Excessive oil consumption. Issue resolved by Toyota.

After my last horrible experience with customer service at toyota, I have been approaching other Prius owners and asking for them to keep an eye on the oil and let me know. The oil consumption so far seems to be an across the board situation starting after 125k+ miles. Toyota wants to charge me 2k for a used engine. Why would I pay for a used engine that will have the same problem when it reaches the same milage? Plus I don't know the usage or problems that engine may of had or has they are not telling me. This is an engineering problem. My guess is they expect everyone to trade in and and get a new car as a revolving door at low miles. Not everyone can or wants to do that. If you take the engine option, expect to shell out for a used engine again in 60k miles or less based in the age. If you're a conservative driver the 1 year warranty is useless. It will expire before you even need it. I'm still waiting for a solution. The local toyota had just wasted my time. They had my car for days saying their running diagnostics, and I later learned it was just sitting there. They only want to put effort in cars that will bring money to the branches bottom line. If only corporate toyota would do something.

Update: in the meantime do an oil change every 2500 miles vs toyotas recomended 5k. The gauge doesn't tell you when the oil is low, it's just a timer that goes off based on when you reset it. By the time the car alerts you of a problem, the oil is too low and you will risk seizing the engine. Even running the code reader doesn't give you the right code.

 

i didn't realize gen 2 was having a problem. my neighbors '04 is fine at 160,000 miles.

 

Welcome to Prius Chat !

Why not check the oil level frequently and top up as needed?

I check the oil level on our 2010 Prius II with 167 k miles every Saturday along with our 2017 Lexus RX450h. I add if it is low, but hardly ever have to.

5 minutes worth of Monitoring can help save worry later.

 

Increased crankcase pressure also makes main seals, pulley seals, any seals leak and even dip sticks to pop out. Googling it shows it is a huge problem. Bad pcv valves cause excessive oil blowing through and into the intake manifolds too. The oil catch can is a safety net for this.

 

I actually have found the opposite when I went to 0W-40 Mobil 1 oil. My MPG has increased. My highway driving at 65 MPH is averaging me in the 50's MPG range!

 

Ten days just to replace an engine? Its way too long. Maybe its because its Toyota. They've got lots of jobs at hand.

 

I would suggest you do some of this servicing yourself. It doesn't cost you a dine, rather than the cost of parts, and probably your time.

If you've had that experience with a dealer on the gasket stuff, that should be enough flash point for you to do such important service yourself.

 

@shoe07039 (strange, his name does not auto-complete), says with 130K miles he is topping up 3 quarts in 10K mile oil change interval. It could be an even higher rate, ie: he tops up 3 quarts, and is down to the low mark by 10K?

With 130K on the odometer, that's pretty bad. What are the likely causes? Maybe:

1. Bad luck, an engine where all the tolerances were near their limits, built on a Friday or Monday?
2. The 10K oil change interval?
3. A lot of highspeed driving, or hill climbing, or?
4. Clogged EGR, causing engine to run hot?
5. The above maybe due at least in part to PCV dumping oil into intake mainfold?

Or, perfect storm, of all of the above?

 

You're perfectly right. If I were the one, I'd rebuild that engiy, instead of having a used engine replaced on the car, without a known history. Hey, but wait! They've got to have the maintenance history of the used engine they wanted to replaced for you. But just like you've said, that the same used low mileage engine, would someday, have the same problems of oil burning.

 

When you bought your new 3rd gen Prius, did you think you'd signed up for a DIY engine rebuild at 125K?

 

I have a 2011 Prius II with 140+ miles. Oil consumption issue manifested itself last oil change. As a side note, I'm not in agreement with the title of this thread. This issue has not been "resolved" by Toyota. It's more like "Issue Can Kicked Down the Road by Toyota." Personally, for now, I'm going to just add oil as needed. I've started a spreadsheet to track dip stick levels and top-ups that I do. I'll be contacting Toyota and hoping they assist all of us. I may try 0W-40 based on the recommendation of another user in this thread who said his MPG went up while burn-off went down? It's only one person so chances are his great results were an anomaly but I may try nonetheless. I'm not experienced with different oil types, so does 0W-40 make sense for a Prius 3rd Gen that's burning oil excessively?

