Oil consumption

Not only "the very best of them," but also plenty of ordinary engines make it well beyond 100,000 or even 300,000 miles without guzzling oil, if not abused. I've known several that have, from various manufacturers, including Toyota. The ancient folklore that engines typically wear out by 100K is several decades obsolete.

 

I had a VW Passat once that started consuming 1 qt / 500 miles well before 100K; the VW dealer insisted it still met the German engineering spec. So I got out of VWs well before the current emissions debacle. I guess my comment is off the marque.

 

Well, I love that website, as you might surmise. I lurk there daily. Management suddenly banned me in 2012, with no explanation given. Subsequent efforts to apologize resulted in silence. user name was tribocessive. My seminal UOAs on Sustina 0W20 are posted and can be googled.

 

i was banned from BITOG too many times to count. they always let me come back after a long break. the website is so redneck conservative it doesn't take much to get banned. prius hate is a huge problem with BITOG, but it's changing slowly as prius becomes a mainstream car. on the other hand, tesla is cool, go figure.

 

Toyota unfortunately has a similar stance: haven't got the Owner's Manual in front of me, but it's something like a a quart consumption per 600 miles; within spec.

 

About the same as VW; From 2010 Prius Owner's Manual:

 

LOL. Indeed. On topic, I am scratching my head about oil consumption, but will post some detailed thoughts soon.

 

I believe that level of oil consumption would be within warranty spec, or very nearly so, on every car ever in my household. That includes five American and Japanese brands, and warranties that lasted only 12,000 miles.

 

Really fun to read this exchange. I'm a lonnnng time BITOG lurker but will not register. Ever. "Redneck conservative," you completely nailed it, friendly_jacek! Too bad, it has potential to be a top-shelf forum if it could lose the extreme Southern lean. No Crown Vic or Saturn hate going on over there...

 

Which equals 18 quarts between oil changes. At that point changing the oil every 10K would seem ineffectual.

 

See: there's always a bright side.

 

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to at least change the oil filter cartridge?

 

I'd stick to the schedule at least, really posting in jest. When you're burning that much oil, is the catalytic converter getting quickly fouled? And/or the EGR system?

 

I work as a delivery driver subcontractor. Two drivers I know from work have high mile vehicles with low oil consumption.

One has a 2006 Tacoma 4 cylinder with 500k miles. He uses Mobil 1 5W30.

The other has a 2012 Prius with 400k miles. He uses Toyota 0W20.

 

Unfortunately, Toyota and every other manufacturer gets to make up a number for what they consider "excessive oil consumption." The worst oil consumption I ever had in a new vehicle was a 1977 GMC pickup, which burned a quart every 300 miles, right from the get-go. When I complained about it to the dealer, I was informed that "a quart every 300 miles was about where they drew the line on excessive oil consumption," and I was "out-of luck."

Thank goodness my 2012 PiP is still using virtually no oil after about 50k. I think we should be able to expect that a Prius engine should be able to make it between oil changes without adding oil, if it has been broken in properly, and using the 0-W20 synthetic oil as recommended.

 

agreed. the number of oil burners complaining here is minimal. most of these engines go hundreds of thousands of miles without the need for topping up between changes.
the ones having problems could be defective, or could be the result of abuse.

 

And my brother has a 1995 Avalon with well over 300K and consuming very little oil. He's used synthetic 5W-30 of various brands.
His 1985 VW Jetta did the same, on conventional 10W-40.
My Mazda had little increase in oil consumption in 606K, aside from unrelated leaks, using conventional 10W-40.

The point being, people who tell you it's reasonable to expect a well maintained engine to guzzle oil beyond a mere 100K or so are full of it.

 

How about this: All the manufacturers have to put their excessive oil consumption number on page one of their gloss brochures?

Good to see you back, btw.

 

I have a 2010 with 140,000 miles. My prius has ever used more than a quart of Toyota synthetic 0W-20 oil every 6000 miles. And we drive allot of highway miles. It wasn't until we took a trip out west to states that have an 80mph speed limit. When we took a trip through many western US states I was traveling at speeds between 80 and 85mph and at about 2000 miles through our trip I thought I'd check the oil and was shocked when I had to put in 2 quarts. I traveled back home where I drive 70 and 75mph and am back to using about a quart every oil change. I visited with my mechanic and he said that because of the high rpm's at the higher speeds combustion gasses seep past the rings and because the crankcase ventilation can't keep up with the gasses seeping past the rings it causes oil to be pushed up past three rings. I'm not sure what speed you drive but if it is at least 80mph that may be the problem. I did have a 2007 Prius and it burned about 2 qts every 6000 miles. Please let me know if you found out what was causing yours.

 

I should probably know, but do Priuses have a "low oil level" indication, or only "low oil pressure" like the cars of my youth? If the first indication you get is a red light indicating low oil pressure, you have likely done serious damage to the engine, and, not surprisingly, it will probably consume oil, and maybe self destruct within a fairly short period of time.