I have a 2006 Prius that is at 250k and going up rather quickly. I have a 120 mile round trip commute each day that involves climbing a mountain pass and the little 1.5L engine spends a lot of time at redline on the way up.
The car burns approx 1 qt per 2000 miles, I have tried several different oils from 0-20 to 5-40 diesel oil neither seems to completely stop the oil consumption. A new PCV valve did not help things, it smokes a bit on startup when cold leading me to believe its valve stem seals.
My goal is to reduce running costs as much as possible. I work a lot and dont have much free time to change my own oil. I have been running Dino oil with FRAM ultra synthetic gold filters. I drop the oil at 7000-9000 mile intervals and the last filter I took to 16,000. Just looking for some suggestions as to how I can extend the life of this engine a bit more. The reason I have the long intervals is I think having a weekly oil top-up would constantly be giving the engine fresh oil.
The previous owner always used synthetic up until 150k when it started to consume oil it was switched to Dino. I am mainly looking at this from a cost perspective, this car is a beater and I want to keep it running with minimal oil costs. Here in Canada a jug of synthetic is $30 and Dino can be had for $13. Any suggestions should I switch back to synthetic or stay with Dino?
The car burns approx 1 qt per 2000 miles, I have tried several different oils from 0-20 to 5-40 diesel oil neither seems to completely stop the oil consumption. A new PCV valve did not help things, it smokes a bit on startup when cold leading me to believe its valve stem seals.
My goal is to reduce running costs as much as possible. I work a lot and dont have much free time to change my own oil. I have been running Dino oil with FRAM ultra synthetic gold filters. I drop the oil at 7000-9000 mile intervals and the last filter I took to 16,000. Just looking for some suggestions as to how I can extend the life of this engine a bit more. The reason I have the long intervals is I think having a weekly oil top-up would constantly be giving the engine fresh oil.
The previous owner always used synthetic up until 150k when it started to consume oil it was switched to Dino. I am mainly looking at this from a cost perspective, this car is a beater and I want to keep it running with minimal oil costs. Here in Canada a jug of synthetic is $30 and Dino can be had for $13. Any suggestions should I switch back to synthetic or stay with Dino?