10k for first oil change

You will get many varied opinions on here on both questions. There are several on here, myself included, that did our first oil change at 5k miles just due to not feeling comfortable going 10k before the first oil change.

The Toyota maintenance interval specifies 10k. Many on here have had their used oil tested and verified that it is good for 10k and up to as much as 15k miles.

Personally I prefer to change mine at 5k mile intervals and one of the reasons is that it gives me a chance to get under the car and check the underside for any early signs of fluid leaks, CV joint boot cracks, etc. This is cheap insurance to me and gives me peace of mind. I plan to keep my car for many years and many miles.

Your Toyota Care will only give you the free oil changes at 10k intervals. I am not sure if they will do the first one before 10k for free. Others can chime in on this.

It all comes down to what you are more comfortable with and what gives you peace of mind.

 

I requested my oil to be changed when I brought mine in at 5k, they said no, this is just a tire rotation, "21 point inspection" or whatever. I definitively felt weird waiting that long but I let it slide. On my other car (BMW 135i) they give you 1 free oil change a year or every 15k miles. I changed that one out a like 7k b/c it's more or a performance car....still though, 10k most certainly felt weird.

 

5,000 would be for extreme driving such as racing or towing, 10,000 mile interval may be for someone who only drives on the expressway, I think 7500 for conventional oil is just right. I'm not sure how cold it gets in Nebraska in the winter but you may want to consider going synthetic to increase fuel economy, increase oil change interval and make cold starts easier. I enjoy working on cars but changing my oil is just downright filthy and prefer to do it as infrequently as possible.

Just keep in mind that in order to increase your oil change interval you should also buy a hi capacity filter such as a Bosch distance plus or Mobil 1 filter which are designed to filter for a longer period of time without clogging up. (I can't wait to read all the people who are going to disagree with that train of thought). And don't forget to re-check your oil at around 7500 miles (more often if you know your car burns/leaks oil) and top it off, because the new oil you top off with only has to last 6000 miles or so you can actually use conventional oil to top off, provided it is the same viscosity as the synthetic.

The only oil I would go 15,000 miles in is Mobil 1 Extended Performance, which here is only avail in quarts and is very expensive. the past 5 years I've always found I get a great bang for my buck with Pennzoil Platinum 5.1Q jugs. Now many people here would look down on the Pennzoil Platinum because Pennzoil makes garbage conventional oil but I really do like their synthetic and think its fantastic, maybe not 15K miles great, I usually run it for 13,333 miles and its 2/3 the price of mobil ext.perf.

My Forester, Prius & Corolla are all due for an oil change within the next month or so, and advanceauto.com is currently offering Peak Full Synthetic oil for $3.99/quart on sale from the usual $6.59. although advanceauto.com doesn't accept coupons on oil this is still an amazing price and I will probably buy 12 quarts. Peak, like Prestone, is famous for making antifreeze coolant so I'm not sure how good their synthetic oil is and can't find much data/reviews so any advice on whether I should buy it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I hate to give you something more to worry about but we have seen issues here where the dealer did not use the correct oil. This happened to me on my second dealer visit. They used the bulk 5W30 non-synthetic oil instead of the 0W20 synthetic. I caught this on the service report and they let me watch as they drained the 5W30 and installed the correct 0W20.

So always check your dealer service report and verify that the correct oil is used.

 

In the gen3 Prius that the OP has only 0w20 oil should be used and this only comes in full synthetic. This oil is perfectly ok for 10,000miles.

I do understand peoples concerns about metal "shavings" in a new engine, but the manufactures go to great lengths to achieve clean assembly, and it is the job of the filter not the oil to catch any such particles. The filter is not doing it's job if particles are carried round the engine.

Changing the oil at say 5000miles will do no harm, but is a waste of good oil. Toyota would not say 10,000 mile change interval if they were not sure of the safety of this. How much would it cost them to have you change the oil every 5,000 miles? How much would it cost them if they had to change an engine under guarantee because "shavings" ruined it?

John.