Trying to break an old habit.

how long do you plan to keep her?

 

why not change it now and the every 5K hence, for your own peace of mind? you spend 25K on a vehicle, what's $35. for a good nite's sleep?

 

I changed my oil for the first time at 1075 miles myself. I took the car for its first dealer service at 5656 miles and did not change the oil. I decided to wait until 10000 miles to do the next oil change. I plan on taking a sample at that time and having used oil analysis done to see how the oil held up for 9000 miles. A poster on one of my threads said its not a good idea to do an early first oil change because of break in oil/additives that Toyota may have used. I have know way of knowing if Toyota uses special oil or additives in a new engine or not. If they do oh well I changed my oil.

 

I know how you feel. I bought my Prius on Dec 9th (4 months ago), so I have the same Toyota Care plan. Today the odometer turned 3000mi, so I took a little detour back to Burnsville Toyota with every intention of burning my one Free Oil / Lube / Filter certicate.

The shop was slow when I got there, and my service advisor very patiently and with a lot of humor took the time to discuss my "wasting" my one certificate (worth about $65 today) at 3000mi, and to save it instead until after Toyota Care expires.

He would have let me, had I insisted, but what he said & more importantly how he said it made sense to me. My gut told me I was dealing with an honest guy, & that he thought he was giving his best advice. "My mother in law bought a Prius last summer. She wanted an oil change at 3000mi too, because of the contaminants & microscopic shavings she'd read about, but synthetic fluids are robust, the filter works fine, & your oil is still clear as the day you drove off the lot. I'll do it if you really want to, don't get me wrong, but if it was my certificate I wouldn't waste it."

Then he sold me a set of mud guards & sent me back to New Ulm.

 

i believe some of the people here who have done comprehensive oil analysis feel that toyota (and most car companies) are more interested in using extended oil changes as a marketing tool than actually preserving very long term life of engine. and dealers wouldn't know any of that.

 

Do your first change at 5k then 10k thereafter (15k, 25k and so on). That way, you get to avoid the overpriced 30k maintenance "special."

 

Change the oil for the all the reasons you listed! I did mine at 2000, 5000, 15,000, and 25,000. Well worth the small price.

 

I'm sticking to 5000 miles (actually 8000 km), or 6 months, because:

That's what Toyota Canada spec's. FWIW, even if they change policy and aligned with their US counterpart, I'd still stick to the old interval: I'd rather err on the side of caution. Preserving our car for the long term is my first priority.

 

Not necessarily. Some of those people would argue the opposite, that Toyota is wasting our money and resources by requiring synthetic oil changes every 5k miles.

 

Hi All,

I was incredulous of the Toyota recomended (required for waranty) 10 K oil change interval, for the first change. So, I had them change it at 5K. I checked the oil before the change in my 2010 and it was just getting transluscent tan very little wear! I had them do it anyway in case of the stray chip left over from manufacturing.

In my 2006, it would have been transluscent black at 3000 miles, and more so at 5000 miles, almost non-transluscent.

So, I the plan is to go with the Toyota recommended 10 K oil change intervall from now on, but I will check it at 7500 and see if its started to go black by then.

 

Guys, I don't really understand all these posts (and several other threads on PC - don't take it personally, I am simply wondering why all these discussions on the topic) about oil change and why you want to change oil so frequently (wasting money IMHO) and not trusting Toyota's plans.

In EU Toyota wants the oil on the Prius changed every 15.000km (9300mi) with 0W-20 oil or latest every year, whatever comes first. It is allowed to use, every other time, a 5W-30 oil. Period. Other Toyota gas models sold in the EU have the same plan. Diesels likely differ a bit.

Surely you can change oil as often as you wish (BTW not good for the environment), but these are modern engines that are designed to run 15.000km on a round of oil, from the beginning. And Toyota is not even the best at that.

VW has the first oil change on diesel engines at 30.000km/18.000mi and every 30.000km after that, or latest every 2 years, whatever comes first.

The oils used today are extremely good and are designed to withstand these longer timeframes.
Are you really sure that on these new cars changing oil will make any noticeable difference on the overall lifetime of the car? what about putting high quality oil as per Toyota plan every 15.000km and forget about it?

 

+1: I'm staying with 10K intervals using synthetic. IMO, anything less is just too much oil flowing down the drain, and too much money flowing into the oil company.

 

Hi Pakitt,

Well, 9300 miles is 15000 Km. So, the EU recommendation is less than the US recommendation.

The discussion is primarily about changing the oil the first time. An errant manfacturing chip can score a cylinder wall, an oil pump surface, plug an oil gallery, tear an oil filter element. These are the things that people try to avoid here. Maybe it has to do with driving Ford/GM/Dodge-Chrysler cars we like to do this.

And the Prius is a timing chain car. Not a timing belt car. So, wear is an issue.

I am personally on-board with the 10K change with the 0W-20 synthetic albeit after the first change at 5K.

But, the 5W-30 Mobil 1 in the Gen II was usually bordering on Opaque at 5000 miles most changes. But sometimes it was really Opaque. And this was with low engine usage driving (good warm up in the morning run, then hypermiling on the way home). At 50 K miles, the new oil fill was not clear on the dipstick even.

 

Just for another company's perspective, and this is also a vehicle using 0W20:

Honda introduced what they call Maintenance Minder, which we had on our previous 2006 Civic Hybrid.

There is no published oil change interval. Instead, the Maintenance Minder counts down, in 10% intervals, and when it get's down to 15%, starts displaying codes as to what you need to get done.

"A" is is oil change only
"B" is oil change with oil filter change

Then there are various numbers that may appear, for transmission fluid change, brakes, and so on.

The "A" and "B" codes typically alternate, ie: one time it's oil change only, the next time oil and filter change.

Owners report quite a variation in kilometers for the MM to get down to 15%. It seems the car is monitoring more than just distance travelled, maybe also considering mean coolant temperature while running, trip duration, or other factors.

In our experience, with a fair number of short trips in our use, the MM would get down to 15% at 8000~9000 km (say 5000~6000 miles). It is acceptable to let it go down to 0%, but I always got on it at 15%. FWIW, other owners, clocking mostly highway miles, had the MM get down to 15% at significantly longer intervals, say up to 12000 km.

So, coming to Prius, I've kept that Honda interval in mind, and see that it's fairly close to Toyota's Canadian 8000 km interval.

An 8000 km or 6 month change interval is conservative, but certainly not excessive, and I don't see it as irresponsible. It's still a warranty requirement in Canada. And responsible owners are not sending used oil "down the drain"; it's very easy to recycle, the filters and containers as well. And it's a fraction of the oil consumed in the form of gasoline.

 

Good point. I've noticed at start up, even though the engine is running, and at moderate fast idle, it's rpm seems to be holding constant, as long as you keep a gentle touch on the gas. If the car had a tach it would be a little easier to tell.

In other words, the motivation is almost entirely through the electric motor, and the engine is running primarily to warm up, not doing any heavy lifting.

 

The arguement FOR waiting the entire time recommended before the 1st Oil Change hinges I believe primarily on whether Toyota uses a "Break In" Oil as a factory fill. If they do? I'd follow recommendations and leave it in...

If Toyota does not? Your probably still "safe" following recommendation, BUT if it makes you feel better go ahead and change it when you wish...