2010 OEM Oil....and Dirt

i've been reading everywhere that 2010 prius are supposed to run on 0w20 synthetic oil. however, when i check mine, i got no indication that's what it has... heck, the dealer even told me it was regular oil in it. any reason for that? does it mean that my car is not made to run on 0w20 oil?

 

Your car (a 2010?) is most definitely made to run on0W20 full synth. Quite likely it means your dealer cannot find his a$$ with both hands, although I'd hope things have changed after a year on the market. My first OC, about a year ago, I got into an argument with the service manager, who insisted regular, non-synthetic 5W20 was specified. No amount of pointing to the owner's manual, or the filler cap ("0W20 ONLY!") would convince this dude. He upcharged me for "demanding" a "special" oil. POS.

One should be able to expect more. Hopefully as they become more familiar with the car things will change; unfortunately, there is no way (of which I am aware, that doesn't cost big $$) to determine after the fact what oil has been put in the crankcase. It's all trust.

 

yes my car is a 2010... only 800km on it (i got it about 2 weeks ago) well that kinda sucks that i can't find out exactly what kind of oil is in there... guess i'll be getting my first oil change on time after all! but i agree... not many people knows what they are doing when it comes to hybrid. just brought my car to the dealer to get my body side moulding put on (they had to order them) and when i came to pick it up, i noticed the lights were on... found that a little weird... only to realise that they had left the car runnning for god knows how long! my l/100km were out the roof... needless to say, i wasn't too impressed. that's not something i'd expect out of a dealer! especially since the car beeps at you if you leave with the key while the engine still runs!

 

weird then that they told me it was just normal oil in it... anyone aware then if the 10K oil change if you have that type of oil is also valid in canada? i've seen the post with the letter in another thread, but i am not sure if it's only for US models.

 

Entirely normal for a brand new motor. FWIW my '07 FJ Cruiser motor had the following at 2,237 initial km: Si of 187 and Cu of 48

Nothing is at the "panic" level, again especially for a brand new motor. The fact the oil testing lab didn't comment on this being normal break-in is a bit odd

 

May we know what dealer that was?

 

check tis out

Toyota Canada comes clean on source of their 0W-20 - Bob Is The Oil Guy

 

I recall some people who seemed knowledgeable saying that high silicon on the first change is not necessarily cause for concern or an indication of dirt.

Try a search for High Silicon

 

Yes, silicon leaches out of the sealants used in assembling the engine. It's not dirt.

On a new car it's not a bad idea to take a careful look at the air intake system and filter element to be sure everything is assembled correctly with no loose connections.

 

Question???

If you were to just change the oil filter (and not the oil), would that help remove the suspended dirt particles (and reduce silicon) in your oil?

Keith

(Since synthetic oil is supposed to last longer before breaking down, I'm toying with the idea that it might be beneficial to change the oil filter at mid-way through the oil life cycle.)

 

There isn't any reason to believe that the oil filter becomes any less effective during 10k mile oil change interval, so no, there would be no advantage to changing it early. In fact, some companies have recommended running an oil filter 2 oil changes. I never could convince myself to try that though and Amsoil has had to back off on it's long life filter claims on some cars because they were causing problems.

If you cut an oil filter open after an oil change (or in our case just look at the element), you can see that there usually isn't much there unless you have a serious engine problem

The silicon (and other elements) that show up in a used oil analysis (UOA) are of such fine particle size (mostly 2 micron or less) that they aren't caught be the filter. The larger particles that are caught by the filter don't contribute much if anything to the ppm results of a UOA.

I used to change engine oil on a new engine at 600 miles then again at about 2000 miles before I went to a normal change interval. I have stopped doing that because the filter catches the vast majority of the crud that could do any damage, engines are far better built than they used to be, and people routinely get 300k miles on engines following factory oil and filter change intervals.

 

I've done oil & filter changes on airplane engines where the oil isn't used for more than 100 hours and inspected the dis-assembled oil filter and as you say "usually isn't much there unless..". However whenever I change the oil and filter on automobile engines, the used oil filter seems quite a bit heavier (after the old oil is drained out) than the new oil filter that I replace during the oil change. I'll admit that I've never cut the automobile filter and inspected the filter media.

Thanks,

Keith

 

ok, call me stupid if you want, but i always thought that it was not possible to do?!? to my understanding, to do an oil change, you have to remove the filter under the car, which makes all the oil drop (in a pan hopefully). once that's done, you put the new filter/oil in. how could you change just the filter and not the oil!?!?!

 

It would have to be a very clean collection pan. You would then have to place it (the used oil) back into the engine. I can't see this being done very easily at home without a lift. I was toying with the idea myself but no way could I keep things clean enough.

 

ahhh ok... makes more sense to me now... but really for the sake of a few bucks, i'd save myself a lot of trouble and just put new oil in.

 

When I have changed the filter only in the past, I have just topped the oil off with new oil. A new filter will normally take about 1/2 quart of oil.

 

On your 2010 Prius? How do you store the oil while you change the oil?

 

Spiderman,

I have not done this yet on the 2010 Prius. Can you not remove and replace the filter without draining the oil pan? You can on most cars.

Dwight