Originally Posted by Raidin
Originally Posted by JHZR2
Originally Posted by StevieC
Look at all that carnage from a 20wt. My god man you should switch to a 0w40 immediately.
Thanks for posting.
Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
That must be a typo. You can't get 185,000 miles on 0w20!
Don't forget, it's a hybrid and so the engine isn't running all the time... so it doesn't really have 185k...
While I'm not aware of the whole subject, I wanted to bring up the fact that I have a hybrid that has been running 0W-20 for 457k miles, and that most of my driving is highway driving, so the engine is running a lot more than some may think. I would put it at 90% of the time, as most of the roads I travel are above the maximum speed the car can run in EV mode.
Note the wink. As a fellow hybrid user who puts most miles on the highway though having a short routine commute, I'm in the same boat.
Originally Posted by stanlee
meh high miles on a prius is not like high miles on a all gas car. Electric motor does the off the line accelerating (the low end stuff) and its purposely kept at low rpm for its engine size for fuel efficiency (the top end stuff) so it A. SHOULD look excellent as it does not work hard at all and B. should not be blowing head gaskets given its light duty and partial use.
Maybe my Honda Accord hybrid is different, but IMO the electric power train sees a relatively easy life. It doesn't take a lot of pedal for the ice to kick in and augment or take over for the electric motors. While motors give full torque at 0 rpm and can be a good acceleration aid, my observation is that the car relies upon the engine much more than one would think.
This is sensible because current creates heat (I^2 R), and internal generation of heat in batteries is a primary cause of chemical ageing, degradation, and most important here, impedance growth.
On the highway the engine does all the work about 90% of the load. Sometimes the battery cycles through on flat land cruising or going down a hill. But to add challenge to that situation, the engine very rapidly transitions from high(ish) continuous power to full off, to back on again. That can create al sorts of challenges with unburned fuel, heat soak, etc. If a car takes 60hp to cruise at 60 mph, then the engine is routinely going from 50% load in my car (66% for the prius) to not only zero load but off (air flow through the engine removes a lot of heat and now the engine isn't pumping air), then back on, sometimes in a matter of seconds. That's plenty severe, in many ways worse than an ICE, even if the standard ICE is loaded and operating more.
Not an excuse for a bad HG though.