EMERGENCY: Check Engine Light, etc.

As far as I know, check-engine light that flashes is reserved to indicate engine misfiring severe enough to risk damage to the cat.

 

Since you're in a Gen 2 Prius, you can access the coil pack and plugs pretty easily. I would check if all your plugs are good. Remove them and see if everything looks good, put it back in and make sure it's nice and tight.

 

Maybe it's as simple as being 2 quarts low on oil?

 

Right. Have the tow truck guy open the hood so that somebody can check the oil and eyeball the ICE coolant overflow and inverter tanks. If road debris punched a hole through from the bottom a car can lose a lot of fluid in a hurry. Worth knowing that now because if all the oil has drained out nobody should turn the car on.

A tow truck driver doesn't need to start a car to put it up on a flatbed. Many times the car they are towing wouldn't start even if they wanted it too. They may want to put it in neutral though, so it can roll on rather than being dragged on.

 

The danger to a catalytic converter from misfiring is that the fuel does not get burned in the misfiring cylinder(s), so it is carried in the exhaust to the catalytic converter and burns there, and heats the cat up to temperatures that destroy it. The ECM calculates the amount of fuel being injected when it detects misfiring, and flashes the check-engine light if the amount would be enough to eventually overheat and destroy the cat.

But that's not such a danger in a brief run like going onto a flatbed or even to the mechanic down the street.

 

These cars commonly use what some people would say is excessive oil especially at high mileage like a quart and a half between oil changes some people three quarts just depends how hard you're running the car and all that That's why in a high mileage generation to its imperative to be able to open the hood and check the oil once a week maybe something along those lines It's not coming out of your car You would see it on your driveway even a bad valve cover leak or a timing chain tension or leak which are known areas for build up and blow by to get through you'll see it built up around these areas or you won't If it is you replace the offending o-rings and then it isn't run your finger around your tail pipe does it come out all black and sooty kind of an oily soot won't immediately rub off you're burning a little oil probably quite normal All my cars now are sitting right at 400k so I expect it I didn't when we were at 250 and even 300 but some cars experience it then in this model.

 

It can leak past the piston rings and/or valve guides, which carries it into the combustion chamber a tiny bit at a time. There, it gets burnt off with gasoline.

In other words it sounds like this car is burning oil.

Still needs a real diagnosis to clear it for a real drive though, sorry.

 

Does that mean you're no longer living in your Prius? I was wondering, because I haven't seen any youtube videos from you lately?
If you do have a place other than your Prius to live right now, that'd be easier for you.

There's a chance you don't have to go to the mechanic on Monday. First start adding oil and see how many quarts it takes to get it full. If you're lucky and it's a couple quarts low, then that's going to be the cause of a blinking check engine light because vibration in the crankshaft bearing from lack of lubrication shows up as misfire codes.

The one time I had a Gen2 Prius with this problem I did an oil change and it took a couple days of further diagnosis before the problem went away, because the bearings weren't too happy about a lack of oil no doubt shortening the lifespan of that engine.

Some other ways you can avoid the mechanic is if you find a hole in the side of the engine or some other obvious problem...

Have you checked the oil level since the oil change? Maybe they didn't tighen the bolt all the way or didn't fill it up all the way?

If I were you and I didn't find anything obvious, I'd add the oil and run the engine to see if there's any other symptoms. I'd also force charge the hybrid battery (car in drive, foot on brake, floor accelerator) because if you need engine work your hybrid battery is going to be unused for a while and pack could lose balance and you could possibly prevent that problem with a fully charged hybrid battery.

However, once the battery is fully charged and no check engine light, start driving it around again, but keep a close eye on everything. Maybe all this is an easy fix and by Monday you might feel like you don't need the mechanic?

 

Someone posted a diagram on here once (wish I could find it) that explained the phrase "burning oil" does have to do with oil leaking into the combustion chamber and burning, but it also has to do with the majority of that oil loss happening through crankcase ventilation, as well as oil leaking out on the exhaust stroke without actually burning. It was all news to me. Wish I saved that diagram....

 

... often revealed by a bit of smoky exhaust, more when accelerating, and of a bluish tint.

And sometimes comments about your stinky exhaust from people driving behind you.

 

I say that to @bisco all the time when I'm stuck behind him. Even him buying an EV didn't solve it. Kinda makes you wonder...

 

I hate to say it but it's usually a gentle death sentence for a car.

I say gentle, because you can keep adding oil to stay ahead of the burn rate. Some Prius drivers have done this for years to score an incredible number of miles "on borrowed time." It means pulling the dipstick to check the oil level frequently. At least once a week. It means having extra oil on hand, and being ready to add a quart at a moment's notice, wherever you are in the world and your schedule.

But it usually means the engine is beyond economic repair. You can look at getting a rebuilt engine or better used engine installed, but then it starts looking like the whole car is beyond economic repair. Not necessarily, but you really need to consider everything here. The easy days for this car are behind.

Again, that's all after somebody actually checks to make sure there isn't a more acute problem.

 

Can you define what you mean by "almost empty"?

If you still had oil registering on the dipstick and it was above the bottom (L) mark then you were only low by up to 1.5 qts and nowhere near "almost empty".

If it was not registering any oil on the dipstick then you can only know how low it was by noting how much oil was added to bring it up to the top (F) mark. You then subtract that number of qts from 3.9 qt and the remainder is the quantity of oil in your sump. Anything less than 2 qts is not going to be ideal.

For some of us and those following on in the future, it would be good the put into context the amount of "low" you had. If you could report back how much oil you added and where the level on the dipstick ended up being, that would be useful information to know.

 

On Gen2 when you get down to oil just barely on the tip of the dipstick it's very difficult to gauge how much oil is left. But I'm sure we can both agree that once you get below 2 quarts that it has the same damaging effect as "almost empty."