First oil change at 10k or 5k?

I would like your opinion. I recently traded my 2011 Prius Two with 48,000 miles on it for a 2014 Avalon Hybrid XLE Touring. How long do you think you would keep the Avalon Hybrid? My current thinking is that I will keep it a long time, however, I imagine when it gets well over 100,000 miles on it that expensive things may start happening to it especially since it is a hybrid. I don't know.

 

I'm a relative newbie here and my 2014 prius is my first hybrid. I tend to be a "laggert" with new technology. I let the "early adaptors" pay all the R&D costs for me. I've been working in electronics for 30+ years and what I do know is that the quality of discrete components is not what it was 50 years ago (I would already be retired if NASA would let me scrounge and resell the mil spec vacuum tubes from the control consoles that launched the Saturn V rockets in the 60's and 70's). I'm more concerned about time than miles. For example, a capacitor has between a 6 and 12 year life (according to Sprague, a popular and somewhat revered brand). It's a high failure component and when they fail it's usually a catastrophic domino effect for everything around it. All power supplies have them or, even worse, chip built equivalents. All things electronic these days are build to the lowest common denominator (why pay $2.00 for a Sprague when I can get the famously questionable Nichicon cap that caused a recall in Dell computer power supplies, for $0.05?).

thing is that this technology is still evolving. I can't really see it being relavent in 5 or 10 years so I will be trading mine hopefully before the motors, inverter or traction battery
starts to reveal their planned obsolescence. I'm not an engineer. I just fix the stuff.

 

Thanks for your opinion. I tend to agree with you. That is one of the reasons that I traded the Prius at 48,000 miles. In another 3 years and I would have had double the mileage and I would have gotten nothing out of it and it would have arrived at the point then where I no doubt would have some repairs to deal with. I got a good deal on a trade in for an Avalon so I traded. I am 76 so I wanted a luxury car and at my age I felt it was just time to do it. It probably will be my last car.

 

to answer the OP. I changed out the oil at 5k miles and put Mobil One - high fuel efficiency full synthetic in. The next oil Change i did was 7,500 miles later. This was my first Free oil change using Toyota's cheap full Synthetic. I will run that for 5,000 miles before flushing it out at around 17,500 miles. Then i will go 7,500 miles with Mobil one to 25,000 miles.

0-5,000 miles - original Toyota OE oil
5k-12,500 miles - Mobil One Full Synth.
12,500-17,500 - Toyota OE
17,500 - 25k - Mobil One.
25k - 30k - (Last Free oil change) Toyota OE

I drive the car very slow and baby the engine with P&G, DWB, WSM, etc. so i am not hard on the engine for the least bit. So 5,000 mile changes was too excessive and 10,000 miles was too infrequent - so I split the difference.

 

^ Did you notice any difference in mpg, between the Mobil and Toyota oils?

In our area I can get the Toyota 0W20 for under $6 per liter; the Mobil 0W20 is well over $10 per liter. I've been doing DIY changes with the Toyota oil, at the Canadian 8000 km or 6 months (roughly 5000 mile) interval.

 

Fun reading through this long thread. I think a 5K first oil change makes cents, as it is getting rid of any new engine debris from the break in. But after that, 10K makes more cents to me.

