Afton's Presentation of Lubrication Challenges with Hybrid Vehicles

I think the Chevy Volt had a similar setup where the control system "forced" the engine to run occasionally if the vehicle was used in a duty cycle where battery power was all that was required. IIRC they also wanted to run some fuel through the system to keep things from getting stale.
The Stellantis regiment is a bit more aggressive -- it locks you out of EV mode until the refresh is performed.
 
Last edited:
I wonder how well Toyota hybrids deal with this. FME, my car started drinking oil at the 160K mark. But, we have another Toyota hybrid with 143K, no consumption. The newest one with 15K on it - the jury’s out. It’s speced for 0W-8 oil. But I also feel the ICE is used much more with Toyota/Honda hybrids, but with the enhancements on the 5th generation of Toyota Hybrid System, the ICE does run less. Honda hybrids are ICE-dominant in either the older IMA or newer I-MMD system.
 
Plug-in hybrids are probably the biggest issue here, but also keep in mind that many recent hybrids also adopted GDI. So, very different environment than the Toyota hybrids from 15-20 years ago.
Many of the Hyundai and Kia hybrids use GDI engines but most other car makers use Atkinson cycle engines in their hybrid cars. Hybrid vehicles have MANY MORE stop/start cycles than the Stop-Start Technology engines that only stop when the vehicle is not moving.
 
Back
Top