Engine overhaul in a can

chromebumpers

solid fixture here in the forum
Staff member
We gave the 2006 Prius to our daughter last year and I taught her how to check it every week and ad oil when needed. She adds a quart of premium oil every week. It’s likely due to the fact that when my wife drove it the oil was never checked and ran it completely dry more than a few times. It doesn’t smoke and it doesn’t leak oil, do you think that oil additive would help? I’m wondering if the OBD will show a fault code for using something that will change the oil viscosity? Last year it did when I was out of 5W30 and used 2 quarts of 10W30
 
why not try it and see?
I doubt it will throw codes and it might reduce oil use rates
 
So it’s not some gimmick to sell some expensive oil additives? I’ll give it a try, it’s been in my inventory for years, I’m sure it doesn’t go bad.
 
, in many cases using a product thats designed to increase oil viscosity , in older worn engines with larger clearances, that tend to burn some oil,
will marginally reduce oil consumption with few other negative issues, but the same benefits can generally be had,
by simply swapping to a higher viscosity premium oil.
obviously there are potentially other issues that marginally reducing oil flow rates might result in eventual problems,
so as usual its a compromise and ideally you rebuild the engine, effectively starting over with a new engine and fresh oil.
 
I use 20/50 in my old chebby and it has reduced it's consumption by 1/2.
 
Yeah but this is a modern, close tolerance Toyota motor designed for sipping fuel. I believe the sensors can pick up on how oil is working its way around and if it’s too thin or too thick at temperature the computer will show a fault code. I will experiment a bit and see how it goes.
, in many cases using a product thats designed to increase oil viscosity , in older worn engines with larger clearances, that tend to burn some oil,
will marginally reduce oil consumption with few other negative issues, but the same benefits can generally be had,
by simply swapping to a higher viscosity premium oil.
obviously there are potentially other issues that marginally reducing oil flow rates might result in eventual problems,
so as usual its a compromise and ideally you rebuild the engine, effectively starting over with a new engine and fresh oil.
 
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