Prius has a very small oil sump will require more and more work from a very diminished supply of oil.
That's why you'll read a lot of posts where Priuses with relatively low mileages "suddenly start using oil" which is a load of hooey, which is a technical term meaning......CRAP.

Mechanics get paid for completing jobs.
Quickly.
Very few mechanics bother checking the oil level BEFORE the oil change, so if your car is low on oil and HAS BEEN low on oil for thousands of miles, then this condition remains undetected after the oil change since the sump is now full (more or less....IF they performed the oil change correctly!!)
When does the oil light start flickering on hard corners?
2 quarts low? One and a half?
Two or three cycles later, and your car has been running for tens of thousands of miles while being low on oil but not low enough to activate the little red light.

Suddenly, your little baby is a smoker and a drinker and for the same reason that this occurs in teens.


If you insist on a closed hood maintenance policy, and if you're not into changing the oil yourself see if the mechanic will cut you a deal on just draining and refilling the oil at 5,000 miles and performing both at 10,000 miles.
If he/she won't do it then either get a new mechanic or just do both every 5k.
Mostly I don't bother with oil-only changes but the filters on my vehicles are easy to get to and they're a lot bigger than the unit on the Prius.
3,000 mile OCIs for Priuses is a bit too often IMHO.


Good Luck!!!!

 

We're not talking about oil leakage here. We are talking about oil -burning-. Frequent oil changes have no effect on leaking, other than to hide it from you (level won't drop enough to notice).

I have seen no definitive post on this forum about the cause of oil burning. There ARE lots of opinions! -I- would go with the knowledge of the Toyota engineers, which is printed in the owners manual. 5,000 to 10,000 mi. changes. 5,000 in "rough service" and 10,000 intervals otherwise.

 

The original Toyota OCI for the 2010 Prius was 5,000 miles before later changing to 10,000 miles.

I have remained with the 5k interval. At 123k miles there is no loss of oil level between changes.

One more piece of data to help with your thought process.

 

We do 10k ... not before. I think every car we have bought in the past 15 years has had at least 7500 miles .. and the 7500 cars were 10 years ago.

I never change our cars until they hit the miles or 2 years -- the additive pac in synthetic oil will allow it to go out to 2 years. It's common for collector cars to go 2 years between changes.

 

I have a 2010 Prius with 58000 mi. I usually drive less then 6000 mi. per year.
I have a local shop I have used for years that charges 19.95 for a semi synthetic oil and filter change -
plus a tire rotation which I get every 6 mo. Works for me!

 

No oil filter?

I'm coming up on 120k miles. Been doing 10k miles OCI since new which comes out to every 4 months. Crawling underneath the car every 4 months is too often. Burned a little oil at 100k change but none noticeable at 110k.

 

Good catch! Yeah I am doing the oil filter, about $9 more with tax.

With our current low miles though: I'm think to go to oil change every 6 months, filter yearly.

 

The main factor I think, is your mindset. Here's mine:

It's cheap as heck for me, and I've got nothing much on my calendar, so every six months: out with the old, in with the new, responsibly recycle the old. It keeps me off the streets, lol.

 

What you need to change is your mechanic, not your oil. My Prius 3, with 101,000, has never used any noticeable amount of oil, with 10,000 to 12,000 mile changes...and I'm embarrassed to say, I got distracted, and just did one today at 17,000 miles, again, with no apparent drop on the dipstick.

 

What most cars call severe use -- sitting in traffic .. short trips ... is exactly what the Prius is designed for. Hard use for a Prius engine in floored going up a mountain.

 

does anybody know hot to set oil change maintenance reminder every 5k?

 

I always follow the recommended maintenance from manufacturers, mainly because I know I'm not smarter than the engineers who designed their automobile.

Now that I'm approaching 40K miles, I've seen no oil loss in between 10K changes. My typical use is a 30 minute commute along rural roads.