2010 oil burning fix

Agree, let it sit over night and measure it where it's park. Oil will already settle to the bottom, no need to wipe and pull again either. I check mine every other day with my OCD.

 

For the total retro experience, you can clean your windows too. There's still almost always a squeegee on a handle and a bucket of stinky water around.

 

Then you’ll have water sliding down the doors, even more time to let the oil level down for better measurement accuracy.

 

In a self-serve, the guy behind you's going to go ballistic, lol.

 

no burning here. 175k with mobile one

Pixel 3a XL ?

 

I never fill anywhere but self-serves (except one time last spring in Amherst, where some guy ran out and insisted on doing it for me). But I'm hardly ever at a self-serve when every pump is occupied and there's a queue. If I ever were, maybe I'd make an exception.

 

I think it helps too, if your car is conveniently garage stored. For me it's 20 paces to the car, I do all the checks there, have rags, top-up oil (yet to need any lol), extra washer fluid, tire pressure gauges and so on.

 

I know this thread has been dead for a little while, but I just wanted to say thanks to the helpful posters who contributed. I've got a 2012 Prius V with about 115k and it recently failed Toyota's oil consumption test. (Burning >1qt per 800 miles I think?) I was told the engine needed to be rebuilt/replaced. I'm currently doing a piston soak to try and rejuvenate the rings. Based on what others have said I'm going to give it a few days. A mechanic friend was worried letting it sit a whole week "sounds like a piston ring seize waiting to happen. Here's hoping it helps...

 

Curious which product you're currently soaking with, and what other products you've identified as being potentially useful if needed?

 

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE don't take my approach as anything more than anecdotal. I could be completely off-base.

I identified the following as potentials: AC Delco x66, Berrymans b-9 or b-12, Marvel Mystery Oil, Seafoam, Mopar Combustion Chamber Cleaner, BG EPR/MOA.

I chose Marvel Mystery Oil for 2 primary reasons.
1: I could pick it up at my local O'Reilly shop, and
2: After watching a few different videos on Youtube of people doing piston soaking I noticed that MMO seemed somewhat common. I also saw a video where a guy did 2 cylinders with MMO and 2 cylinders with Seafoam. The MMO appeared to do a better job (which is maybe bc Seafoam is meant for working in a hot engine? Not sure) and I couldn't find anybody saying that MMO caused damage to their engine. So it seemed like if it doesn't work I could always try a more aggressive/expensive product.

 

The cut-off for free replacement is 60K; you don't qualify?

(That 60K cut-off sounds like a midway carney fine-print clause: nobody has runaway oil consumption by 60K. )

 

I have a friend with a couple HIGH mile Prii. 400-600k miles.
The piston soak worked for him. He let it soak a week or so.

BUT, he used a modern product made for this treatment. I assume these products are heavy on the detergents.

And you drain the oil immediately before running the engine and I assume inspect the cylinder bores to make sure it has all 'soaked' past the rings and into the oil sump. Follow any Service Bulletins or instructions.
You don't want this stuff getting on oil seals more than it has to.
In fact, I'd leave the oil drain plug out and catch what comes out after the oil is drained.
Maybe use 1/2 qt of oil to flush the sump before the new oil fill.

I really question the Mystery Oil. That stuff has been around for (?) +70 years. It's a mystery to me....
Old timers put it in their gas and oil, on their salads, and swear by it. But then poo poo synthetic oils...

 

Would your friend be willing to share this 'secret sauce' with the rest of us?

 

I 2nd that request...

 

If you haven't tried it, I got lucky with BG products. I used the hybrid kit (though its probably the same as regular, but I can't back that up), and my oil consumption is a quarter of what it was prior. Some people have no luck with that but if you ain't tried yet, can't hurt.

 

I'll ask, but ^Rod^ above mentioned the major players for the 'Piston Soak' products that the OEM's recommend.

I know it wasn't a 'Mystery'.

Oh, another thing,
When it comes time to power it back up for the first time after the soak and fresh oil change.....

Be a good neighbor and do it late at night so no one can see the cloud your car is making...

Maybe immediately drive away from home so you are crop dusting the neighborhood and not just your driveway!

And another thing. Have all four pistons at mid stroke before pouring in whatever product you use.

 

I had my lovely wife hold a dowel in the valve chamber and mark the top and bottom of the travel while I turned the crankshaft from under the car. (I was actually able to get at it with a socket wrench from below without turning the wheel or removing the plastic well fairing.) So yeah I have all the pistons at the midway mark.

I also got a turkey baster and some rubber hose to "suck" as much of the MMO out of the chamber (if there is any left) once I'm done so hopefully that will lessen the amount of fouling/smoking I'll deal with later.

Good thought on using a 1/2 quart of oil to help flush it through. I've got plenty of spare dribs and drabs to do that...

 

I have been having issues with oil consumption basically since I got my car and nothing has helped. Been running high mileage full synthetic. Does anyone have experience putting a thicker oil in to try to stop the engine eating oil?

 

How many miles on the vehicle, how much oil is it consuming, and what is the average speed over longer distances?

Many have used a thicker oil, and there are other options to potentially mitigate oil consumption as well.

 

I'm new here and new to Prius, reading a bunch of old threads and trying to figure out how to keep my new-to-me but higher mileage Prius healthy. This comment is more about the ACEA and SAPS conversation in this thread and less about oil consumption itself. I read something over at BITOG* about SAPS and sulfur in US gas, which was reduced in 2017. I think the takeaway is that now that we have lower sulfur gas, lower-SAPS oil is safer for gasoline engines.

I also noticed that when I ask the Mobile 1 website to recommend an oil for my 2012 Prius, one of the options is Mobil 1 ESP X2 0W-20, which is ACEA C5 (mid-SAPS). ESP stands for "emission systems protection" and it is supposed to create less gunk in cats, EGRs, and other emissions components. It's also Porsche C20, VW 508 00 and VW 509 00 approved.

So, I guess I'm wondering if using ESP could reduce EGR deposits in Gen 3 Prii, which would in turn potentially reduce all the associated problems. This presumes that SAPS cause premature EGR fouling.

*I can't post links yet, but search BITOG for "Help out the uninformed concering SAPS"