oil consumption vs length of oil change interval

I just did some math and 30% of owners reporting 5K OCI are reporting consumption, while 43% of owners reporting 10K OCI are reporting consumption.

So it looks like shorter oil change intervals does have some amount of benefit, but it's far from a guarantee that you won't have problems.

 

I moved on to Redline 0w-20 w/Mobile 1 EP filter and will try to extend my OCI from 5K to 10K, currently has 95K miles. Was on toyota paper filters for the longest time. No oil consumption yet, hopefully this methodical experiment doesn't backfire If redline looks "good as it was poured in on day on" on the 10K OCI as reviews say, the prius will drink the redline koolaid forever.

 

My flap is gone, makes it easy.

 

I think oil weight plays a factor as does how hard one drives this small 1.8 motor. I have a coworker who has a 2014 and drives it so hard and goes with 10k miles OCI. It will be interesting to see how her motor holds up.

 

Plan on some oil analysis, or just the eye ball test ?

When we do the next oil change, I bet it will be darker, but that doesn’t indicate it’s gone.

I know the redline 5w-30 I was using was coming out dark after the 10 OCI. But I also EPR flush ours.

Ours has been gone for about 7 years now, which coincides with the last dealer oil change.

Go door-less .

 

Ah, so at the last meet up I mentioned something about amazon reviewers leaving feedback like "looks lighter than most oil after x miles." Detergent may still be sufficient providing protection, but the old soul inside will want to change the oil at first sign of dark brown coffee color so definitely will send it in the lab for testing.

 

So if you cut your OCI to half of recommended (say 5k instead of 10k), you've effectively doubled your oil consumption. Instead of POTENTIALLY using (burning more) towards the cars' end of life when you're more likely to no longer own it, you're pouring it down the drain pan (please recycle of course) at the beginning while you own it.

 

I'm ok with that.

Seriously. You are making sense, but I'd rather "leave the building" in good order.

 

Or in your case, not driving as much towards the end of ownership. Consuming more on the front end may only work for those who buy new, drive a lot, and keep it till it dies.

 

which would be me/

 

Our driving is really winding down, agree. Try to avoid short, impulse runs too: walk a fair bit, consolidate errands.

 

Don’t know if you’ve shared your stats.

I’m at 180 k miles on our 2010 and log ~25 k miles a year.

Our oil consumption is about a quart every 5k miles, so not bad.

4-6 more years is what I am hoping for out of our 2010, but I have the Prime fund already started just in case .

 

Reading this topic, it makes sense to my own experience. Before oil change, my oil consumption was very high on my high-mileage car. I had to add many times oil. I was so stressed after a a big trip that I would check my level right after my trip then every 2 to 3 weeks. Then I did oil change, besides that oil was clear... the level seems to remain the same for the moment. I have changed also of oil brand (0W20)...
I havent yet to conclude on this topic.
One of my friend told me that I should change of oil viscosity.... and that using 0W20 oil is a waste if that gets burned.
Maybe with time, 0W20 is not recommanded and that I should switch to 0W30.... or more.

 

Consider 5W20 or 5W30 too. 5W30 was recommended oil weight for second generation Prius.

With our 2010 I've used only Toyota 0W20 so far, and no consumption. But I appreciate it can be a roll of the dice. All our previous Honda's needed modest to moderate amounts of oil top up between changes.

 

My Prius gets its oil checked every other day, no comsumption...yet. Who's stressed now?!!!

 

That's good! You should be checking that frequently on any car when it's not burning any oil, so if it does start burning you'll notice the level dropping before you run the engine low on oil and cause damage. When it does start burning oil, that's when you check every week or every fill-up.

 

if your 13k OCI was done on a car at low total miles, you may not notice what is probably a wear-induced consumption problem. We really need to tweak the vote to include total miles on car. Owning 2 prius (2010/2013), my experience leans toward OCI definitely playing a part in this problem. Ring blow-by seems to be a main culprit. On my 140k 2010, after 3-4k miles (following an OC), the used oil is substantially darker in color than on my 65k 2013 oil after 5k miles. This suggests extra soot is somehow making its way into the oil on the older model. Assuming the two engines are tuned the same (which is probably a fair assumption), and they are driven about the same way, in the same climate, with the same gas, same oil, which is all true, I'm concluding that the rings are stuck (partially), or worn more on the higher mileage car, such that the blow-by pushes more oil mist into, and past the PCV valve and into the burn process. Now, how to reverse this problem after it has begun?

If rings and piston are caramelized or stuck, maybe cleaning them is a solution. but some internet snooping with other Toyota models having this problem, suggest its not possible to clean this soot or some sort of caked on carbon around the ring-gap. If its not caused by gunk buildup, then normal wear will probably proceed as it has been and the consumption issue will get worse. In both cases, more frequent OCI, will probably prevent possibility of gunk build-up or increased wear due to dirt particles in the oil.

Often, when you fix a weakness in a system, the next unknown weakness is exposed. So make a car which doesn't die around 100-150k miles from most issues, and then you will start to see the next weakness hunting you down like the grim reaper. Not sure why the engineers at Toyota couldn't have foreseen this though - or at least didn't hedge their bets and design the piston-cylinder components more robustly. To compound matters, I think Toyota is putting these prius-style engines and battery systems in all of their models now. It makes me doubt the quality of Toyota engineering.

 

Regarding dropping the pistons from below, I think I have seen that as a possibility on 1-2 cylinders of the G3 Prius engine. Would be interesting if someone tried it on their 1-2 cylinders and took some pictures. I'm wondering if most people are giving up on these engines though. It's going on 8 years since the last 2015 G3 was produced - not so long ago, 8 years was about it for most cars! In my case, I'm not interested in buying inflated-price new cars at the moment, so more keenly trying to keep my older models running - much longer. Prior to purchase, the biggest selling factor for me was the Austrian taxi driver (G2 Prius) running his car up to 600k Km - some of you probably remember that guy. If the G2 can do that, the G3 should be even better - or so i thought!

 

I believe it's not possible, or if possible, just pulling the engine is still simpler. Attached shows Toyota's ring replacement method.

All it takes is a few bone-head decisions, and you're "moving backwards". LIkely scenario: Toyota would be rewarded financially IF they were able to get the mpg rating up over some threshold. They used all the tricks they could muster to achieve that, and one was low-tension piston rings.