Expensive Oil Change & Tire Rotation?

I refused the free ones after my first disastrous visit. My local dealer is so bad they messed up a tire rotation and inspection!
Of course I drove 150 miles to a trusted dealer to have the wiring harness inspection recall performed. My trusted salesman there still drives his Gen 1 Prius.

 

Nah. This dealer is pretty good in that regard. I just trust my own oil changes more than someone else's.

 

Change the cabin air filter. That not expensive and easy to do yourself. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to do it.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

It's funny, that the cabin filter costs more than engine filter.

 

Read your manual. It is a maintenance light and they recommend tire rotation and inspection every 5K to keep the profitable dealer service revenue high.

 

What @Prodigyplace said. The message simply is says it's time for maintenance. Doesn't say oil, doesn't say tires, doesn't say filters, spark plugs, or anything else. It assumes you will check the maintenance schedule provided with the car to see what maintenance is recommended at that mileage.

 

The maintenance minder on Toyota is strictly miles based. The routine service interval is 5kmile or 6 mo whichever comes first. I have 2020 PP that is now 9 mo old, but have only 2K miles on it due to COVID-19 restriction. I skipped the first 5K/5mo free Toyota Care. Now, I am due for second 10K/10mo free Toyota Care. I am not sure if I should try to schedule the service at my local dealer or do the oil change DIY.

 

@salamadar king if you DIY you'll know for sure what size filter yours takes. Than as long as your've figured out how to read the dip stick ??? you should be good to go with the oil, anyways

 

Yeah, if I could use the element filter I purchased in bulk for my Gen3 Prius 4 years ago on my 2020 PP, I would DIY. I have used 5 free Toyota Care services for the 2015 Gen3 and the 2017 PP and switched to DIY after free care run out. But for my 2020 PP, I can't use the element filters I have, and I also can not use the 0W20 oil I just bought for our other cars. The question is, do I want to pay ~$30 out of my pocket for 0W16 oil and canister filter and DIY or drive a few hours to my closest Toyota dealer to get the free Toyota Care. When COVID-19 was not around us, the answer was easy. I enjoyed twice a year dealer visits to get free maintenance, free coffee, free ice cream, and free car wash, plus just to get out the town and do shopping in a city with free shuttle the dealer provides. But now with the COVID-19 rampant, I don't feel so eager to visit any place where people congregate.

 

I would use up the 0W20. Toyota's policy change on the oil weight seems pure politics to me. The spin-on filters are about $8 CDN up here.

 

I got 12qts bulk of 0W20 from Walmart for our other two cars that are due for oil change now. I will be using ~11qts. I will not have enough to do my PP. I am not sure if mixing 0w20 and 0w16 is OK? I was thinking of doing the oil change on PP when switching to the winter tires, but I think I will skip the the winter tires this year. I am just not driving this car enough to make it worth the trouble of DIY maintenance.

 

FWIW, I'm running 0W-20 in my 2019 Prius. It's mainly used for longer trips, at speed, and the owner manual indicates a higher viscosity oil may be appropriate in this situation. Perhaps for short trips, where the engine is stopping and starting, and not warming up, the 0W-16 is better, especially GF-6-rated oil. I recently bought a 2-day at TIS, to obtain some repair info. This is for the 2019 Prius:

Standard Oil Grade (for USA):
OIL GRADE
OIL VISCOSITY (SAE)
ILSAC GF-5 multigrade engine oil
0W-16
Standard Oil Grade (for Mexico):
OIL GRADE
OIL VISCOSITY(SAE)
API grade SL "Energy-Conserving", SM "Energy-Conserving", SN "Resource-Conserving" or SN PLUS"Resource-Conserving", or ILSAC multigrade engine oil
0W-20
5W-20
5W-30
10W-30
API grade SL, SM, SN or SN PLUS multigrade engine oil
15W-40

 

Assume the first is a transaxle drain and fill: $100 USD would be a fair price for that, $$150 if it had to be.

the second needs more explanation: is it engine, inverter, both?

third is an utter waste of money.

And the oil change and tire rotation: that’s a fair price. You try doing all that, you’ll change your mind.

 

The dealers in Central Texas charge about the same. Typically $79 for oil and filter and another $20 for a rotation if done at the same time.

The trick around here is to get on their service mailing list where they are always offering buy one get one free on oil changes. Then it's $40 a change.

I buy my tires at Costco where it's free balance and rotation for the tires life. With 80k mile Michelins I can get about 15 rotations if I go in often enough. I probably average 8 rotations but that is still worth at least $160 and typically far more. Same applies at Sam's, Discount Tires and others.

 

Sorry; I may be out of touch, but $101 still seems steep to me.
ATF change should probably be done, but NOT at that price. Sorry, Mendel is out of touch regarding tariff pricing. I did mind a few years back and the fluid alone was around $80 - it's probably gone up a bit more. You'll need 4 quarts of Toyota ATF-WS. Any shop can do it and it takes less than an hour. Simple drain-n-fill, NO flushing.
Coolant service, I believe the service manual states 120K miles, 150K for the inverter cooler. IMHO get them both done together, together. Less downtime and easier to remember the intervals. If your nervous, have it tested.
EFI; I'm pretty sure all they do is dump a bottle of Techron injection cleaner into your fuel tank.

I do my own oil changes and rotations, though I can get free rotations at Costco. Oil is $20 and filter is $8 for OEM Toyota filter - So $30 and my time. Tire rotations keep me from getting fat n lazy. Good exercise.

I just purchased two OEM oil filters online for <$5 each and pickup at my nearest dealership parts counter. They won't honor that price at the parts counter - so you can just sit in their service area and order the parts on your phone for pickup. Drinking their free coffee and donuts, if you get there early enough. I probably could've gotten that ATF cheaper, if this existed a few years ago. Bit leery about counterfeit parts online.