Oil consumption...what I did to correct it.

My '07 uses about half a quart per 1,000 miles, which I consider not so bad. It makes no funny noises and runs great, car gets great mileage. Most cars I have owned used oil. Maybe it's my luck, but I have owned many, many vehicles of various makes and they all used some amount of oil. I bought a brand new Volvo in 1998 and that car used a quart per 1,000 miles from the day I took delivery on it until the day I scrapped it a few weeks ago. Volvo refused to address it under warranty stating that it was within normal and acceptable oil usage. I think people get really upset over oil usage, but not sure if that concern is valid. Can you, as a professional mechanic address this? Most manufacturers deem oil usage of 1 quart per 1,000 miles well within spec.

I would love to have no or little oil usage in my '07 Prius, but I am not sure I want to risk all the items you listed above.

 

The question I always have with high oil usage is will it harm the catalytic converter?

 

Strange thing is: I've done EVERY oil change on our vehicle, since new. I never bend back the "oil change flap", instead remove the entire panel, carefully, wash all the plastic fasteners before reinstall. The panel looks and is like new.

I'm doing the Canadian 3rd gen schedule, which is every 6 months or 8000 kms, whichever comes first. I took that last bit and ran with it, changing the oil and filter every six months, at 4000~5000 kms. Use torque wrench and the Repair Manual specs.

A dealership service car could burning oil incessantly, and no one will likely know: the car goes up on the hoist, they bend back the flap, out comes the drain bolt, and the oil drains into a big catch-all waste oil container. They button the flap back up (or saw it off, it's knackered), fire the oil filter housing and drain bolt back on with an electric impact, maybe overfill. With luck they'll remember the oil filter cartridge in the housing (yes, this has happened to dealer serviced cars, a couple of reports of MISSING cartridges here, IIRC.)

I do bring the car in for some things, primarily recalls, and deeper stuff, a recent AC refresh for example.

 

Have you ever tried this on one of the oil burning Corollas?

 

Interesting. As it seems to be the oil ring I wonder if the same company made those rings for the Corolla and the Tercel that had that same oil problem.

 

I know a guy that had one of those Corrolas. He got his oil changed at some oil change place that gave free top ups between changes. They had to give up on him. They were putting over 1 quart a week, way more than 5 quarts between changes.

 

Can I get an evil laugh? That really calls for evil laughter.

Seriously though it does sound like a useful trick.

 

Well, an Atkinson is an Atkinson. I must say I looked up the definition of “most” to try to get a better feeling of what that meant. Can you put an approximate percentage success rate on that?

Thanks!!!

 

Had horrible oil consumption on my 08. Dealership said it was normal.
Drove me crazy. How can it be normal?

 

Neat. I had no idea how complicated a piston in an ICE is. I had to look ring land drain up and found this with some pictures.

High-Po Piston Tech: What You Should Know About Ring Lands and Grooves - OnAllCylinders

So the engines with this specific issue burn oil? And more than likely produce oil burn smoke out the tailpipe?

 

I was using 1qt every 1000 to 1500 miles with conventional oil. I switched to mobil 1 and now its 1 half qt every 3000 miles.

 

Wow, that’s significant improvement! There are several Mobil 1 versions: (Annual Protection, Extended Performance, High Mileage Extended Performance, plain Mobil 1). Would you mind sharing which specific one?

 

I havent heard too much about a catch can on the Gen2 Prius, but it works great for my Gen3. Any reason people arent installing one?

 

So this is really not too much different than just rinsing out your pistons in a solvent-fountain partswasher.

Except you skip around 22 hours of labor and sustain a brief non-zero risk of spinning a bearing or scoring a bore during the procedure. Risks and rewards...