2010 vs 2011 vs 2012 oil consumption

My take on Canada OCI is they treat it as severe service and slashed the interval in half. It's fair to assume some Canadians drive short distances in arctic weather indeed.

As for Australia, as they offer a few oil alternatives and assume people will use cheap mineral oils, they kept OCI conservative, not unlike US when all Toyotas had 5000 mile OCI.

I'm curious what OCI is specified in Europe. Anyone knows?

BTW, I switched my other non-hybrid Toyotas to synthetic oils up to 10,000 miles or 12 months. No problems there, but no low tension rings either.

 

You'll come around if the miles ever begin to pile up.

 

I tried all the supposed fixes, and my Gen 2 still ate oil like the cookie monsters eats cookies. I changed spark plugs ever 80k with iridium 100k+ plugs, I cleaned the EGR, replaced the PCV multiple times, did oil changes every 5000 miles, initially with synthetic and then at the dealer with mineral, didn't make a difference which. Cleaned the throttle body as well as MAF sensor with their proper sprays every 10k miles. None of this stuff helped.

The engine design is faulty on the Gen2. All the gen2's I have or have dealt with have this issue. Nothing short of a rebuild or replacement will fix this issue, and even that fix is only until that engine hits 120-180k miles and it'll have the same issues. Just a fault of the engine.

 

All you tried are known to be useless for controlling oil consumption. The only things that are known to be useful are thicker, high detergent oils, engine flush, piston soaks, and maybe high dose techrone treatments. And even that works only in early stages of oil consumption. When it's neglected, the oil control rings are worn out and you have to rering it.

This thread is on 3rd gen, but since you mentioned 2nd gen, that 1.5l engine is not known for oil consumption in the usual Otto cycle version (I know as my kid drives yaris). What's the difference? Low tension piston rings, helps with mpg, at the expense of oil consumption.

 

Yes I'm aware. I'm just dispelling the idea that any these things will help a faulty oil consuming engine which is designed to have oil consumption after 100XXX miles.They are made to be this way, I did try the high dose techron and lucus as well with no luck. Did bump my tanks mpg though lol. (Note I did try an engine flush, that makes it worse, highly avoid)

 

I believe what you are claiming is the difference between control and elimination.

It sounds like you (or the owner of your Prius prior to you) operated with the closed hood philosophy until a dash light told you to check. In this scenario, the damage has been done and the engine was run for a period of time without oil. There is very little that can be done once the engine has been starved once.

We have 153 k miles on our 2010 Prius II (owned since mile 14) and have had oil consumption. At its peak, which started at 120 k miles, it was a quart every 4,500 miles. I kept using 0w-20 oil until this time, as there wasn't a compelling reason to do anything else. Since I check the oil every Saturday morning (or the next available if we are on vacation) along with the 12v health, I have a good idea of what the situation is.

Awareness is key.

Now if I did not check the oil every so often and got a dash light letting me know the oil level, the situation would be much different and I would have a drinker on my hands.

Since the consumption got to a quart every 4500 miles, I have done various things to keep / improve the situation, but I have not eliminated it (nor do I think I can). I have gotten the consumption down to 20 ounces at 8500 miles for the last oil change.

A list of what I have done:

• Switched to 5w-30 synthetic
• Slowed to down my speed to 0-5 mph over the posted freeway speed limits (rather than 10 mph over I was doing prior)
• Began using Top Tier gas exclusively
• Performed several BG Products EPR treatments (engine flushes)
• Added BG Products MOA for the previous oil change
• Added BG Products extended life MOA to this oil change
• Cleaned the intake manifold
• Changed out the EGR cooler and valve
• Changed PCV valve

To say the engine flushes do not work is not a true statement; it is just true for your situation.

Maybe you could share more about your experience so we could all understand your situation better.

 

First post in these forums. I've a 2011 prius 4, 118,xxx miles. Had an extended warranty and prior to its expiration I inquires about the oil consumption. I was told what Toyota considered reasonable (absurd) and felt I wasn't that bad so figured I had no chance of getting satisfaction out of complaining. Fast forward 18 months. I now burn just over 1 quart every 500 miles. Called Toyota Customer Care. It was recommended I do an oil consumption test. I did, today, and i failed. The only upside being the dealership did it without charge. Called Toyota Customer Care back and wouldn't you know, they said nothing could be done. The dealer pointed out that Toyota has extended warranties on numerous other models for this problem and the Prius may one day receive similar treatment. I mentioned this to the Customer Care gentleman and was met with the same stoney reply - any repair would be borne completely by yours truly. I asked for his boss, he said he is the final say and is imbued with all the authority to make these decisions. It seems to me that if I only get assistance if I own a car in a pre-determined group, then he actually has no authority to help me at all. He simply looks to see if Toyota admits a problem exists and if they don't, i'm out of luck until they do. Zero authority to help me at all.

