How often do you change your oil?

The owners manual says every 10,000 mikes or one year, whichever comes first.

 

I change at 10K miles, and don't worry about the months. It takes me slightly longer than 12 months to put 10,000 miles on and I wait for 10,000 miles. On another car I own, I send oil samples to Blackstone Labs, and they specifically say the oil has plenty of life left after only 12 months, and not to worry so much about the time.

 

Just food for thought:

1. For Second Gen, Toyota USA said 5K miles or 6 months (whichever comes first). With Third Gen they switched to 10K miles or 12 months.

2. For Third Gen, Toyota Canada said 8K kilometers (5K miles approx) or 6 months (whichever comes first). For Fourth Gen they switched to 16K kilometers (10K miles approx) or 12 months.

All these flip-flops having me "trusting" Toyota little if any. It's up to you when you change it, well at least if you want to change sooner. Read up, make up your own mind.

My 2 cents: I'd side with the shop. I don't think they're twisting your arm are they, just suggesting?:

 

If it was dinosaur oil, then I'd say 5,000. Synthetic would be 10k.

 

It wasn't a flip-flop--on the Gen 2/Gen 3. The oil went from "dino" on the gen 2 to synthetic on the gen 3. That's the difference.

 

The only thing about running 10k, is you a lot of shops might not put synthetic oil in your car even if you pay for it.

I watched a thing on the news a few years ago how so many shops either put a synthetic blend, or regular Dino oil. Of course that isn’t the majority? But it still makes ya think!


I’m thankful I’m young, and have the tools to do my own maintenance.

 

Outside of Toyota's guidelines, one argument for legitimacy of 10k oil change interval is that your gas engine is only running 50% of the time. So 10k miles is more like 5k in effective miles. I split the difference at 7,500 miles as I push mine quite hard with (normally) daily deliveries.

 

You redacted point number two when quoting me?

FWIW, the only Owner's Manual mention of "synth" pertains to the leather seat material.

Bottom line: it's your car, pick your interval. You're "legal" with Toyota (in the States) if you go 10K miles or 12 months (whichever comes first).

 

I'm an old school fool. I do mine at 5k. When I bought the car new, I went to 10k, and saw the oil was dark (I know, that doesn't necessarily mean anything) and decided to stick to 5k intervals. Just makes me feel better.

 

Nuthin wrong with that, IMHO. I've tried to split the difference and change at 7,500. However, with this Prime I'm going to keep it at 10K. So far this tank, I'm over 700 miles and the computer tells me it's 97% engine off. Oil is still clear after roughly 3,000 miles.

 

0W-20 oils, because of their low viscosity at low temperature, are only available as synthetic or synthetic blend oils. By specifying 0W-20, Toyota implicitly specifies synthetic without stating it explicitly.

 

See my point 2 above. Same gen, same oil spec, Canada vs US. I know, we're colder. Most of us clustered on the 49th parallel. And then there's Alaska.

Again, you're free to do what you want. I'm just saying I suspect Toyota's motives for going to 10K.

 

Mine's been changed at yearly intervals as a requirement for the Toyota UK warranty. That equates to every 2-3K miles as I've only done 11K miles in 4 years, but mostly short journeys. If it wasn't for the warranty requirements I would have left it to two or three yearly intervals with the oil being fully synthetic.

 

When I drove 30,000 miles a year, I did it every 10,000 miles. Now I drive less, so I am below 10,000 when the 12 months is up.

Any ways, which ever is less.

"the shop" wants your money.

 

I didn't think it added anything to my comment.

Yes, I agree with that. I should have said "Toyota recommends 10K/12 month oil changes IF the last fill was with 0W-20. Otherwise, replace after 5K/6 months." This was added for the Gen 3 cars. So, I still contend this is not a "flip-flop" but an actual change in oil specification that allowed longer intervals over the Gen 2.

 

When I had my gen2, it would continuously burn oil after it got to 150+ miles. It got pretty annoying dealing with it since it would burn a quart in a month span. I had multiple mechanics check it out with no real solution. There were no leaks. Many folks on this forums had complained about it and stated that it is normal. At the time, it used 5w-30 and conventional was the minimum. I always wondered if it improved my interval of oil change if it could have prevented this from happening.

 

Once yearly in the early fall, with either OEM oil or a full synthetic. Even without the current "lockdown" I usually did less than 5000 miles per year.

 

Did you not get manuals with your car? They are online too.