Oil changes

The best answer usually depends on your driving conditions. Like how many miles do you do per year? Also, do you mostly do short trips or do you have a resonable amount of trips long enough to fully warm up the oil?

I do about 18000 miles per year and not too many very short trips, so I'm comfortable going 9000 miles (6 months) between changes. I've used both synthetic and synthetic blend oils and had no problems with either.

 

At 12k miles per year I think 6 months 6000 miles intervals would be a no brainer. I definitely wouldn't do more than two changes per year under those driving conditions.

Yeah my 9000 mile interval is a little longer than usual. The interesting thing though is that the "official" Toyota recommended OCI varies from country to country even though the engines are the same in each case. In North America it's 5000 miles, in Australia it's 10000 km (6300 miles) and in much of Europe it's 15000 km (9320 miles).

Also I find the Prius to be really easy on oil for my driving conditions. I think that in a very cold climate and with shorter trips the Prius is not so easy on oil because the engine not running all the time makes it take even longer to warm the oil than a regular car. In a warm climate with longer trips on the other hand this is actually working in your favor and it's easier on the oil than most other cars.

I started out at the recommended 6300 mile interval, oil always looked in great condition when I changed it out. Went up to 7500 mile intervals and the oil still looked good, so now I'm going 9000. That's enough for me, I just wanted to make 6 month intervals because I like having nice fresh oil for summer and again for winter.

BTW. I always use a good quality oil with the European ACEA specs (usually ACEA A3/B4) for doing the longer OCI. This is what they use in Europe where the recommended OCI is 15000km so I cant see any problem.

 

Hi:
I change my oil once every year. I use A good synthetic 0-20 weight and only add 4 ltr's. Never over fill as this can hurt your FE. If you tend to drive for good FE then you don't work your car too hard, but if your like most Californian's, I would change 4 times a year! <grin> I would agree with uart, twice a year for you type of driving. Hal

 

With respect to you folks in the USA you seem to have fallen into the trap of changing oil every 5000 miles because that is what your used to, while this does no harm to car it is with modern oils a waist when these lubes are more than able to run to 10,000 miles if your dealer is using crap oil tell him you want the same spec oil that Toyota ship in there cars new, if he has not got it take some with you, if enough people did this they would soon get the message. Its your pocket he is emptying he is not going change the oil he is using without being pushed he is making to much money selling you poor quality oil.

 

Use name brand synthetic if you plan on OCI > 5,000 miles. There is no consensus given the great debates but, for example, Gen III spec is 10,000 miles on 0w20.

 

Actually, in the USA, you need to change the oil every 5000 to maintain the Toyota USA warranty! Once the car is out of warranty, then longer intervals seems reasonable. (I now do 10,000 miles between changes of Mobil 1.)

 

When you say out of warranty, do you mean the 3yrs or 36,000 mile warranty or the longer hybrid system warranty (california is 10yrs or 150k?)?

 

Since the gasoline engine is covered by the 5 year / 60K mile powertrain warranty, that is the relevant warranty to consider when thinking about whether to observe Toyota's maintenance schedule or not.

 

I think it's pretty darn unlikely to have an oil related engine wear failure on these cars before 5/60 unless you really abuse it. Used Oil Analysis has shown I could take mine well past 10K without worry, but 10K is where I change it. Amsoil previously, now on Mobile 1.

I'm doing about 15-20K miles per year so it's nice to halve the change frequency.

- D

 

That's fine for synthetic oil, but I would change out the oil filter much sooner.

 

True, BUT I wouldn't want to give Toyota an excuse to wiggle out of a legitimate claim. Hence, 5K changes till one hits 60K.

 

Though in much of Europe the "official" oil change interval (oil and filter) is 15,000 km (9300 miles) and I think they still use the same OEM filters.