CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2014 Prius v has yet to receive a complaint from a CarComplaints.com member. That is a rare circumstance for a car with a few years under its timing belt and worthy of our "Seal of Pretty Good" badge.
Are there problems? Of course. But when one of the top NHTSA complaints is a head gasket blowing at 120,000+ miles, you know you're in pretty good shape.
I went in to get a headlight fixed only to find that they said I had an oil leak in the gasket on the timing cover. It was leaking in 2 places. This had to be repaired and will cost about $3000.00.
I have to add 1 quart of 0-20 full synthetic oil every 500 miles if I don't do it then the car becomes little jerky.
I drive about 200 miles per week half high way and half local city traffic. I get an average mpg of about 36-37 mpg. I need to file a complaint to the EPA. I am sure EPA might not be happy with this much oil consumption.
On trip from Louisville KY to Williamsburg VA. The car used 3 quarts of oil! Now has a miss that you notice when at cruising speed. The car has used oil for the last couple of years but only uses 1 quart per 1000 miles in town driving. The oil rings on the pistons have been identified by other owners as the defective part. Toyota used soft rings in an attempt to increase mileage. They will address this problem or have in some cases if the car has under 60,000 miles. This problem rarely becomes apparent until higher miles are on the car.
Also, the car has to burn 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles for them to cover it even then. If your Prius uses 3/4 quart at 59,000 miles you are out of luck. If it is using 3/4 quart at 59,000 miles, how much oil would you think you would be using by 100,000 miles. As it stands now Toyota knows they have a problem but refuse to address it. Repairs can cost 6,000 dollars or more.
Low mileage car. I started out having to add one quart of oil every 800 to 900 miles. Now it's getting worse. Not only is this inconvenient and costly, but this will eventually ruin the catalytic converter and who knows what other parts of the car will be affected!
Toyota sent out Technical Service Bulletins about this problem explaining how to perform the oil consumption test and how to install the updated piston rings and pistons, so they admit it is a problem on their end with faulty piston rings and pistons, but they will not cover the cost of updating the pistons and piston rings. I have called them about this problem several times. It is a very costly repair job.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I went in to get a headlight fixed only to find that they said I had an oil leak in the gasket on the timing cover. It was leaking in 2 places. This had to be repaired and will cost about $3000.00.
My mileage was at about 85,000 miles.
The head light repair was about $100.00.
- wflader, Henderson, US