Changed oil; disagree with posted instructions :)

Lawnmower
Congrats on doing it yourself.

 

Lawn mower uses a different viscosity - save it for your next Prius oil change. I do not jack up my 2002 either. Very easy oil and filter change on this car.

 

I jack up the drivers' side a *little* bit just to get a little
extra working room underneath. That not only raises the front
end a few inches, it tilts toward the direction of oil drain,
but really only unweights the springs a little and doesn't pick
the entire car off the ground.
.
_H*

 

My first change also was done with the car on the ground. But I'm a pretty big guy, and it was nice to have the extra room that ramps provide. I put them on a downhill stretch of the yard -- to keep the car level front-to-back -- and stagger them so that, like with Hobbit's method, the driver's side is higher.

Regardless, congrats on your first oil change!

 

I must be fat.

Or claustrophobic.

Or both(?).

I'm definitely a jacker-upper.

And just put 3.5 quarts in. And put the calculator away. Eyeball measure
works pretty good for me.

Cool avatar, by the way.

 

Oh, right, the other trick -- if you remove the top cover from
the air box and pull out the filter, you open up enough room
for the bottom end of the oil bottle as you start tipping it
to pour into the fill hole. Eliminates any need for the funnel
if you're careful, although I still pack part of a rag around
the fill hole to catch anything if I miss at the beginning of
the pour.
.
_H*

 

I have found that 3.5 qts puts the level about 3/4 distance between the low and full marks on the dipstick. Which is good. I think about 3.7 qts would be right at full. 3.9 qts would be too high.

I had the dealership do the first oil change - they filled it too high and left the aforementioned oily fingerprints on the air cleaner housing. Now I change it myself, but I do use the ramps - I'm too thick to make it easily otherwise + I can inspect the CV boots, etc. while I'm under there.

 

I just use a funnel and 3.5 quarts. That's plenty of oil.

 

Congrats. But, why did you change oil at 1000 miles? It is supposed to be done every 5000 miles.

 

Though 1k miles seems too early even for the break-in oil, congrat on your first oil change! Did you switch to Synthetic as well as using other oil filter (or OEM still)?

I'm still running my break-in oil, but I plan to change around 2k instead to utilize the oil and the filter for rinsing first.

 

Constant Velocity (CV) joints have a rubber "boot" which keeps the grease in and dirt out of the joint. You can find one at each end of the axle for a total of 4 CV boots. If you find a tear in one of the boots early enough, it may be possible to repair it before the CV joint is damaged.

Also, the ball joints and tie rod ends have a rubber boot for the same reason (to keep grease in and dirt out). These can't be replaced without replacing the ball joint or tie rod end.

Finally, there is a boot on each end of the steering rack to keep dirt out.

 

Re:

Sounds as if you are on the right track with maintenance; I also agree with you regarding conventional oil.

What color Prius did you get? As you and another poster mentioned, you have a fun avatar and maybe it's time to re-shoot it with the Prius in the background

 

Quite right, it's just regular oil.

I simply refer the first oil in (any) new car as 'break-in' oil anyway....as you mentioned, engines may have some 'dirt' left over during manufacturing and running during the first couple of thousand miles. So I'll wait for this oil/filter to rinse off and filter out as much dirty stuff before I change it to something else for longer haul.

 

I went to a new owners clinic at my Toyota dealer. They told us that the oil that comes in a new Toyota is heavier, as well as having certain additives. They also advised against changing it before 5,000 miles (sorry cyberprius). They say the oil helps in the break-in perioid.

 

Interesting. My dealer gave me a complimentary 1K oil change to assure cleanout of metal shavings, similar to what Cyberprius cites: