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Toyota 0W-20 Motor Oil Not Available

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Rickinohio, Feb 1, 2023.

  1. Rickinohio

    Rickinohio Junior Member

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    I checked several Toyota dealers here in NE Ohio: they tell me they no longer have quarts of the Toyota 0W-20 synthetic motor oil, they are only carrying bulk oil for their service departments. Anybody else have this issue? If so, what are you doing, using "name brand" oil?
     
  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    We've had "name brand" oil in ours for the past 45k miles, no problems at all. We used the free Toyota oil changes for the first 24k miles or whatever it was, everything since has been DIY in the driveway.

    I buy on price; there's 5 or 6 big brands I trust and invariably one of them is in stock for a reasonable price nearby. Never had any reason to question the quality of any of them.
     
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  3. mikey_t

    mikey_t Active Member

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    I've always heard that Toyota just rebrands Mobil 1 oil. Whenever my local dealership is out of stock I pick up Mobil 1 from the Autozone in my neighborhood.
     
  4. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    When it comes to a very low performing Prius engine, any quality synthetic oil with the correct grade would be good. No thermal breakdown to speak of when you're talking about a lowly Prius engine
     
  5. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    That would surprise me a bit, as most of the other Japanese automakers are rebranding Idemitsu- and that's a great product, wouldn't hesitate to use it but it's rarely for sale around here.
     
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  6. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Yes. Positively, absolutely. It doesn't even have to be that exact weight.
    5W20 would be fine too.

    There is nothing unique or better about a manufacturers branded oil.
    Really there isn't.
     
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  7. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Name Brand oil will be fine, make sure the bottle has the ilsac api sn certifications. One feller bought an off brand oil that’s “compatible” with the certifications listed :eek:
     
  8. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    If all you have to think about is your oil brand I would say get in the driver seat and keep driving the worry is not worth your trouble Toyota oil are you kidding me they are in probably lies the problem what are you trying to do run everything with a Toyota brand on it so when there's a problem you believe you can storm into the Toyota dealer and make one of these online videos I guess unfortunately that's not how any of this works but I guess carry on. You want oil that meets the ASTM or SAE standards that your manufacturer states should be required for your given ice engine it's pretty much that simple It doesn't matter if RCA or Mitsubishi or Mobil 1 or Agip makes it
     
  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I “was” using Toyota 0W20 exclusively, since new, first bottled, then bulk (brought my own container, had service fill it). Prices were very reasonable till about 2 years back, then started escalating.

    threw in the towel when it went well past $10 CDN per liter; went with Kirkland oil through Costco: two-pack of 5 US quarts (10 quarts), for $60 CDN IIRC.

    ok, see it’s $65 CDN now. This was on my sons card, and that was with free delivery.

    Sad bit though: I really liked the bulk oil, not only cus it was cheap (as low as ~$3 CDN per liter), but it avoided creating oil contam’d bottles.
     

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    #9 Mendel Leisk, Feb 2, 2023
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2023
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  10. ColoradoBoo

    ColoradoBoo Senior Member

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    Yep, sometimes I can't find Toyota Oil, either, especially 0W-16 for my newer Prius. When I can't, I got with Mobile 1 and seems to be lasting good until the next 5,000 mile change.
     
  11. Rickinohio

    Rickinohio Junior Member

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    Thanks for all the replies & suggestions! I agree with just about everything said.

    Somewhere in my quest to "do the right thing" to squeeze every last mile out of my vehicles I ran across an article regarding engine oil and other lubricants from a fairly credible source. They were of the opinion that many manufacturers (Ford, GM, Toyota, Kubota, New holland, etc.) tweaked their oil specs to whoever actually made the oil to fine tune it to their own vehicles or equipment. Does it make any difference? My thought is maybe instead of 1,000,000 miles maybe I'll get 1,000,050 miles on a particular vehicle by staying with the OEM lubricants. So I've always stayed with the OEM stuff (especially during warranty to avoid any potential bs arguements) as long as it was available and they didn't gouge me too bad in the wallet.

    I was kind of curious though whether or not the non-availabilty of the Toyota 0W-20 was just a local thing or if maybe it was just some sort of decision by Toyota to quit catering to DIYers or maybe even some sort of lingering pandemic/supply chain issue.

    So like most of you, I'll do what I did in the past and go for an available, reasonably priced and certified brand oil at one of the cheap big box stores around here ("Wally World"o_O) when OEM is no longer a viable option.
     
  12. mikey_t

    mikey_t Active Member

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    There's been a few threads specifically about it in the past, here is one:

    Genuine Toyota Motor Oil vs Mobil 1 | PriusChat

    Though it is possible that Toyota does have a custom recipe of additives for their brand-name oil.
     
  13. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Could be? I haven't been worried about it at all, never made any effort to buy any lube that wasn't mass-produced by at least a few manufacturers. Plenty on offer anywhere you go these days, all perfectly acceptable for the Prius.
     
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  14. nicoj36

    nicoj36 Active Member

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    I used oem Toyota oil religiously until I tried Mobil 1 advanced fuel economy and never looked back. Runs way better.
     
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  15. KamiKKazi

    KamiKKazi Member

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    Project farm did a whole series on youtube on which oil is the best. Amsoil signature series came out on top followed by pennzoil ultra platinum. I use both and still have my 2010 prius with its original engine and one head gasket replacement at about 130k currently at 242k. Right now I am running the pennzoil platinum (not ultra platinum). I like the pennzoil because it is made from natural gas, so supposedly it burns cleaner as my 2010 prius burns a good amount of oil.
     
  16. Todd Bonzalez

    Todd Bonzalez Active Member

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    Unless you suffer from anxiety or OCD and need Toyota-brand everything for peace of mind, any name-brand oil that meets the SAE or ACEA specifications in the handbook will do. Whatever "secret sauce" you think might be in the Toyota oil isn't going to make any difference compared to using Mobil 1 or whatever. We're not talking about Lamborghini engines here :ROFLMAO:

    I use Castrol Magnatec Stop/Start :LOL:
     
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  17. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    Been using 5w/30 for the last couple of hundred thousand miles, any brand as long as API sn spec fully synthetic... Ni issues to report
    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  18. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    Me and its been great
    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  19. Rickinohio

    Rickinohio Junior Member

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    UPDATE: Went to the dealer yesterday on another issue and chatted with the parts guy: he said they have had the quarts on order now for over a year. He indicated that it's a pandemic/supply chain issue and thinks that sometime in the future it'll be in stock again.

    The price at the dealer was usually only a tad higher then Mobil 1 or other big brand oils so if they get it in stock by my next oil change (in about a year from now) I'll stay OEM, otherwise I'll join the rest of the civilized world and go with one of the alternatives as others have done here.
     
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  20. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Which is the case of ALL "true" synthetic oils.
    But given the tangles of the legal system, it is hard to tell which is which these days.
     
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