 

2nd gen spec was 5W30, that might be worth consideration. Or 5W20 which is actually mentioned in the North American Owner's Manual.

 

I’ve been using it for the last 50 k miles and our 2010 with 172 k miles is going strong .

I’d give it a go.

 

Just a few thoughts here. If you read though the 130+ complaints at carcomplaints site on 2010 prius oil consumption, you will note that the average user begins to experience the issue in the 80-100 kmile range. Thus, by putting in a used engine with 50 kmiles, you have perhaps pushed out the problem by perhaps 40 kmiles, at which point you have an excellent chance of seeing it again. So, if you still plan to buy another toyota, you might want to do that before the recurrence.

Me? I just monitor and add oil.

I wrote a letter to US Toyota president Jim Lentz explaining the problem in detail and complaining. That brought no response.

I wrote to the EPA explaining that if the car burns lots of oil, it probably fails emissions testing. (Remember volkswagen diesel scandals). To my surprise, I was contacted by and had a half hour phone call with an Wash DC EPA attorney who collected all the information. I googled the person’s name and found it on many EPA lawsuits...this was not just some slug in a call center. The person indicated that the law only requires the manufacturer emission controls to be covered for 7 years and they are very interested in users who experience the problem before that.

Anyone can go to EPA home page click “contact us”. “Report a problem”, and “violations of environmental laws and regulations” and tell your story.

Meanwhile, Over the years I’ve bought 5 toyotas. Still own the prius and two other non-hybrids. The latter burn no oil. I like and use the local dealer for service. He didn’t create the design defect.

Sometimes, while waiting for service, I wander into the dealer showroom and look over the shiny new stuff. Inevitably, a salesman will approach and start to chat. I sometimes explain my story and that i like the dealership, but since they only sell toyotas I don’t ever plan to buy from them again. After that, they leave me alone.

Thats the only major problem I’ve had with the Prius. I view it as a 5 star electronics marvel hooked to a 1 star oil-burner-engine.

Cheers.

 

91k miles and no oil burning, been using 0W40 for the last 15k miles. I know of another car with 140k miles, bad oil burning, switched to 0W40 and has reduced the oil burn. I say be proactive and start using 0W40 before you have oil burning. I hope that my use prior to any oil burn will make my motor a non burner.

 

The EPA and CAFE standards are the real cause of the oil burning issue in the Prius and many other makes or cars that are running on 0W20 oil. The oil is too light and should not be used. If you look at European Post in Prius they don't report oil burning problems. They are allowed to use 30,40 and even 50 weight oil. So it's not Toyota's fault.

 

This is sadly very true... I had my engine swapped for one with 67K miles, last summer I was happy that I no longer had to check the oil weekly, (verifies this for the first 15K miles). This week the light blinked on quickly, I have driven about 25K miles since the engine swap I will now go back to my weekly checking of the oil level to drag out the buying of another vehicle... (I hope it is weekly I still need to determine the burn rate...

 

I burned more oil than gas til I switched to 0W-40. Now I burn 1qt per 5k and I run it at redline daily. Did you try that before tossing in a motor?

 

Redline?! 5,000 RPM!!! Ouch.

 

The motor was swapped when the head gasket blew around 215K miles. With the old motor I did switch to a thicker oil and had less burn for about 6 months then the burn rate gradually increased until I was adding a quart every 750 miles ( which is weekly for me)

I am always amazed that this car passes smog with no issues given that it has burned more oil than the Exxon Valdez leaked into the ocean. Where could all this oil go with out fouling the catalytic convertor or spilling into my garage?