Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
How did the original catalyst die? Did it plug up with carbon, ash or did it melt?
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The Prius line is notorious for burning oil. They burn 1 qt of oil per 10k miles when new, and it isn't officially considered a "problem" until it's burning 1 qt of oil per 2k miles. On my 240k miles car, it had eventually just burned enough oil to gunk up the cat. The mechanic actually cut it open and showed it to me... it was basically one continuous black carbon mess. You couldn't see any mesh, honeycomb, or even the side walls. It constricted airflow so badly it blew out the seal to the exhaust manifold.
So I replaced the cat, seal, etc. and installed an oil catch can. It still loses oil at ridiculous rates... but it's no longer
burning all of it. I just dump it out of the catch can every oil change.
By the way, I think every car should have an oil catch can. An unexpected benefit is that it also catches a bunch of grit that makes it past the air filter, and metal shavings that comes from (gulp) places I don't even want to think about. Even if that would come out each oil change, it has to be better to catch it early so it doesn't recirculate in the engine itself.