anyone else burning oil at excessive rates ( one quart every 1000 miles) and what have you done about it?
Year, mileage, and maintenance history of your Prius please.
A quart every 1,000 miles is not considered by manufacturers to be excessive even on a new engine. I might consider it high on a new engine, but the manufacturers do not. On an older hi-mileage engine, I’d consider it normal. Since you didn’t see fit to give us adequate information on your Prius or why you’re asking, it’s impossible to provide a meaningful answer. Sorry.
1 Like
A coworker had an 06? Prius and got out the habit of checking his oil between his 7500 mile intervals (all highway driving). Unfortunately it starting using oil around 100k and at by the next time an oil change was due it was low over 3 quarts.
After that he found it was using a qt. every 750 miles. He owned it and just added a quart when needed. He traded it for another Prius at 180k miles and other than the oil consumption it was running fine.
Ed B.
I bought a 1971 Ford Maverick back in 1973. It had about 25,000 miles when I bought it. I found I was adding a quart of oil every 300 miles. I was delighted when I got the oil consumption rate to a quart every 1200 miles with new valve stem seals. My brother bought a 1977 Cadillac Coupe DeVille in 1982. It used a quart of oil every 1000 miles. He put 150,000 miles on the car on top of what it had when he bought it. When he sold it, it still used a quart every 1000 miles.
I don’t think it’s the end of the world to have to add some oil to an engine as long as it isn’t more than a quart every 750 miles.
One suggestion I would make is to switch to the same viscosity of full synthetic oil. I have a push lawnmower I bought back in 1992. It began using excessive amounts of oil. I was fogging for mosquitoes while mowing the yard. The spark plug fouled out frequently. I decided to try 10W-30 full synthetic oil instead of the straight 30 weight that I had been using. The synthetic oil cut the oil consumption by 75%. What was even better is the synthetic oil under the house brand label at my local Rural King farm store for $2.79 a quart–only $1 more that the 30 weight oil cost. That was one of the best dollars I ever spent.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and last fall when I was mulching leaves with the mower, the oil consumption went up and I was back where I started. However, I bought two more seasons out of the mower by switching to full synthetic. My advice to the OP is if he isn’t already using full synthetic then make the switch. If he is already using synthetic, check stores in your area for house brand synthetic at a reasonable price, stock up on the oil and add oil as needed.