Toyota engines do not need break-in oils. That was for flat-tappet engines of the long-gone past. Moreover, even the SAE 0W-8 oil today protects the valvetrain better than the SAE 20W-50 oil of the past.
I agree 100% on this one. Change the oil at 500-1000 miles using factory specified oil, not any "special" break in oil. No additives as well. It's not a bad idea to let the dealer do this with specific instructions to look for any fluid seeps or other new car defects.
I believe that the reason my Gen 3 Plug-in lithium battery lost very little capacity over 12 years, was because I did not plug it in often. I ran it in hybrid mode most of the time.
Our Hondas and this latest Toyota do have break-in period recommendations, in the Owner's Manual. That said, it's very simple, just take it easy on the brakes as much as possible, and avoid long highway road trips on flat terrain.
HV mode seems to want to keep the battery at near the same soc, so as long as you aren't keeping it at 100%, that seems like the battery would last forever. But I do look forward to using it in pure ev around town.
I bought the Prime specifically to use the EV mode as much as possible. That's where the payback and environmental benefits lie - I live in an area with cheap hydroelectric power and expensive gasoline combined with moderate speeds on most the roads i regularly drive. I would own a full EV but I wanted the gasoline hybrid optionfor long trips. I'm going to trust that Toyota has done a good job designing the battery for long life, even beyond the generous warranty period.
I have the Plugin XSE so I opted to bring it in at 1500 miles because I initially used mostly electric for the first 800ish miles. The plugin defaults to electric so had to keep remembering to engage hybrid mode or charge mode (highly inefficient mode btw).
Well… maybe? When you build an engine, the standard method is to apply assembly lube to all of the hearing surfaces. This line contains zinc, phosphorous, (ZDDP) and molybdenum… the same things used in break-in oil. It explains why we see metal in the first oil drain and it also explains why break-in oil isn’t necessary… you’re just draining out the ZDDP and replacing it with ZDDP. Go figure.
If a short-interval oil change were needed for the factory fill, Toyota would say so. There is no need to wash away the factory-fill oil. Regarding metal shavings, I don't see how they would harm the engine. They either get caught in the oil filter or eventually get drained. They only cause problems if there is a manufacturing problem, which may need a recall, and chances are that a short-interval oil change doesn’t help much.
Small metal shavings (which can be microscopic) are bad for bearings long term. Large amounts accelerate the problem as was seen with the new Tundras. Toyota is changing over100,000 of those engines. Considering Toyota will do the first two changes free on their new cars, using them early makes sense to me on our new cars.
That's an excellent point... Of course assembly lube is a very small volume compared to someone using break in oil for a race car cam shaft for example. And there's always going to be fine metal particulate when using new machinery for the first time so while I think you're mostly right, I still think the data from when we were testing proves its wise to get your trans oil swapped out at least once over the lifespan of the vehicle. I mean it may sound silly because planetary gears have no way to wear out to the point of failing, but it still makes sense and its why I'd recommend it, among many others things, if I was going to keep the same hybrid car as a daily driver for decades.
The first time I changed transaxle fluid, at about a year and 10k miles, was by far the darkest. I did a couple more, at longer intervals, seemed increasingly pointless.
