Oil recommendation up to 10,000 mile changeover

Well I have heard of waiting to 5K but I guess I do not understand the 10k thing. Why? What is the rational? It would be nice to hear the arguments, and the rebuttal.

 

Did he actually say wait to 10K for the first change or to continue normal changes and not use synthetic until the 10K. My dealer does not stock Mobil 1 so at 5K he suggested that I wait. Instead I ran out to Wally World and picked up 4 quarts for their use. I've used Mobil 1 in several other vehicles and didn't want to use a blended synthetic. Believe I'll be changing the oil myself in the future since they put the full 4 quarts in and I had to remove some when I got home... :roll:

 

Moms,

I think the right words here are "snow job".

You can change over to synth oil anytime. You might want to look at john's site for his excellent oil-change faq - it's easy to do yourself.

Surf to http://john1701a.com
Then surf to Prius Info - Oil Change

 

I don't plan to go to synthetic until 10K miles. A quality nonsynth should do fine at 5K change, imo.

I changed out the oem oil to synthetic on my S2000 way too soon and got horrible oil consumption. Later, Honda advised against changing the oil too soon or to synthetic too soon, so as to allow rings to seat. I understand we are talking about two different engines, the S2000 with the carbon fiber reinforced cylinders, but I think a little possible extra wear is better than possible nonseated rings, imo.

I did not absolutely baby the Prius throttle before the 600 mile mark. I am pleased with the mpg so far, and engine longevity is to be determined in the future, but imo, engine longevity and power increase with 'proper' breakin are not mutually exclusive.

What I have accepted about breakin: <MotoMan>.

 

My dealer out here in Arizona said Toyota does not recommend synthetic oil. Anyone hear of this? 2008 Prius #2 touring. Thanks, Nick.:usa2:

 

The prius engine is lightly loaded and frequently shuts off and, therefore, should last a LONG time. IMHO I would not mess with synthetic oil & the extra expense. Simply use regular oil and replace oil & filter every 5-7k miles.

 

I haven't noticed any posters who have complained of an outright ICE failure. However I have seen an occasional post from an owner who just bought a high-mileage Prius and was wondering about excessive valvetrain noise, an indication that engine oil changes were not routinely performed per the maintenance schedule.

I also agree that use of a quality mineral oil (I use Castrol GTX or Pennzoil) and 5K mile oil/filter changes is sufficient for Prius. However if some owners want to be extra nice to the car by using synthetic oil, that's up to them.

I suggest that some of the Prius maintenance budget should be allocated to periodic transaxle fluid changes using the correct Toyota ATF.

 

Toyota says nothing about it. Challenge the dealer to provide a reference from Toyota in print. We'd love to see it.

 

It is about psychology and sales tactics. Sometimes it is amazing at the garbage they come up with. They can so creative. To non car savvy people, and there are a large percentage of those, this sudden dose of expert advice makes them want to listen to the expert. Then the salesperson is in control and can "take them to the cleaners."

 

well... if ya don't take care of it
http://priuschat.com/forums/care-ma...ler-socal-wants-7600-replace-short-block.html

 

10,000 may not be out of the realm of logic. Think of it this way. You have the first oil change at around 500-1000 miles, then after 3000 more miles, now at say 4000 miles, and then one more oil change in 3,000 miles to 7,000 miles, so your next oil change would be at 10,000 miles.

I think its just a conservative three oil changes to be sure the engine is broken in and all the gunk leftover or break in debris is cleared out of the engine before using extended life synthetic.

But other than that there really isn't a reasn not to use as soon as you want to.

 

As previously posted by the guy with the s2000, rings need to break-in. It was highly advised in the past to continue to use dino oil during this process. In fact, engines of yesteryear had a special break-in oil at times. These days with more exacting tolerances from the get-go it's typically not required anymore. In fact many cars come with synthetic from the factory. I typically say better to be safe than sorry, run the dino oil, then switch if you desire.

With that being said I switched to full synthetic at $1700 miles (was planning on 1500 miles but overshot that). I noticed a small improvement in mileage, although I adjusted my air pressure around the same time so 1 or both of those resulted in the higher MPG.

I decided to run synthetic for a few reasons.
1) Since I have too many vehicles (according to my wife), it takes a combined 28 quarts on oil change weekend to finish the job. Since I run synthetic on all my vehicles, I figured another 3.5 qts of Mobile 1 wasn't going to break the bank.

2) I run them on my other vehicles due to extreme duty. My truck tows a heavy trailer, my SRT8 get's flogged frequently, my other Jeep typically runs 5 hours to drive 2 miles rock crawling... and my Prius. Well, with my Prius the ICE starts/stops a lot (obviously by design) so figured that puts a bit more wear/tear on the oil...

About the only thing I have that doesn't get synthetic is my generator in my RV. I figured since it stays running and is air cooled that I'd be safest running Onan's own brand of oil "just in case".

Mike

 

Wow, going +20,000 miles on the oil, especially the bottom-feeder crap bulk oil. Clearly, if it was anything like my Toyota dealer bulk oil, a 3,000 mile interval was far more appropriate

I receive a lot of industrial and lubrication related emails at work, this one caught my eye

ILMA: 2 of 19 Oils Flunk

Interesting how even the lame API/ILSAC standard wasn't met.

I shudder to think of my Toyota dealership crap bulk oil in my motor: dirt, dust, +400 ppm sodium, +100 ppm sulfur, iron, etc etc etc

 

Yes, that is the way it used to be done. In this day and age, with modern CNC machining and tight tolerances, it's obsolete information.

As others have pointed out, a growing number of vehicles are shipped out the factory door with synthetic already filled. Some cars, like the GM/Opel and the VW in Europe, leave with a synthetic 0W-30 and normal 24 month/30,000 mile intervals. No early initial change either

According to used oil analysis, my FJ very much needed an early initial change. The factory oil was finished before 3,500 initial km's. Using either Esso XD-3 0W-40 or Mobil 1 0W-40, excellent results and *very* low wear metals

There are a lot of old woman tales out there regarding maintenance, especially oil and service intervals. As even the current API/ILSAC standard has no provision to prevent crown land or ring land fill, cold black sludge, etc, it really is an oil for moderate climates only.

Very hot use, or bitter cold driving with a lot of condensation, should be an automatic disqualifier to using the min spec API/ILSAC garbage

 

What really pisses me off is that, in their upside down world, it's "puffery" and PERFECTLY LEGAL. In my profession, if I tried to lie like that, I'd be fired and never work in my field again

 

Actually, the Prius engine generally runs *heavily* loaded when
it runs at all. That's what makes its operation so efficient.
.
_H*

 

Better for the motor to run under good load. Nothing worse than a motor fully unloaded, especially idling. Which is why I'm so against idling motors, especially diesel motors.

True enough that gasoline motors have much less issues than diesels while idling, in particular "wetstacking," but there is still considerable blowby. All that trash ends up in the oil