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

Mobil 1 high mileage.

 

Ah, that would explain it: "high mileage" oils contain additives that swell rubber, specifically valve guides.

 

Funny, this thread caused me to check my oil. Slightly over 3k miles and almost a half qt low. I'm sure you meant to say valve seals instead of guides.

 

Yeah my depth of knowledge is pretty shallow.

 

I never had any oil consumption issues in any car until I started visiting forums like this in a computer age.

Now, every car I own burns a little oil between oil changes.

My 2009 Prius will burn about a 1/4--1/2 Q about every 3,000 Miles. However, the oil consumption is load dependent. On a recent long 3 week trip with 3 adult passengers, lots of luggage and towing a small motorcycle, the consumption increased by a factor of two. After we came back from the trip I had the oil changed and have not noticed any change in the last 3 months and about a 1000 Miles.

I check oil levels and tire pressures during long trips not only because I need to but because it gives me something to do. Every gas station visit by the Ladies in my family is about 1/2 hour long. Most of that time is for socializing and buying stuff at the Mega Gas Station chains (Pilot, Loves, etc) and not nature calls. Then I have to drive faster to get back on 'Mission Status' time requirements.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Simba

 

Back to report my Mobil 1 experience. Once again, I started with conventional Castrol GTX oil. I am a diehard fan of Castrol. I was using a quart every 1500 miles. I switched to Mobil 1 and now use a half quart every 3000 miles. I'm now over 5000 miles and added another half quart. Big difference for me.

 

The carburetor cleaner is a good at dissolving carbon that may be keeping the oil control rings from being perfectly effective, the lacquer thinner, nada.

Oh dear! You ran that engine with absolutely ZERO lube on the cylinder walls?
That's not good, hopefully you got away with it long term.

"Filled" with ATF!!!!!

ATF in the oil on an old engine is a commonly used cleaner, ATF is a GREAT detergent, but normally you don't use more than 25% of the oil volume and drive it GENTLY around the block, then drain. It is HIGHLY effective, but I reccomend just going the full synthetic route, it does the same job and is much safer for the engine.

It's amazing what a new PCV valve can do

 

ATF as an engine "cleaner" is a tried and true method, typically no more than 25% of oil volume is used and the vehicle is never "driven", but putted around the block before a fresh oil change.

 

That's really interesting.

 

May be my solution to fix this. My Prius is using about 3qts every 1000 miles.
May I ask how the vehicle is doing to this day. Does it continue to burn any oil?

240715 added 1qt Pennzoil 5w30

241060 out of oil

241300 oil change at Napa Alta mere

242124 out of oil

242200 topped off oil at Napa Alta mere 3.9qts?

242997 out of oil

242302 Race pro senthetic 2qt

243507 out of oil

243568 added petromerica 2qt semi senthetic

244596 added 2qts of Petro

245000 12/30/18 replaced auxiliary battery.

245700 out of oil

245714 added petromerica 1qt

 

Thanks for the heads up tip regarding the ATF oil flush. In Australia it is a common practice to add an oil system flushing agent and idle the engine for 15 mins before draining. The carbon/gum removal from the pistons is a common one for vehicles with more than 150,000km on the clock but also down the inlet manifold onto a closed inlet valve for 12 hr soak, then sucked out and the engine rotated until the other inlet valves are closed.
Never thought of using ATF as an engine flushing oil but there is no reason why it wouldn't be very successful. The ATF does a lot of hard work in an auto transmission so it can handle the light load of lubrication engine bearing and cyl walls and has additives that keep rubber seals pliable for obvious reasons, a transmission is full of them. Just not sure about the cam lobes and how well the ATF would go protecting such a high friction area.
Certainly worth a try on the next oil change, my 720,000km Prius doesn't use oil between services at the moment but I can't see it doing any harm to flush out any sludge that may have build up in low flow areas.

T1 Terry

 

Toyota admits the rings wear excessively.

https://attachments.priuschat.com/attachment-files/2018/08/151698_TSB-1.pdf
https://attachments.priuschat.com/attachment-files/2018/08/151699_TSB-2.pdf

 

@Aztechmaster --- Now that it has been 4 months can you please provide an update? Looks like your only update was after driving 1300 miles (which is not nearly enough to confirm it did anything). I am going to have my mechanic do something similar in the near future.

 

That link was educational!
Ok the 2015 Gen 3 had redesigned rings and pistons, apparently to address the oil consumption issue. Has anyone carefully measured the exact differences between the “old” ring and piston setup and the 2015 versions? Did Toyota change ring width, springiness, or metallic composition? Was the position of the ring grooves and the spacing between ring grooves changed on the 2015 version? Any changes in other factors such as the oil return holes or slots inside the ring grooves, the shape or taper of the piston, etc?

 

Hey Aztechmaster,

Just wondering which products you used for the lacquer paint thinner and carb cleaner. I found Klean Strip Paint Thinner and Klean Strip Lacquer Thinner. Which one?

Would a Walmart Supertech Fuel Injector & Carb Cleaner do the trick? I live in a small rural town so Walmart, Autozone and AAP are the local stores here.

Thanks!

 

I think the question was paint thinner (blended mineral spirits) vs lacquer thinner (mostly acetone)

In this situation I'd use lacquer thinner.