On a side note, Going from Great airplane maintenance, to what I saw, I worked for AT&T for 30 years, driving the big aerial lift trucks the whole time. (We called them "Ladder trucks"). We would run these trucks into the 150's to 200K+ mile range, and 10+ years old all the time before they would replace them. (They cost $80-$120K each). We ran the guts out of the motors, as they were always floored to go anywhere from 0-55mph, and often times we would crawl around in the compound low 1st gear on many off road driving stints trying to get the truck, to the pole, so we did not have to climb the thing with our strap on hooks. AT&T NEVER changed the oil at factory recommendations, extending the oil change interval by 3-4,000 + miles, every time. They used cheap, bulk dino oil all the time, and it was extremely rare that they would ever have to swap out a motor due to excessive wear from lack of oil changes. The fleet motor mechanic that I was good friends with, at first thought corporate was CRAZY for not doing the factory recommended oil changes, or at least somewhere close to them, (they laid off a mechanic over this), but over time, he was amazed at how well the motors held up to the point of extending his personal vehicle oil changes. In a fleet of so many vehicles, of various types, running the oil changes well beyond factory recommendations, "Paid off" and saved money, even with keeping the vehicles to the limit of their mileage & age lifespan. Even with near everyone abusing the L out of them when they drove them! These trucks, vans, and cars were always auctioned off after we were done with them, and they would run for years afterwards. This was true for both Chevy, and Ford ladder trucks, and Dodge / Ford vans. The motors were not the problem, it was more the motors bolt ons, or chassis, or aerial lift that had all the problems / failures. Of coarse, there was the occasional toasted engine, which they would send out, rebuild, and bolt back in.

 

Toyota synthetic oil is Mobil One.

 

How do you know this, where did you get that info from? Any links? Would be very interesting if accurate.

 

One clue to it's origin: it's a little darker than most, kind of ruddy/golden/brown, viewed in a clear container.

 

I would never do that to an engine. They might have gotten 150k - 200k miles out of the engine, but in my book that is retarded. I would guess that they skimped on all the maintenance. My truck is a 2004 Ford F150 and i routinely replace the oil at 5,000 miles - Mobil One Full synthetic. I expect to get another 100k miles out of the transmission and engine. So do the math... oil changes are cheap and replacing engines and trucks are expensive. Replace truck at 150k miles or spend an extra $1,400 on 20 oil changes and get twice the mileage.

So $1,400 in extra oil or $80k for a new truck.

The diesels are another story, they run at low RPM, like a D rated motor, bearing surfaces are larger and it hold way more oil than a normal gas motor. So you can get away with that in a fleet situation, but why chance it. A good maintained diesel will go 1/2 million miles on the original engine. Case in Point - AT&T are morons, that's why i switched to T-Mobile.

When i owned a Cessna aircraft i did the oil changes at 25-30 hours on the hobbs. twice as frequently as normal. It was a conventional oil nut a semi or full syn. When i sold the aircraft at half TBO the compression across the board was perfect and it was as good as new. The extra $500 in oil paid for itself 10x over.

The other thing is that the most engines have a warranty, you start getting creative with oil changes and the manufacturer will void your warranty, don't care if it is a motorcycle, car, truck, boat whatever. Pennywise and dollar FUELISH...

 

I doubt it, probably Valvoline.

 

The US service intervals are 5000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first. It sounds like you've lost (no great loss) your first free service. Assuming your mileage continues to be low, and time again governs, I'd go in at 18 months (tire rotation and some other things, no oil change), and at 24 months for the next (and final free) service with oil change.

Have a look at your warranty booklet, it's outlined in there.

 

The engine on a Toyota is warranted only for 3 years or 36 months.

Call me old school or a worry wart, but I did my first oil change at 3,300 miles. Toyota did one at 4,900, 6,700, and 8,700. (The made a mistake and did it every time I took the car in.)

I just changed it at 30 months at 12, 010.

OIL is cheap, (even Mobil 1 0w20) and I recycle it.

I plan to keep this car for 20 years.

 

That's fine, if he wants to gamble.

I will change oil still at 5,000 mile or six months, whichever come first.

 

It is all outlined in your maintenance manual.

 

Clean oil always lubricates better than oil with small particulate matter in it.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, highly polished metal is NOT goon in engine piston rings and cylinder walls.

Highly polished metal surfaces retain oil molecules less securely. That's how an engine "burns" oil.

The small suspended frictional particles in dirty or old oil will "polish" honed piston rings and cylinder walls, if not sooner; later.

Nothing does an engine better than an oil and filter change.