Prius 2010 Oil Change Interval Revised? Not yet... (closed)

I am at my dealer for my 5K mile service and guess what? I was notified that the OCI has been extended to 10K miles after the first 5K mile service! This is awesome news, and it also applies to 2010 4cyl camry, 4.6l tundra and sequoia, fj cruiser, 4runner, and scion xd.

SUMMARY AS OF 9/30/09:
Just to help summarize what's been posted here so new readers won't have to slog through 32 pages of posts!
As of September 30th 2009, there has been no 'official' word from Toyota regarding an OCI change. That is, no confirmation or specific denial. Some speculate this will take place in model year 2011 cars, some dealers are stating that the change applies to 2010 cars. The few dealers who have acknowledged the change seem to be from SET. Other areas have not heard about this. Toyota's website and customer service continue to adhere to the 5K OCI.

If your dealer told you at your next oil change that the OCI was extended, but you could find no other dealer or official source to confirm, would you follow the dealer's or Toyota's OCI? That's the question I and a few others are asking ourselves here. I don't pretend to be able to answer that question for anyone but myself. This thread only represents what my dealer told and showed me as stated in this first post.

BTW: If you would like some very interesting reading about oil, and specifically about synthetic oil and its quality grades and service life in the US and Europe, look for Andy_H's and Jayman's posts in this thread and others on Priuschat. Highly recommended! Thanks guys for your invaluable insights into oil and the oil industry!

FINAL UPDATE 10/16/08: See post 410 for the details, but it has turned out this change will not take effect in the 2010 model year after all, and it may not in the 2011 either. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Moderators feel free to close this thread and take it out of the stickies.

This is great news! How will Toyota broadcast this news that the OCI is now 10K miles?

Great news but is this from dealer or from Toyota? If not from Toyota i'll stick with what Toyota says.

It is from Toyota, see the attached powerpoint presentation my svc mngr showed me. According to my dealer it also applies to Canada, because it should apply to all listed 2010 models. I would check with your local dealer, just in case.

YES!!!!

That agrees with the oil testing results!!

YEAAAAAA!!!

Now if they'll do:

• 5K - transaxle oil change
• 50k - transaxle oil change for NHW20
• 30k - transaxle oil change for NHW11
• Type WS - NHW11 after first change (Ok, I can hope!)

YES!!!

Thank you Team Toyota and the Japanese engineers!!!

I have no idea about the ZVW30 transaxle oil change since I'm at ~4,100 miles. Yes, my first 5k ICE change will also include a 5k transaxle oil change and BOTH samples will go to my oil testing service. Depending upon some regression testing, I may choose to do another transaxle oil change at 15k.

Bob Wilson

Interesting statement in the document you provided: "The owners manual will be amended to require the use of SAE 0W-20 oil if the vehicle is factory equipped with synthetic oil."

I believe my 2010 was "factory-equipped" with syn oil. How and when will this amendment happen? I still have some time before I would hit my second 5K (thanks to two accidents since my first 5K change!), but plenty of other folks are likely up against it now (or even past that point).

Are we to go right up to 15K on the odo before the next oil change? I'd love to, but not until I get some kind of notice from Toyota.

I got mine changed at 3,000, so am also wondering. Our dealer is having a new owners get together on Tuesday evening. Guess I will ask if it doesn't get mentioned.

Good news but I'd like it if we all heard it officially. Kind of annoying too that the little service passport thing will be wrong, and I assume my car will beep at me at 5k intervals and I'll have to manually reset the oil change warning?

EDIT: The language of "will be" makes me concerned that page is more about future models or something. I'd sure like something official that says "this is the new oil change schedule for your car" considering warranty, resale, etc.

I was thinking the same thing. For US Prii, I hope there will be some sort of recall to reprogram so we don't have to reset the oil change system as mentioned on page 428.

The powerpoint presentation says the service interval is extended to 10,000 miles. It doesn't say that the first service interval stays at 5,000 miles.

Since I only have about 1,300 miles on the car, will I need to have it serviced at 5,000 miles or 10,000 miles?

Can we get some kind of official word from the Prius Team about this issue? I suspect most dealers won't know about this change, and I wouldn't rely on them for information anyway.

This is surprising, happy, and confusing news.

Surprising - did anyone here expect this? I mean we were all complaining, but... nice.

Happy - huge $$ savings. But UNhappy - dealer service departments.

Confusing - Doubting Thomas - sure would be good to get confirmation from Doug's team.

I only have 2800 miles on mine (9 weeks old). but already have the 0w20 oil and filter at the ready. Will probably do an early 1st change as some of you had done. Then go to 10K interval if the good news is true.

Would they re-word it to be 10k miles or 12 months?
It will probably take me 1.5 years to drive 10k.

I pick up my plates tomorrow, I may ask if they know about this.

Hi,

The change interval should be:

• 5,000 miles - first change. This will remove the manufacturing left-overs; the initial initial 'lapping' by-products; and any leached elements from the case sealing compounds.
• 10,000 miles - the subsequent changes will remove the combustion contaminates; condensed water; and stress sheared by-products.

Bob Wilson

Same here. I always change my other cars every 12 months; I never get to the mileage limit.

I guess it's needless to say since you are so good about sharing info with therest of us but... please keep us informed as to the transaxle oil test results! That should be interesting!

Will the firmware for the reminders be updated to 10K?

You can imagine how I felt when the svc mgr informed me, I actually said to him "No, no, I have a 2010, it's 5K miles." And then he showed me the document I posted above. (sorry about the quality, I did all that from my phone cause I was excited to share the news)

It blew me away. I definitely never expected this. If Dianne or any other dealer is out there who can corroborate this info, we'd all appreciate it!

You know I didn't even think to ask, but I'll call tomorrow and see if they did anything to update mine in any way. I doubt it.

I was actually thinking on the way home that maybe the reminder was ALREADY set to 5k for the first and 10K afterward - the afterward matching the rest of the world - by mistake at the factory! And this change is to make the requirement match the notification system. Wouldn't that be something! Has anyone driven 10000 miles on a 2010 yet who can tell us one way or the other?

This agrees with what the svc mgr told me (verbally) at Royal Palm Toyota. I know the document doesn't officially come out and say this, but I think it's a good practice.