Prius oil catch can

[Magician]

Anyone here ever put an oil catch can on their Gen 2 Prius?
They tend to burn oil and I want to see if they’ve noticed any benefit from it.

[Magician]

Well... I'm going to be the Guinea Pig here. I purchased an Oil Catch Can and will install it on my wife's 2008 Prius to see if it helps with keeping oil out of the intake, which dirties it along with the catalytic converter. She burns about 1 quart every 1,200 miles. I'm also doing a top end clean on it to try to free up the oil rings as I suspect they have a bunch of burned oil/carbon on them making them stick. I'll report back in a month or two with my findings.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Magician

She burns about 1 quart every 1,200 miles..

Holy smoke, that's almost a 2 stroke

Have you tried heavier oil ?

[Magician]

Staying away from heavier oil because it may not lubricate other areas properly such as the main bearings etc... Not worth risking over a small oil savings. Even with the oil burning, the money saved by the fuel economy easily offsets the oil cost. It's a mere fraction of cost. I just find it annoying and seeing what I can do to slow it down or stop it without tearing down the engine.

[Daox]

My 2004 with 160k miles on it doesn't really burn much oil. I go 10k between oil changes normally and I add maybe 1qt max.

[oldtamiyaphile]

From memory the oil burn issue is confined to '08 build cars.

[Piotrsko]

FWIW: chevy considers 1 qt to 300 miles to be acceptable consumption in their 350 whatever that is in liters

[JSH]

Originally Posted by oldtamiyaphile

From memory the oil burn issue is confined to '08 build cars.

Must be. I had a 2005 and a 2009. Neither burned any oil. I used Mobil 1 5w-30 and changed it every 10K miles.

[S Keith]

As someone who has personally touched about 200 Priuses spanning 2004-2013, I can say that oil burn is an issue on almost all of them to varying degrees. The worst I've encountered is a 2005 with 260K miles on it. 3-4 qts of oil between changes. So bad, it fouled/clogged the cat 80k miles prior.

My 2008 burns oil at a slightly higher rate than my wife's 2007, but that's more about the driver.

Yesterday, I encountered a 2009 with 150K miles - 1 qt/oil change
Today, a 2010 with 175K miles that burns about 1.5 qt/oil change

It's highly correlated to the driver/conditions. Aggressive driving or suboptimal conditions (heat/hills) and use of "B" mode on a regular basis all equate to higher oil burn.

More simplistically:
lifetime 50+ mpg = low oil burn
lifetime 45-ish mpg = moderate oil burn
lifetime 40-ish mpg = high oil burn

Best? Lady that has an '08 with 180K on it gets 50+ mpg all the time... she babies it. Stays at or just below the top mark.

Me? '08, 175K, 38-40mpg... 2 qts between changes.

EDIT: drive TYPE also matters. Lots of stop and go = oil burn. Steady cruise and constant power burn far less.

[broski499]

I have an 08 and haven’t experience much oil burn. Although my mechanic did say that if you use the B mode that the higher RPMs it causes the CVT to hit can burn oil. So to use that as little as possible.