EMERGENCY: Check Engine Light, etc.

I agree, that's why I'm asking. I think we'd all like to know how much the oil was below the L mark to know for sure how bad it was.

Another reason I'm asking, is a lot of people see the oil level at the L mark or below (but still registering on the dipstick) as "I was out of oil" or as in this case, "almost empty," I'd just like to clarify the situation here, just so we all know for sure, that is all.

 

Carista OBD Adapter is what I'm using, works well. I see it at Walmart.com, plus a lot of similar. Not sure about brick-and-mortar store availability.

 

The Maintenance Required light just means it is close to 5,000 miles since the last oil change or at least since the last time the Maintenance Required light was reset. It has nothing to do with an engine problem.

Oil burning is pretty common with an old gen2 and yours is severe no matter how you judge it. Down to the bottom of the dipstick in a month is severe even if it was driven 2500 miles a month.

It needs another engine to fix the oil consumption. Running out of oil kills engines. Oil burning is not obvious with smoke out of exhaust because of the high dollar catalytic converter.

As stated above, without repairing it, the oil level should be checked often. If you are only driving the car, check it every time you get gas. If you are doing long idles in the car, things are worse and oil should be checked weekly even if you don't need gas. It's a good idea to buy oil in advance and have it ready to use.

 

An ignition misfire can be as simple as a plug or a coil problem. However, there's no type of coil or plug fault that would create, stop, or alter the rate of an oil leak. So this new info suggests that (at best) you have a simple coil or plug problem PLUS a significant oil loss problem- Two problems.

Another possibility- if you have a lot of oil leaking into cylinder #1 that could account for the misfire issue, even with healthy coil and plug in place. This will probably become apparent when somebody removes that spark plug and compares it to its neighbors.

When the car flashes the check engine indicator, it thinks the misfire is severe enough to cause permanent engine damage. A lean-fuel misfire does have the potential to melt a piston if left unchecked.

In your shoes I might risk driving it to the mechanic, but if you see that indicator flashing again you need to pull over and shut down immediately and have the car towed from wherever you stop. Again, flashing means the computer is detecting something that is capable of permanent engine damage beyond whatever is already wrong.

 

We don't know this, as the level was not checked at the time of the oil change and it is only assumed it was filled to the top mark.

Assumptions are the enemy of good diagnosis.

 

Grasping at straws to save that worn out engine?

It is likely and common the oil change was overfilled. I have never seen an under filled oil change.

 

More like not jumping to conclusions based on assumptions or facts not in evidence.

 

The car may run for a year or two, but it will cause problems on an increasing basis.

When oil starts to fly into the exhaust pipe, it will finally clog the catalyst, it will stop working, and errors will appear on the catalyst.
The check engine light will constantly be on on the dashboard.
Problems with an unevenly running engine may begin, and fuel consumption will increase.
In some states, you will not pass the technical inspection.

 

Did we ever confirm that the oil pan drain plug is in place and not leaking? There have been lots (LOTS) of instances where oil changes went very wrong because the shop forgot the aluminum gasket or didn't tighten the bolt enough. Sometimes the oil filter isn't on right. Both of these leave an oily mess on the bottom of the car. My father once had an oil change done where they forgot to put the oil cap back on - which resulted in oil blowing all over the engine compartment.

How much oil was it using previously? Cars tend to develop oil ring problems slowly, so that the rate of oil consumption goes up, but typically only a slight change from one oil change to the next. If the car suddenly loses a very large amount of oil it is more often a new leak than burning oil (past the rings). In roughly the order of most common/least serious to least common/most serious the locations could be:

1. failure to seal at drain plug (no crush washer or wrong torque)
2. poor seal at oil filter (double gasket or wrong torque)
3. drain pan gasket leak
4. valve cover gasket leak
5. hole in drain pan (usually road debris or collision)
6. blown head gasket
7. rear seal leak
8. cracked block

I don't have hard numbers, but would wager that the first one is more common than all the others combined, and that second one is more common than all the ones which follow it combined.

 

It would be difficult for your mechanic to make that kind of prediction after he looks at your car. It's impossible for me, never having seen your car.

I can say that "the usual problems" with an oil-burning Prius of that vintage are as max2 relates: eventually the catalytic converter will clog and fail, or you will eventually fail to keep up with the rate of loss and the engine will seize due to lack of oil. Rate of loss can change without warning.

Some people have kept them going for years- but that all starts after your guy checks the car out to make sure it isn't already worse than this.

Oh and while it may have been obvious I'll write it out all the same: if you are going to try driving it to your mechanic or anywhere else, make certain you top up the oil first.

 

You're an okay shape Just keep the oil full. You've got an aluminum hood It doesn't weigh anything I can even pick it up when my arms broken. So just keep oil in it and keep an eye on how often you're adding said oil I have a '09 that uses oil It takes about 10 days and it'll be down to the very tip of the stick I add about 1.6 quarts brings it up to the full mark and I'm good for 10 more days or right around a thousand or so miles of mixed driving not all highway not all city and town but mixed and this been doing this for ever since I got the car over 5 years now car doesn't have any problems nothing it's just now starting to get the camshaft and crankshaft timing code when I change the oil and clear the code It's 2,000 miles into the oil change and the code starts to come back The car doesn't run any different gets the same gas mileage but it tells me the cam and crank are not in sync like it's expected to be car still runs great has ice cold air conditioning idles perfectly no issues so I add oil when needed and keep driving this is my work vehicle it's the most trashed of the four I have It's the hall parts and service stuff in for my service calls Not much else still runs like a champ we pretty much leave it alone I'm considering dropping another engine that I have sitting here maybe but this one will probably just keep running. And I wind up doing nothing We will see My daughter uses it a lot and out of hauler dogs around.

 

Maintenance required light is just an indication of a counter on the odometer. If it came on after an oil change it just means the people who did that oil change didn't reset the counter. It is easy to do yourself:

1. Press the odometer button until the odometer reading shows (that is, instead of a trip reading).
2. Turn off the car.
3. While holding the odometer button turn on the car.
4. The place where the odometer numbers are will be filled with a series of dashes. Over a few seconds they will turn off one by one. Once they are all gone the maintenance has been reset.
5. Turn the car off

 

When someone is new to living with an oil-burning car I always suggest checking it before each drive, just until you get a sense of how fast it's going. Maybe every two weeks will work, but maybe you'll need it every four days.

Better to waste a few minutes with the dipstick than to find out the hard way.

Good luck!