2010 Prius Break in Period - looking for advice

Hi KenzoTH, first of all, using a top quality 0W-30 oil will not harm anything except your gas mileage, but only very slightly. So it's just a question of whether its beneficial or a waste of time and money.

Your long trip certainly fits the description of prolonged and heavy load, and although it doesn't "exactly" fit my personal definition of high speed, at 80 mph it comes close. The Toyota brand 0W-20 seems to be a very good oil with a relatively stable high temperature viscosity, according to the BITOG guys, so in my opinion there is no harm in using it. But using 0W-30 might be better. Sorry, I don't feel that I am knowledgeable enough to give you a more definite answer.

I am not completely clear on your question of whether you should use it just for these trips. In any case, if you do decide to use a top quality 0W-30, then I would recommend using it for the entire oil change interval. Changing the oil before and/or after every single long trip would be a waste of time and money, not to mention "environmentally incorrect".

 

Thanks,

By "just for long trips" I mean changing the oil for a whole cycle just to cover the 4 or 5 longer trips I take with "full" load. I went with O-W20. The manual suggests other viscosities as an exception. My dealer suggested I didn't need to change at 1500 mi, but I did anyway. They used the O-20 per Toyota specs, and said heavy load is under full load capacity in poor extreme conditions- very cold/hot etc.

On a related note: The service mgr did say that one customer followed the 10k interval, and it resulted in excessive wear (don't know any more particulars). Apparently, Toyota took the engine for analysis and gave the customer a new engine.

I am doing my changes at 5K- cheap insurance as far as I am concerned.

 

Hi KenzoTH, OK, I think you can't go wrong doing that.

In Germany the standard oil change interval is 15,000 km (9,300 mi) according to the owners manual.
Aside from my wife's daily 15+X mile commute on a rural highway, we usually drive 75 miles at moderate speeds to the city and back each weekend, which is apparently easy on the oil.
I actually run the oil even a bit longer than 10,000 miles, but I have had a couple used oil anaysis done, and determined that that is OK for my particular weather and driving conditions, my particular oil, and my particular car.

In another car, under extreme weather and driving conditions, and with a different oil, 5,000 miles might even be too long.

I am not recommending that anyone should do longer oil change intervals and oil analysis. I do it because I like to fiddle around with stuff. I think most people should go by the book, and not worry about it.

 

I've had to brake more abruptly than I would have preferred 2-3 times within the 200 mile period in order to avoid accidents. How concerned should I be? There's obviously nothing one can do to avoid these situations unless you take the vehicle to an empty race track/massive parking lot and have several hours to kill.

 

Hi Vinnie97, from your descriprion it sounds like that's nothing to be concerned about.

If you had done two or three full force emergency stops from say, 80 mph to zero with ABS kicking in and tires squealing all the way, or if you had braked very hard at high speed many times in a row, then the brake pads might not be properly worn in.

 

Thanks, Fred...I'm just hyper paranoid with this being my first hybrid. Definitely no stops "on the dime" of that sort!

 

A different thread on the same subject: I'd like to get the oil changed at 2500 miles on our 2010 Prius. How much will the dealer charge for this (since it isn't in the normal service interval covered for free) and is there any flexibility in pricing? I also want some settings changed (like getting rid of the multiple BEEPS on backup, and having the hatch unlock with the doors) so it may make more sense to cheerfully pay the dealer's price but ask them to do the changes for free...

 

Last few oil/filter services I've paid $45 at the dealer ($30 web/coupon special, plus $15 synthetic oil premium). Check the sites of the dealers in your area.

 

I drove my prius on the freeway for about 50 miles, at speeds of 55-75mph. I think I accidentally got to 80MPH for a few seconds.

Should I be worried at all? My car already had 300 miles at the time before I drove at those speeds on the freeway. The manual doesn't specify what excessive speeds are.

Besides that, I have been driving the car very gently and avoided constant speeds or using cruise control.

 

You're fine, Tommy. Nothing to be worried about.

 

No worries. Most cars are not broken in perfectly, e.g. any car that is test driven by me gets floored with as few miles on the clock as it has at the time just to see how it is. And you can bet your brass that any rental car is not broken in properly, either. Do your best but don't sweat it!