New Prius, 1st oil change.

[dcoyne78]

I do not know why the Prius tends to have high fuel dilution, but many have reported this problem. EPolk reported on it in his Prius and I became concerned and had an analysis done by Terry Dyson (Dyson Analysis). It showed the fuel dilution which had been missed in 5 previous analyses by Blackstone. I imagine the fuel dilution is somehow designed into the engine, others may know more, but there are some cars which are just prone to fuel dilution and the Prius is one of them.

 

[Cutehumor]

With the prices of gasoline, I guess these vehicles are selling for MSRP?

 

[Cutehumor]

It's probably the design of the engine. if the electric engine is running about half the time, the oil in the engine is not getting hot enough to burn the fuel off. how many quarts do these engines hold?

 

[smokey1]

calls for 4 quarts , but usually only put in 3 qts. and 20 ounces (or few ounces more ) of PENNZOIL Platinum 5w30 . That brings it quite close to the full mark . It's an '07 .

 

[ekpolk]

I start with 3.5 qts, and edge it up to just below the full line. That usually leaves about a quarter quart left.

It's a relatively small sump, but then again, at 1.5L, it's a relatively small engine.

 

[Gary Allan]

Where did they come up with the sump size? It doesn't fall into any even measure of anything other than ml.

I mean ..we see all kinds of 4.4quarts ..easy enough 4 liters. Now I'll grant you that it's only our "conventions" that make me want it to fall into sensible dispensing.


...or did they just order the wrong dipsticks?

 

[dcoyne78]

The supposed fill is 3.9 quarts, but as the others said, usually 3.6 to 3.7 quarts fills it with a filter change. Mine doesn't burn any oil over a 15k oci so I usually fill it with about 3.5 quarts and call it good. This puts it a little under the full mark on the dip stick. I do think they can be found under MSRP, but I bought mine in 2004 and supply was low and had to pay MSRP, my lifetime MPG over 85k is 53 MPG.

 

[wgtoys]

I wonder how many millions of vehicles are running fine and living long without the benefit of Dyson's discovery of fuel dilution? "Terry found fuel dilution on my xyz and fixed it with a proprietary magic potion" seems to be a common song from the Greek chorus.

I'm skeptical.

 

[Gary Allan]

 

[JohnBrowning]

Well the fuel dilution is probably two fold. The first is that the engine does not run long enough to burn off all the fuel the other is that it is always shuting off and starting up again. This is bound to make for rich condition since thermal effeciency is never meet. It probably spends more time over rich etc.... My camry takes 3.9 to fill it up and it is a 2.4L so yes Toyota has some strange ideas when it come to oil sump size. Why it is not 4 or 4.5 like latter models I have no clue!

 

[smokey1]

our '08 YARIS takes the same amount , 3qts. and 20 ounces of the PENNZOIL Platinum 5w30 . Sure does quiet these little engines down . The roar of silence of a 1.5 ltr. engine is bliss . Use the TOYO ( Denso ) 90915-YZZF2 oil filter for both .

 

[Winston]

The engine really does not turn off that often. It is running much more than 50% of the time.

Montero, take a look at my used oil analysis. I changed at 2.5k, 5k, then went out to 7.5k and then 10k on synthetic blend Motorcraft 5W20. There was quite a bit of junk in the oil at the first couple oil changes. I think it was beneficial to do that extra oil change at 2.5k, yet not so anal as doing it at 1k. Take a look at the other used oil analysis here and at Priuschat. There is a lot of data out there to help you make your decision. A lot of people have been using Mobil 1 0W-20 out to 10-15k miles too.

Another thing. Do you have a Mitsu Montero? I have had three(gen 1, 2 and 3) , and traded one in to get the Prius.