Should I Wait Longer for Oil Analysis?

Hi Aaron,

Since you plan to change the oil/oil filter at 5K mile intervals (which is an excellent idea from the perspective of keeping your 5 year/60K mile powertrain warranty in force), what purpose will an oil analysis serve? Usually those owners who pay for oil analysis do so because they want to justify (to themselves) their use of extended oil change intervals.

 

If you change your oil and filter as recommended, you never need an analysis. Some people on this site recommends alot of very expensive things that a standard old gas engine (ie the one in the Prius) doesn't need. I drive my cars to 100,000 plus miles. My first being a 1964 Sport Fury by Plymouth. Regular old oil, regular old filter, nothing fancy and the engine will work great.

 

I generally agree with Patrick. However, to me, the oil analysis isn't to justify the use of extended oil change intervals but to extend the interval to the life of the oil, not some arbitrary number of miles or months.

And, the 100K warranty is on all Hybrid components. The engine warranty is only to 60K miles. So, yes, change the oil every 5K miles until 60K FOR SURE. Then, since you are using synthetic, you can extend and test. Also look for the oil analysis threads here and you will see that with synthetic, you can probably easily go to 10K (YMMV depending on how your car is driven).

 

I've been getting my oil tested by Blackstone Labs for the last couple oil changes and I've found out a few things:

The Prius is very gentle on oil. Even in the dead of winter in Alaska the 5-30 Mobil 1 held up really well. I am now living in CA and I plan on taking the next oil change to 10,000 miles. The last one was 8,000 and the numbers were all very good for a car with 32K miles. For the record, I did a lot of city driving with the heater on full blast, so the engine was actually working.

If the factory wants to gripe at me about not changing the oil frequently enough, I'll throw a stack of analysis paperwork at them that proves the oil was in good shape when it was removed. I have receipts for everything to prove it was done.

Early on the wear metal concentrations were a little high, but that's totally normal for a new engine. After about 10K miles they've leveled off.

 

Playing my usual role as a shill for the oil analysis industry

It is becoming very clear (through posted used oil analyses) that the Prius *is* very easy on its oil. In fact it's likely that you will get boringly low wear metal numbers for 100/200/300k miles who knows? After the new-car peak, that is.

On the other hand, if too much silica gets past the air filter or a small antifreeze leak develops, the UOA-guy will know about it. His buddy down the block using a standard oil change interval would not, at least not until something undesireable occurs.

Admitedly this sounds like a scare tactic. But consider it this way: We get by quite cheaply on maintenance in general (especially if DIY). Re-invest some of that in the analyses and get to know the inside of your engine really well.

The low background levels of wear metals would make it comparatively easy to catch problems early with this engine, BTW.

 

Hi Aaron,

Since you bought the Toyota extended warranty, the drivetrain (including the gasoline engine) should be covered. Therefore it would be a good idea to perform the first 19 engine oil/oil filter changes at 5K mile intervals!

 

I agree with Patrick Wong on this. If you bought the extended warranty its best to cover your butt and just do it every 5000. It still wouldn't be a bad idea to get yourself a yearly UOA just to know what its doing and think of it like going to the doctor and getting that yearly checkup. That being said I've never had a UOA done.

 

Hi Aaron,

Well, the traction battery, the traction battery and hybrid vehicle ECUs, and the inverter are all covered by the hybrid system warranty which is at least 8 years/100K miles (more in CA and the other PZEV states). So the main added coverage that you receive with the extended warranty is on the engine, transaxle, and catalytic converter/exhaust system; as well as ancillary systems like the MFD, air conditioning, stereo, nav etc.