Dumb oil change question....(sorry)

It's not at all a dumb question - in fact it's been debated a number of times in the years I've been reading PriusChat.

Some people have had analysis done of oil at 5,000 mile change intervals and claimed it was still good for another 5,000 miles at least.

Others will say you should stick with the recommended interval at least until your warranty expires so that the dealer can't claim any failure was due to your lack of standard maintenance. That's the camp I fall into.

Of course now for the 2010 Prius they've changed the interval to 10,000 miles, provided you're using the appropriate weight Toyota synthetic oil. There's been no discussion I've seen of changing the interval for older cars though.

 

I have been doing 10K miles oil changes with Mobile 1 5w-30 and the oil analysis says the oil is fine. I've got 120K miles on my Prius.
Dave

 

Yes I agree with Whodat and observe the same interval but I think the extended road trip is the exception and a bit more harsh on the oil. If I accrued 2600 miles in one trip alone I would def. change my full syn at 5,000-7000 miles. For sure.

But with Mobil 1 and just commuting 10K no problems.

Just my opinion.

 

I'll be doing a minimum of 15k per oil change using either Mobil 1 Extended, Amsoil, or Pennzoil Ultra. I've had a couple oil analyses done that were fine after 15k with Amsoil. Not sure how an extended road trip would be any worse than commuting, especially since most likely, your commute has your engine stopping and starting up several times, whereas a road trip would be more consistent running. Any decent synthetic should be able to go 10k, if not, it's not worth the money.

 

Sticking with the Toyota recommended interval while the warranty is in effect is prudent, although I personally change my '04 Prius oil with good quality synthetic twice a year, and have kept this routine since the car was new. This works out to be about every 7.5k - 10k miles.

My thinking at the time was that if the interval was good enough for Europe, it is good enough for my car.

 

If you're doing your own oil changes, how is a dealer to know if you did or did not change it every 5K? In my case it's right there in the online service records, I'm too honest. But I also have the Blackstone reports to show that there are no problems with my oil at 10K. Could go longer even.
Don't spend extra on high quality synthetics and then throw it away at 5K miles.

- D

 

I'll add a stupid question, how do they make synthetic oil? I'm having Mobile 1 put in today.

Also, how long is the warranty on a Prius? I've got an '05 with 70K miles.
Thanks.

 

To be on the safe side, I would stick with changing the oil & filter every 5000 miles with 5W-30 on a 2007 Prius. Doing a tire rotation & balance would also be good.

 

5K OCIs are from toyota are meant for regular dino oil. Changing your oil every 3k miles is a waste. Take into account your engine isn't like the engine of other cars, the gas engine isn't on 100% of the time you drive. The less you use the engine, the longer the oil lasts....

5k OCIs for synthetic is also a waste. Its your money and your car, but id recommend pushing it to 7500k miles if you want to use synthetic. That's still even premature, since all of us in 2010 priuses are running 10k miles OCI using synthetic.

 

I do a FILTER ONLY change every 5k (and top off) and complete change every 15k. SoCal driving. Mobil 1 5w30. Done it that was on my nissans and toyotas. All over 100k no problems. Oil still looks clean at 15k.

 

Regular (called dino oil here) oil is distilled from crude oil with some extra additives to get the desired performance. Synthetic oil is made by first cracking crude oil down to a simple hydrocarbon and then is built back up to the desired set of molecules (see [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_oil"]Synthetic oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]). The result is a very clean, high performing lubricating oil albeit somewhat expensive.

JeffD

 

Agreed...but I just pictured myself doing 85-90 miles an hour all day every day for a couple of weeks as opposed to an easy commute for days. Hard road tripping. Oil change would be a cheap piece of mind on the road.

But your probably right 10K should be no problem anyway.
New synthetic oil is really really good.