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15k oil change

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Mdv55, Nov 15, 2019.

  1. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    I see lots of hand wringing over oil changes so I figured I'd post my results from long intervals. This is the second 15k run I've done on this car and see no reason to change that at this point. The car does get a new filter at 7500 miles and is topped off with 1/2 quart of new oil. Analysis shows low wear metals and oil still well within spec.

    priusuoa.jpg
     
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  2. Pluggo

    Pluggo Senior Member

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    How many gallons of fuel do you estimate you used for those 15,000 miles? Many cars that get only 30 mpg have a recommended oil change interval of 7,500 miles, so at least in those cases, it may be most useful to think of an oil change after 250 gallons of gasoline are burned in the engine. To a certain extent, that kind of formula would automatically shorten the oil change interval for cars that are operated under severe conditions.
     
  3. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    It should have been 300 gallons give or take a few. I think other factors such as sum capacity and average temp have more to do with it then fuel usage (unless there is a dilution issue going on)
     
  4. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Well the other important information was also left out on the 1st post :whistle:
     
  5. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    ?
     
  6. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Oil filter make/model
     
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  7. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Getting close to my 2nd 15,000 mi OCI, won't stretch pass 15K mark either. I keep the same filter til oil is change- Mobil 1 20,000 mi with Redline 5w-20. The big difference is the zinc addictive; 1200 ppm. My commute is 100 mi a day, 63.8 mpg since last oil change which was 9,000 miles ago w/ICE on 95% of the time.

    You dump any fuel or injector cleaners in the gas tank in between oil changes?
     
  8. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    I'm using the OEM Toyota filters. I jack the car up every 7500 for a tire rotation and general look over so it's easy enough to just swap it out. I felt better about the new 1/2 quart of oil giving everything a TBN boost, but that seems unnecessarily given these results.

    The car sees 100-300 miles per day of city/surburban/highway driving. I can get high 50's surburban, low 50s city and 47ish on the highway runs at 70-75mph.

    The last two intervals haven't seen any fuel additive, but I did just dump some in last week.

    Redline is great stuff too My track car gets a steady diet of it.
     
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  9. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Are you using the signature series oil?
     
  10. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    Yes.
     
  11. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    Amsoil says 25k mi or one year, do you guys go enough in one year to reach that milestone? Thoughts on going that far? How about past 1 year? Our ex Ford C-MAX Energi (22 mi PHEV) had a 20k mi 2 yr oil change interval.

    REVVL V+ 5G ?
     
  12. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    My car has gone 33k so far this year, so it's seen some use.

    I think the tiny filter would be more the limit then the oil where the Prius is concerned, at least if the car is doing lots of mileage and not a lot of cold starts. My 15k results have been stellar so far.

    Currently, I didn't swap the filter at 7500 like I normally do and am coming up on 15k again. I've toyed with the idea of popping in a new filter and going another 7500 miles on the oil to hit 21.5k and resampling. Not sure if I want to spend the money on another analysis trying to find the limit or just go with what's been working and swap the oil instead though.

    I haven't gone more then a year in the Prius, but my bike is coming up on 2 years with the same oil in it.
     
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  13. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Why change the oil at all? Or the filter? It's just a waste of money.
    When the oil gets low, just add more. Seems most have to do that often so the oil
    is almost fresh all the time.

    I don't understand why people want to play russian roulete with their car's engine.
    It's a 10-15 minute job, and the oil and filter are not that expensive.
     
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  14. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    It's way more than 10-15 minutes for me. (BUT we only get roughly 5k mi a year on our Prius v). Sometimes #### happens and it takes me overnight like the one time I damaged that plastic filter cap. By no means am I a professional and sometimes I need to do a dance and lift the front end slightly so those rubber spoilers in front of the wheels clear my Rhino Ramps, then slowly go up a little, drop the jack, then finish going up....

    But in all truthfulness we have oil companies saying extended drain intervals AND some even have warranty to that effect. Mobil's Annual Protection came with videos on their website showing the effects upon tear down of an engine running 20k mi intervals for 100k or was it 120k mi, with beautiful innards/no damage/still new look. (They ran three different vehicles and said the other two were similar). For those running many miles a year they are driving A LOT and taking time to change the oil may be spent, well, driving more....

    REVVL V+ 5G ?
     
  15. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    For 20k mi vs Toyota's 10k mi that's 5 or 6 oil changes vs 10 to 12. If we have someone insisting on 5k mi intervals that's 20 -24. If you're the older fogey like me and started when 3k mi intervals were around that's 33 to 40. It does become a matter of resource use...

    REVVL V+ 5G ?
     
  16. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    Hardly Russian Roulette when backed up by data that shows my extended intervals still have results that are better then people running shorter ones.
     
  17. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    Most recent report:

    priusoil.jpg
     
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  18. jzchen

    jzchen Newbie!

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    Interesting the TBN is 3.3 at 15k mi. (I was an Amsoil dealer for 11 years. Eventually stopped because I wasn't selling nor buying anything). Since the Prius is a hybrid with the engine turning on and off effectively decreasing the run time between changes, how can Amsoil possibly warrant 25k mi oil changes.... Hmm...

    REVVL V+ 5G ?
     
  19. Mdv55

    Mdv55 Active Member

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    A lot of things have changed over the years and they've backed off the 25k oil changes as a blanket statement. Now it's more "up to" 25k. I'd be extremelyhesitant to go past 5k without analysis on a turbo charged direct injection motor as one example. The fuel dilution those have is unreal. I doubt I'd even run expensive Amsoil in that kind of application. Plenty of other lubes that offer better bang for the buck for short durations.
     
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  20. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    I run WD-40 in my engine, transmission, inverter cooler and engine coolant!
    I'm also thinking of running in my ac system!!!