I want buy a Prius but need some help/suggestions

Yea this is old news, is there a connection from 2007 and 2010 car, who knows? But when you check on Prius Gen3 outside the USA, they are not reporting oil usage. Only thing different is that they are not limited to 0W-20 oil. They can use 30,40 and up to 50 weight oil.

 

exactly...

 

Interesting. I'm assuming that Toyota dealers will always use 0W-20 if you bring it in to them. Is it possible to request the thicker oil at the dealer?

 

Yes.

The dealer closest to us offers 5w-30 full synthetic if you ask.

So it’s possible.

 

I owned a 2008 Prius and I took it to get an oil change at a Penzoil Quick Lube. I was talking to the guy and he sold me on Synthetic. He filled the car with synthetic and not 1500 miles later my oil light comes on. I checked the oil level and it was very low. I spoke to a mechanic and he said if you run a car on regular oil for many miles then do not switch to synthetic. After that point I switched back to the regular 5w-30 oil that I had always used. But after this happened, my Prius started burning oil in a big way. Never burned oil before the switch. The car had over 100,000 miles on it but never burned oil, EVER, until this event. I kept the Prius and just kept adding oil until eventually the catalytic converter clogged up and illuminated the check engine light. Luckily I am not in an area with annual inspections!

I passed the car on to a family member and he is still driving it to this day. The oil burning is much worse but the engine now has over 200,000 on it.

Some have told me this was a coincidence and that switching to Synthetic would not have caused the problem.

If anyone has any experience with this issue ?

 

I am in the UK and we use the 0-20W here I believe the egr valve has been redesigned in the later cars and some software changed regarding the warm up cycle. I wouldn't use the thicker oil unless I already had a oil consumption problem too expensive to fix

 

Yes UK follows 0W-20 oil weight unless you are running at high speeds then its recommend to use heavier weight oil. Australia, Middle East, South Pacific and parts of Europe recommend thicker oil.

 

I have heard not to use synthetic oil on older cars that have never used synthetic because the seals are more prone to leak.

 

Same here.

 

I have been fearful of relay attacks too, but as long as you watch your surroundings no one will be able to pick up on your transmitter's signal without you realizing it. If you're really paranoid about your car being stolen from your home at night, use a Faraday cage box / bag, or stuff a box / can / tin with aluminum foil and close your key inside.

As for stealing the battery? If a thief wants it, they'll get it and they won't care about what damage they do to your car in the process. Unfortunately that wave that happened in the San Francisco area in 2015 won't be the last, especially with third-gen Prius models now beginning to run out of their warranties. But if you have a decent insurance policy, it won't be catastrophic if it happens.

 

It will always be people that want to steal things from ur car no matter what u drive... So thinking like that wont exactly help u. Buy what u want, get a decent insurance and ur good. The prius does have a key inside the keyless key, but if u use the manual key people can still open it via radio transmitters if they really want to. Unless u r really keen to plug out the battery everytime u leave the car, and go into weirdas yoga positions clibing thru the car to get to the hatch and open it manually from the inside to plug the battery in again.
All cars can be opened with these transmitters until car manifacturers start taking it seriously and make keys that uses "coded" frequencies or something... Anyways, if u r scared of people opening ur car with those transmitters u can just wrap it in aliminium foil when u get home for the night so it blocks of any signals from reaching the car. When u r out and a decent distance away these transmitters car theives use cant reach u, so they cant steal the car or whatever they want inside without breakin in.

 

Salvage title. Off Craigslist.

What’s your plan when your driving down the road in it and all the dash lights come on?

 

A 2015 Prius with no hybrid battery or IPM warranty? Make sure you get the Carfax on it, and if it's from a dealer, they'll provide it for free. The mileage makes it seem that it got stolen within the first 6 months of ownership.

What's the price that it's being offered for?

 

Whatever model/year you're considering, google "toyota tech info", and typically the first hit will be:

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/appmanager/t3/ti?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ti_home_page&contextType=external&username=string&challenge_url=https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/login/techinfo&password=secure_string&request_id=6410065180712345014&authn_try_count=0&locale=en_US&resource_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechinfo.toyota.com%2F

Go to that site, click on the "manuals" tab:



Fill in the info for the car you're considering, click search, and you'll get a list like this:



Look for the Warranty and Maintenance Guide, words to that effect, open and/or download it (pdf format), have a read: you'll find the kosher warranty info, including any provisos, say California vehicles for example, which tend to have longer warranty. Note, these are the Toyota warranties, arguably the only ones worth more than the paper they're printed on.

 

I'll handle this: sure, you just walk up to the service counter, ask away.

Seriously, I'd think as long as you're paying, they'd have no problem. Some dealerships would maybe argue a bit though, warn of dire consequences.

 

Ok, I think I understand. They are both salvage Prius that are being offered from private party sellers, is that correct? If you're buying from CL, post the link here and you'll get some more feedback.