I put in 20 quarts of oil between recommended changes. That's so excessive it's beyond absurd and enters the realm of laughable disbelief. I used to love this car. In fact, I convinced 3 of my coworkers and my mother to buy a prius with my tales of excellent mpg and low maintenance.

I fondly recalled the commercials from my youth: Oh! What a feeling and How far will your toyota go with happy owners regaling me with their stories of 800,000 mile engines. Or more.

I will never purchase another Toyota. I will actively seek to ensure prospective buyers understand the likely pitfalls of ownership and the tone deaf attitude of Toyota Corporate. I feel like I was sold a promise by a company that knew shortly after my ability to balk would come to an end (100k mile warranty), that promise would be pulled right out from under me.

 

all the best. have you taken the appropriate steps to see if the consumption can be reduced?

 

If I recall correctly, the oil consumption test requires you to drive 600 miles, with some seals on the oil cap and dispstick? Then they check the level, see how much is required to bring it back up? Is that what you did, in one day?

 

Top off the oil and trade that sucker or find a good independent mechanic to install a used low-mile engine. Sorry!

 

That's the test. Fill it and seal it, return between 1100 and 1300 miles. Took me about 2 weeks. They wouldn't tell me how much it burned. Apparently they add one quart and if it doesn't fill it they call that a failure. My guess is that i used about 2.

If anyone has recommendations about how to cut the consumption, i'm all ears. Unless it's 'use to thicker oil'. Tried that, no joy. I've opened up enough engines to know that if there's a problem with the rings or valves, the solution is found in new rings, not in any bottle.

 

Having previously owned an oil burning Toyota, I know how you feel. Mine was burning a quart every 300 miles. My solution which you don't care for was 20w50. It was cheap and easy to top up every fuel up. Driving slower and not in hot weather was the other solutions, those two things I wouldn't and couldn't do.

I didn't fault Toyota, though, it was over 7 years old car at the time with way over 100k miles. That was more than twice the warranty period and miles.

Good luck whatever you choose to do.

 

All Manufacturers reduce friction inside the engine to increase MPG’s. Wear over time is natural, and an already “loose” seal becomes loose enough to leak noticeable amounts.
Back in the day when engine machining technology was inferior to today, you checked oil at every fuel fill and oil was sold at the pumps. The old mechanics knew they had to increase oil viscosity as engines aged and for me it is no different these days. At over 100k I started running 10w-30. Thicker viscosity is needed to fill the void and that’s just a fact. One day I might need to go thicker and I won’t think twice.

 

Yeah, but oil consumption due to clogged rings is a different deal than consumption due to worn rings, typically caused in the old days by deficient air filtration. A lot of engines in intermediate years lasted longer than either 1950s engines or too many modern Prii ones.

 

And manufacturing tolerances. No two engines are "identical".

 

Out of all the remedies for alleviating oil consumption for my Pri, the best one was cleaning the EGR cooler. Second, was using a thicker viscocity oil. Third, adding an OCC.

Save for an engine swap with updated internals, these engines are doomed to burn excessive oil. Great car otherwise.

 

Maybe for preventing oil consumption before it's got out of hand. But if you've got runaway oil consumption, say due to fouled piston rings and/or clogged piston oil-drain passages, or valve seal wear, I don't think any of those will help. Never the less they're good to do. Just they won't cure the oil consumption.

 

Probably way past time for an update, last documented back in post #8. Vehicle now at 210,000 miles. In the past four oil top-ups, my calculated burn rate varied from as low as one quart in 4300 miles to as high as 8000 miles. My gauge measurement against the dip stick is about a 6 ounce resolution, so some of the variability might come from this. I continue to top-up with Valvoline Max-Life 5W20, mixing it in with the Toyota 0W20 that gets changed every 10,000 miles. I don't think this will cause any further damage or wear, and actually appears to be helping. YMMV though.

 

I never said any of the aforementioned were a 'cure'. They have alleviated the consumption.

They were all done at the same time.

I'm running Royal purple now because I love throwing money at cars.

 

Yet some never burn much, with no special measures to control it. Why is unclear.