Mobil 1 10w40 High Mileage | 5000 mi OCI | 279,000 mi 2006 Toyota Prius

[Robvette]

When I bought our 2006 Prius four years ago l sent the oil that was in it to our local Carter CAT Fluids Lab for analysis ... and the results terrified me!

Crazy high levels of the wear metals Copper and Lead (potentially bearing and bushing wear). I thought for sure the engine had been neglected and it could fail at any moment.

But, the car ran well, and I just kept up with the routine maintenance and changed the oil with Mobil 1 10w40 High Mileage over and over at 3 to 5k intervals.

Oil consumption got less and less over time and now the oil analysis looks great. Oil consumption in this vehicle is significantly less with 10w40 vs 5w30.

I did a flush procedure prior to this last oil change interval and documented that here: https://youtu.be/kqUOIYeYuV4?si=XSS-EuU2ghF0dmU6

Now at nearly 280,000 and still running great!

 

[SR5]

Wow! Nice work, you have really brought those wear metals down. Keep doing what you're doing.

Glad to hear you've got the oil consumption under control too.

 

[fantastic]

Going from 5w-30 to 10w-40 was a good choice. I'm sure this was spec'd for 16 or 20 grade. That first test was quite high. The copper and lead are your bearings for certain. If you wanted to try another option there's 5w-50 Mobil.

 

[Kalle.J]

Going from 5w-30 to 10w-40 was a good choice. I'm sure this was spec'd for 16 or 20 grade. That first test was quite high. The copper and lead are your bearings for certain. If you wanted to try another option there's 5w-50 Mobil.

Isn't a Prius slow enough already?

 

[DirectRejection]

Gotta love those seal swellers.

 

[fantastic]

Isn't a Prius slow enough already?

ha ha yeah I suppose some molasses in the sump won't help there.

 

[Artem]

That’s a ridiculous amount of bearing wear, even after all the flushes.

No doubt it was neglected and damage is done all over the block. Now it’s just washing out years of crud as the metals polish themselves smooth from the obvious grooves that were cut into them by previous dirty oil / debris flowing thru the bearings.

Poor engine.

 

[Robvette]

That’s a ridiculous amount of bearing wear, even after all the flushes.

No doubt it was neglected and damage is done all over the block. Now it’s just washing out years of crud as the metals polish themselves smooth from the obvious grooves that were cut into them by previous dirty oil / debris flowing thru the bearings.

Poor engine.

We bought the car for $2200 four years ago.

It’s been getting 42-45mpg and hasn’t required any significant repairs, just minor items I’ve done in my driveway w the help of YouTube.

It paid for itself on year 2, every drive now is gravy and … it’s functioning flawlessly.

These gen 2 Prius are notoriously durable and withstand mega miles and less than ideal service in stride. That said, I’m happy the numbers are better. Fwiw - the 11k OCI prior to the oil flush already showed good numbers. Even better than the most recent if considering ppmpm (parts per million per mile).