Trying to figure out this oil leak.

Toyota strickly says NOT to tow anything. The car was not designed for towing.
There are those that do, but that doesn't make it right.
You would not lose much oil from a timing cover leak. Seepage usually.
The oil pressure switch does leak a lot.
Best thing to do is Gunk the whole engine, rinse it off and let it dry. Then drive it and
check often for any leaks.
With those miles, good possibility the oil rings are allowing oil to pass through. Which is common.

 

You need BG hybrid repair kit. Eliminates oil consumption.

 

No it doesn't.... I tried it, it did nothing....

 

It did for me and other prius owners. Just read the reviews on Amazon. Search ‘bg hybrid repair kit’.

 

i say your prius is burning the oil through the piston rings

 

BG might reduce oil burning slightly due to stuck piston rings but you will still have a quart every thousand miles. Can easily run out of oil in less than 4,000 miles.

A small gasket or oring gasket leak does not cause a major oil consumption problem that varies between a quart every thousand miles or a quart every two hundred miles under load.

Gen3s have a Toyota acknowledged problem with low tension piston rings that often cause excessive oil consumption. A production change occurred in mid 2014.

Toyota replaced 2010-14 pistons and rings free if consumption exceeded a quart every 1200 miles. Regardless of load. This program has expired on all gen3s based on time alone. But the bad pistons and rings are still with us. Which is why you hear us say change the oil every 5k miles like your wallet depends on it. From day one. Once they are worn high loads will increase the consumption. No chemical bs will fix it. Clogged egrs, liquids in the intake and blown head gaskets are direct results. Those systems were revised in 2016.

The only real fix is a rebuilt engine that includes new pistons and rings. A new intake should be included, it was revised as well. Use a cleaned egr cooler and valve. The rebuild will seal all the seeps. Then change oil often.

 

Id say carbon clogged EGR is due to its design. It happens with or without oil consumption.

liquids in the intakes are due to PCV design. I’d speculate the intake of a 2015 would also have a pool at the bottom.

my 2 cents: the head gaskets are blowing due to EGR carbon clogging, in particular the propensity of the EGR passages to clog successively, commencing with cylinder one.

 

People have seen leaks at the tensioner and the timing chain cover. Has this car had a head gasket job?

 

Some would clean it again and put florescent dye in the oil to id the spot.

 

What you need to do is Gunk it down really well in that area. Then use a spray
hose of water to wash it away.
The oil pressure switch is a common leak and will spread oil everywere.
The air will blow it all over making it hard to pin point.
You wouldn't think it would use so much oil and make such a mess, but it does.

You can pull the rubber cover off the pressure switch and you'll probably find that
it is full of oil. They are about $15 and fairly easy to change.

After you've clean it up, drive it and check for leaks often. If you look really closely
you should be able to see where the oil if leaking from.