0w-20 and 0w-16, way too thin. 5w-20 or 5w-30 instead?

It's not really a secret but very few people do it, run a good quality engine oil flush through your motor every other oil change.
I use liquid molly pro engine flush..
I use this on mine and wife's prius which also has 250,000 on it..... I can here the next question... HOW MUCH OIL DOES IT USE..... Well it's hard to say when you never need to top up between 10,000 mile oil changes..
So please do the engine flush thing... Its worth it in the long run.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I should also add since doing oil flushes and using near zero oil the EGR circuit hasn't needed cleaning in the last 200,000 miles

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

You said recently your head gasket failed at 350k.

 

Dealership just put 5W30 into my Gen 3. It makes me wonder since winters are cold here. -30C can happen for short period of time, -10…-20 can last weeks. I’ll probably call them and ask whether they did it on purpose. I booked the service couple weeks in advance so they had time to get the right oil.

As long as i can remember i’ve had 0W oils in all my cars.

 

Did they at least get the level right, not overfilled?

 

Good point. Forgot to check, will check tomorrow.

As per receipt they’d poured in 4.2ltr. Sounds about right with filter(?).

 

Yes. When I do ours I pour in 4.2 liters (measured with a graduated pitcher), and don't even think about checking the level then and there. I'll wait till we've driven, and it's sat some more, then check it. It invariably is about 3 mm below the top mark. That 3 mm "may" be because I raise the front quite high, which affords me a better drain than if the car was on (level) hoist, say at a dealership oil change.

A tip I learned here: remove and wipe the dispstick, then stall at least 5 minutes before reinserting dipstick for the check. The dipstick seemd prone top pull oil up the tube, and the wait gives that oil time to drain back down; gives you a more definitive edge-of-oil. Also, the front face (face nearest you) tends to be clearer.

 

Checked and oil level was couple millimeter below top mark.

 

Luckily Toyota Prius manual says viscosity 5W-30 is okay for all ambient range just like 5W-20 and 0W-20. Change oil at 6 months or 5k mi per owner’s manual.

IF you ever have any difficulty starting when it gets COLD I’d bring it back, explain such, and ask them to drain and fill with 0W-20…

 

Wow, your tell me. I just received the triangle of death and check engine light. Not the large battery, I recently had it fully replaces

 

I think i’m gonna follow your advise. Afterall, 5W30 is quite thin stuff also and engine has seen lot of miles. My manual even mention 20W50 but state that 0W20 is recommended

 

Impossible. Straight 0w will wreck you engine soo quick.

 

Pennzoil seem to have missed that
0W Motor Oil – What You Need To Know | FAQ | Pennzoil

 

It did... And when it was apart the EGR circuit was still clear.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Perhaps because of the thicker oils. Less oil burn.

 

Perhaps but when I switch back to 0w20 oil (depending on what I have in stock or which I can get cheapest) it still doesn't burn any oil.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Yes, because the rings not stuck and no wear, thanks to using thicker oils. Just a theory.

 

Regarding oil consumption:

Viscosity
It is NOT about viscosity. That one or another viscosity is god/bad.. Just use the recommend viscosity and you will be fine.

But why do we stillget the oil consumption issues even if we follow the service intervals from the manufacturer.. Keep on reading.

Thd fix is not that if we had used a different viscosity then the oil consumption issues would not emerge because the recommended oil were to thin.

Yes, I know it hurts for some to realize.. But we are not smarter than the car manufacturer and API..

"Newsflash"
Manufacturers service intervall is a MINIMUM requirement so that they can manage the warranty period and you will get qualified for it.

So if you follow the minimum service interval then you will at least not experience more than the maximum specified oil consumption during the time that the engine is under warranty.

Past the warranty time the costs of new smallblock and work is on you..

Why
The oil control ring on the piston is sticking and don't do it's job. Sticking by sot and sticking gunk.. That has built up over time with little to dirty oil on avrage.

Then the cylinder bore get destroyed and that is the seal between the rings and bore walls. The oil control ring that is stuck will not scrape down the oil film on the downward motion.

When then the piston goes up the other rings scrape some excess oil in front of the piston.
It will get burnt with the oil in the combustion. Result in that we get blue smoke out of the tail pipe.

And the catalytic converter will get destroyed at some point if we continue in a extended way to feed it with oil smoke.

That sticking build up for oil control ring is not cleaned/washed away by clean fresh oil DURING the usage in the long run.

What to do
Some as in this thread recommend flush or some more advanced "flush cleaning" products..

Yes, that is something in the right direction regarding that we need to get the gunk and crap out. But it might be somewhat to late when the bore have already got in reversible wear.

When people post those flush procedures and put the effort in changing and pouring into the engine X and Y products.

When they anyway feel that they need to do all that job after the fact..

We need to use on avrage a cleaner oil under the engine entire life of usage.

It is like to try to clean the floor by moping it and with dirty water and seldom change the water in the bucket in time. Still dirty floors.

Then why not opt in instead for a little more frequent oil change interval, 5000 miles or 6 month than the minimum intervall of the manufacturers?

Then your oil on avrage be cleaner and you drain out the sot and crap that is suspended in the oil and get rid of it. (Like you change to clean water in your bucket for mopping the floor.)

That is in the case you want to keep the car and drive it until the wheels fall off.

But if you only keep it some initial years then do the minimum (by following the service interval) and pass on the issue to the next owner..

TLTR
Change the oil 5000 miles or 6 month of you want to keep it for long time.

 

In the generation 3 in the 2ZZ engine you need to worry and ponder things like this and the generation 2 that burden was taken away from the poor human that just drove the car The one NZ engine is a very durable engine and does very well with five and 7,500 mi oil changes No issues at all for usually longer than any human is generally going to own the car except a few some of them are right here. As engines designs have changed open deck so on and so forth designs things have been compromised in different ways for the better for the manufacturers maybe not so much for the poor human using the car so with some of these newer vehicles you get in them at the $40,000 or whatever you finance you run them five to seven years $150,000 just under it and you get out trade it in and start the game all over again which is exactly what they're looking for few of us bump those things right out of the park and pay that no mind but yeah shorten your oil change intervals on these things built after say 2010 2011 and you may get a few more miles May. Your best bet is to buy them new financed whatever cash paid doesn't matter run them to the 140 150 before anything generally starts to go on and them. If you can afford to do that you're in relatively decent shape. I personally just like getting my vehicles for near nothing 700. bucks. Put 12 to 15 in it right off the bat and beyond the road rolling laughing in the rear view It's just kind of cool anybody can trot over to the dealer and plunk down whatever it is and all of that I just don't want to tie up my stuff.

 

@Sverker just curious: you have model year 2000 only? Or gen 3 (2010~2015) as well?

Of note: Toyota is not consistant in their oil change interval recommendations, 'round the world. For example, in the USA for gen 3 the recommendation is 10K miles or 12 months. Across the border in Canada, it's 8K kms (approximately 5K miles) or 6 months. My take-away, there's more than engineering rationale in their maintenance statements.