Confuse about Oil Change

2012-2014 Toyota Prius C Air Filter - Air Intake - Hastings 12-14 Prius C Air Filter - 119479-05327159 - PartsGeek
Expensive?

$21 after shipping.

 

Oh...I don't know. Every 3,000 means I would have changed it about 15 times to the tune of over $300 vs. having changed it once with a Toyota filter so far. That's expensive, but what can be really expensive is buying the cheapest online filters you can get for your car.

Another problem with the higher viscosity oils (5W-30) that we've seen is burning oil. Once it gets some miles on it, thicker oil has a better chance of getting past the low tension piston rings used in modern cars. We've "fixed" a bunch of these cars burning a liter of oil every 1,000 km, or so, by simply having the owner swap back to the 0W-20.

OEM certified or approved oil and OEM parts at OEM recommended intervals, and you can't go wrong. Cars now are lasting longer, with less maintenance than at any other point in history...so I really wish people would stop with the "They build 'em to wear out so you have to buy a new one" crap.

 

The Owners Manual don't say you HAVE to change filters, just inspect. Even give guidance to blow out with compressed air. Personally I'd be less inclined to be cleaning the engine filter. But anyway, seems like a lot of serviceable filters getting chucked.

 

Air filter for me = 2yrs or 20k miles. Winter dust, high summer dust, but the rest of the year is pretty benign.

Paper filters are cheap, but not 3k mile cheap.

 

Yeah here the climate is pretty damp, my engine filter looks close to new at 48000 kms.

And we're hardly ever on dirt roads.

 

This sounds like some good experience but........what would you recommend if they were still using the 0W20 and the oil loss was going up dramatically ??

 

This does happen. Find out where the oil is going. Check for leaks, of course. Barring that, it's either going through the PCV system, or past the rings. If the PCV system is dry... Live with it, or re-ring the engine. If it's not smoking or killing spark plugs, I'd live with adding a quart every now and then.

 

Or maybe the valve guide seals, which is one of the things that "high mileage" oil helps take care of.
And with modern oils wears out quicker than the rings, I think.

Do you have something specific against high mileage oil........used in the right circumstances ??