Prius burning oil

We see this post alot car eating oil and it is usually caused by the owner never ever checking the oil and usually the car/oil is maintained at the dealership.

Especially deadly if it's the wife's car.

 

My 2007 with about 272k was burning 1.5 to 2 quarts of oil for every tank of gas. Now at 285k miles it is burning 1 quart every 3,000 miles. A BIG IMPROVEMENT. I had to replace the catalytic converter in the car. Hopefully the current oil burn rate will not kill the CAT. If anyone knows I would love to hear. Also the oil now stays clean whereas before it would get dirty very fast and by putting a camera down the spark plug holes I noticed the cross hatch groves in the cylinder walls. so i think I can get some more miles out of this engine. But in California Catalytic converters are VERY EXPENSIVE. So running the engine to the bitter end does not really pay!

What did I do? Put 4oz of Sea Foam down each spark plug hole and let it peculate down through the two compression rings and the oil ring and the oil passages to the bottom of the piston. Probably overnight works 18 hours with just a rag over the spark plug holes left the pistons dry in another Prius. I have pictures and more detail at Burning oil problems due to dirty piston rings (oil & compression) and prevent catalytic converter problems and keep the oil cleaner for a longer engine life.

 

I don't know whether to congratulate you with your present mileage or maybe time to get another car or engine or ?? My 2 cents is on the timeline and where we stand now, there is no stopping for the gas to go up. This might be a good time for someone to buy an economical car till the price is still not over the roof yet. Weve been here before in 2008.

 

If your car passes smog, then is passes smog - so smart money says keep it until you HAVE to sell it since it MEETS Caly standards for air cleanliness.

As far as the cat clogging up - there are many how-tos out there on unclogging them.....presuming you still HAVE an OEM cat to clean in the months to come.