Drove with low oil.. Need your advice

. Ain't that the truth.

 

My Gen 3 (2009 made) has just been serviced today and the mechanic was telling me there was practically no engine oil left. The car has done 190K kms and the interval has only been 9,000km, and I never got an low engine oil pressure light on. But it is worth noting and I will have to check the dipstick regularly. Is it fair to say it seems a fairly common issue with the age of the Prius it starts to eat engine oil?

 

It's always been, but now you know that it's your job to keep an eye on the oil level. In my younger days, it was my job to run to the pump when a car pulled in and pump the gas, clean the windows, check the oil and air in the tires, all for .29 cents a gallon.

 

Ah, those good old days... I was too young to drive then! Nowadays if you spend more than 10 seconds in the petrol pump after paying for it someone will toot their honk at you to get out of the way... such is the lack of patience.

 

Yeah at the pump is maybe not the best place to do checks anymore; you're under the gun to rush. I would be honking at you, lol.

I would just mosey out to the car once or twice a month, pull the dipstick, wipe and lay aside, check tire pressures (and tread depth once in a while), washer fluid, the coolant reservoirs, brake fluid reservoir. The latter will drop as pads wear, that's normal, no need to top up.

Finally, reinsert, pull out and check the oil dipstick level. Leaving it to last like that, gives the oil in the dipstick tube time to drain down, you'll get a clearer reading.

 

Gasoline was never THAT cheap. I can remember it being less than 100 times that price, around 24 cents in price wars.

 

And you won't get that light for merely somewhat low oil level. It flags pressure loss from oil pump failure, and sudden catastrophic oil loss, not slow gradual oil loss.

That is technically true from the moment the car was driven off the new car lot. For all cars, not just for Prius. The manufacturer's allowed oil consumption rate, without being deemed a warranty failure, is still fast enough to run completely out of oil between the regularly scheduled oil changes. Not many individual new car engines suffer this problem, but on the few that do, drivers who never checked their oil level at the shorter interval called out in the owner's manual, don't qualify for warranty coverage.

Needless to say, car makers and car owners don't see eye-to-eye on this issue.

 

I've got a vague recollection of 25 cents a gallon? And would that be an imperial gallon, in Canada? Too: wages were a lot lower, everything was cheaper.

 

I wonder how you guys able to get away with 10k miles or 12 months service interval. Ours were half that.

SM-G900I ?

 

Numerous American drivers are not getting away with it. Oil consumption problems are common in that model year.

 

Ok noted. Was this corrected in a subsequent model years within the Gen 3? Or was it a Gen 3 problem? I've heard Prius v, which uses the same Gen 3 engine, also has this issue as well.

 

Or camshaft position sensor?!

 

The camshaft position sensor on a gen 3 is pretty much the highest thing on the engine, screwed into the valve cover from the top. Had that been what the OP meant when saying "the amount of oil that leaked out was ... all the oil above the oil level sensor", there wouldn't have been much cause for worry.

-Chap

 

As a kid in the 1960's, I remember 4 gas stations, one on each corner of a busy intersection in Oklahoma City, OK having a gas price war. The lowest was 19 cents a gallon. (18.9). I remember my parents were astonished and happy with that situation. Previously, it always seemed to be around 22.9 or 23.9. Yeah, as a kid you noticed that as there was nothing to see unless you were looking outside the car. Kids looking away from their video/computer screens would be very foreign now. Things have changed a little. Saw the same scenario one time, somewhere in Texas, when we were headed to vacation Padre Island, TX. Yes! The gas station attendant would always check your oil.

Sorry. Guess I'll go check my oil for the second time this week. Back on topic!

 

19 cents/gallon was very low even in the 60s, but still a long way from the 0.29 cents someone claimed.

 

Funny, both numbers seem so trivial now.