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A "little" pissed off at our dealer.

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Jim Clark, Aug 31, 2011.

  1. Jim Clark

    Jim Clark Member

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    Oil maintenance warning is on. Car was also due for safety and emissions inspections. It's at 22k miles so it will be in for 25k service soon. Called the service dept and spoke to a service rep and told him I wanted to wait for the oil change until the 25k service. It was changed at 10k with Mobil 1 (as requested) and that's what I was billed for, hopefully I actually got it.

    Service rep tows the party line and states Toyota says 10k for oil. I pushed him a little but he wouldn't back off the party line. He said that Toyota "could" void powertrain warranty issues if the service intervals had not been followed. I told him to let them try and that my attorney was very smart and an excellent litigator (absolutely true). He chuckled.

    Does Toyota's 10k oil change interval for the Prius assume dino oil? If so, a full synthetic should easily go to 15k.

    Bottom line, you can't trust any of these bastards (even an allegedly good local guy) unless you know them personally.
     
  2. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Well the manual now says 10K. It was 5K when the 2010 first came out. But yes, 10K with syn. Without 10K OCI they can void warranty and probably will. Could you go 15K? Probably.
     
  3. billnchristy

    billnchristy Active Member

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    There is no dino 0w20
     
  4. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Senior Member

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    My understanding is that Toyota would have to offer proof or good evidence that any future problems were actually caused by your failure to change the oil on time. But it could still be a big hassle for you if they did deny coverage.

    The oil requirement for the 10K oil change interval states 0W20 oil but the words synthetic oil are not mentioned, at least I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere. However all of the 0W20 oils that are readily available are synthetic.

    I agree the oil should go 15K with no problems but it's a matter of the warranty. I guess I would go ahead and have it done to avoid giving them an excuse to try and deny coverage.
     
  5. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Even though UOA has indicated that with Mobil1 0W20 oil that you could probably go 15k miles, as Spiderman indicates the Toyota Warranty manual was updated to change intervals from 5k to 10k with use of synthetic oil.

    I would not try to push your luck with Toyota over the OCI. I am sure Toyota has a whole stable of lawyers as smart as yours :)
     
  6. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    +1

    Why not simply DIY? . . . and do it at 10K just like you ought to. And yes, if your ICE failed - and the actual cause was related to your neglect - and your attorney was smart? He'd laugh at you.

    On a helpfull note, here's a list of junk that needs to be tended to - and at the appropriate intervals.

    http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...70-what-services-you-need-what-you-don-t.html

    You're right, you don't have to do all the junk that the dealer wants, and you don't have to do all the things the dealer says, at the intervals they say - but the stuff you DO have to do, it is important to do them . . . . so either DIY, or have them do it.

    .
     
  7. oldasdust

    oldasdust Member

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    My dealership salesperson advised during test drive march 2011 toyota was going synthetic across the board and 10 thousand mile oil/filter change intervals might be 2012 for all models not sure.
     
  8. 32kcolors

    32kcolors Senior Member

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    Your dealer was right. If it was last changed at 10K, you must change it at or around 20K in order to keep the warranty intact.

    I find people who don't know what they're talking about usually invoke that. If he laughed, that's a good indication you're in the wrong.
     
  9. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    There are 2 things in play here:

    1) The warranty requires you to follow the service intervals. Why cover a blown engine at 59,999miles when the owner never changed oil or other fluids? They won't because they didn't follow the service requirements. The service requirement for Toyota USA (and Canada) is 10K miles, therefore you must let the dealer or a shop with records to change it at 10K miles. That simple.

    2) Today's synthetics will last much much longer than 10K with little degradation. Most European service intervals are already set to 15K km, and oil can last double that no issue.

    So who was right? It depends what you want. If you want your warranty, you were wrong. If you want to save $15 worth of oil, you were right.
     
  10. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    As stated above there is no Dino Oil 0 weight. So the interval IS taking in account the oil being synthetic.

    On a new car? Under warrranty? I would of changed the Oil at 20,000. Yeah, you're probably perfectly safe and fine going 12,000-15,000 on the Mobile One, but why? Why risk any issues "if" a warranty issue did come up? Simply not worth it. An Oil Change especially at 10,000 mile intervals, is a relatively inexpensive part of vehicle maintenance.

    Just my philosophy, but while I own a vehicle that is "new" or under warranty, I follow the book...once it is passed warranty, I decide how I want to apply maintenance...but IMO an Oil Change is cheap enough that I don't see much applicable advantage to fudging beyond recommendation.
     
  11. mikewithaprius

    mikewithaprius New Member

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    Classy.
     
  12. GSW

    GSW PRIUS POWER

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    Jim, good advice from all the PC members above. get the oil changed, your 2K overdue.
     
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  13. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    [​IMG]
     
  14. DaYooper

    DaYooper Member

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    It's interesting, Toyota's requirement of 10k in the Prius where the engine is running only part of the time, but it is also 10k for the 5.7L tundra that is operating all the time and at heavier loads. Seems like the prius interval should be longer.
     
  15. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    Yes but how do you guarantee the engine is not on fully? If it was a 10k mile highway drive, it would be on more than 10k of average driving. Likewise 10k worth of < 60s trips, would be 100% engine running.
     
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  16. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    You're both in the wrong, and you're both being asses when you don't have to.
    Sorry, but that's how it looks from this end.

    You spent extra money and put Mobile-One GEN-U-INNNE synthetic earl in your car.
    Good for you!
    It's pretty good stuff. I run it in my Harley.
    You could probably leave it in the crankcase until your motor gets to 60K and not have an lubrication related failure (until later).
    So instead of resetting the oil life monitor yourself, and waiting 3K miles to bring your car in for service, you have to threaten to sick your lawyer on the dealer for reminding you that you have to maintain service intervals to maintain warranty coverage?????
    I would have laughed at you too.
    I would have also noted in whatever electronic file that they maintain for your vehicle that you exceeded the maintenance intervals, just in case you suck a valve at 59,999 miles.

    The dealer should have written the order down telling you that you can bring it in at 25K, making all the usual snide comments about idiot customers BEHIND YOUR BACK, and sent you on your way.

    Like I said.
    You're both acting like six year olds.
     
  17. stevemcelroy

    stevemcelroy Active Member

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    Turn it around - what if they said that was fine and you had a problem down the road and Toyota did not honor the warranty claim? They would be absolutely crazy to tell you anything but the official line from Toyota - cause you know, these days some people are crazy, stupid litigious.

     
  18. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    My understanding, in discussions with several Toyota service departments, is that it's the records that count, not who does it. As long as you can prove the oil was changed, should it ever be necessary to prove such a thing, that's the important part. There's no issue with you doing it yourself. I've kept the sales slips for my oil filters, and I have a collection of used filters with the km scratched into them. Although, now that the car is long out of warranty, I may as well get rid of them.
     
  19. oldasdust

    oldasdust Member

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    Hour meters would probably be better in all vehicles. How many times is the engine running in most vehicles when the wheels are not rolling ???
     
  20. 32kcolors

    32kcolors Senior Member

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    This part isn't correct. You can DIY as long as you have the records to prove it. You can enter this yourself in service history on mytoyota.