Prius C in commercial use

[Zen_]

Vehicle is a 14' Prius C that I probably do 80-90% of the mileage driving commercially in city traffic for 3-8 hour stints, and around 2-2.5K miles / month. I'm guessing any bottle of synthetic @ Wal-Mart will probably be just fine for the 5K interval Toyota suggest for severe service, but I'm curious if using Mobil 1 EP or Castrol Edge EP might safely get me to 7.5K intervals, or there are other considerations for hybrids with start-stop tech for maximum wear protection.

Also, I already bought a bunch of Wix XP filters, so I'm sorta committed to using those for my oil routine.

 

[NH73]

Sounds good by me. Actually stop-start tech would prolong the life of the oil more than anything. Also consider now that todays Toyotas are 10,000 mile OCI on almost any bottle of synthetic.

 

[Dyusik]

Stop and go gives you lots of idling and high RPM/MPH ratio. In a hybrid, that does not exist. Instead the opposite is true. The 7.5k in a hybrid is dino territory.

 

[simple_gifts]

If I were using an EP oil; i'd 'start' @ 10K for an OCI.

What kind of mpg do you get for around town?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Well yeah, that's what the C stands for

 

[Zen_]

Interesting, thanks for the input. I will do a 10K interval with an EP, and get a proper analysis for once.

Quote:
What kind of mpg do you get for around town?


I've been getting 50-52 with ease not using extreme hypermiling techniques.

 

[nthach]

I see lots of Prius Cs as Ubers - while the big auto parts stores(O'Reilly and AutoZone) haven't used them for delivery cars, the smaller parts houses/Fast Undercar and some medical couriers use them as well.

The Prius is known for fuel dilution per Blackstone/Dyson, I wouldn't push OCIs too far unless you plan to sample at the 5K mark. The problem with hybrids is that they start and stop - which attributes to the fuel dilution if the car sees mostly city miles and they might not get up to operating temp. Now, Toyota might have fixed that with the exhaust heat recovery system that was phased in with the 3rd gen Prius proper.

I looked at an TDS for M1EP or Castrol Edge EP, it doesn't list a TBN for either but Castrol does list an 11.1 NOACK for Edge EP 0-20. The viscosity index seems lower as well which leads me to think Castrol Edge EP might hold up better. I'd pick an oil, send a sample to Blackstone to analyze after 5K to see how things look and go on from there.