10 K Oil Change Interval?

ici's are mostly marketing tools, to compete with other manufacturers.
unfortunately, the only way to know the best thing to do for your car is an used oil analysis.
toyota changed the oil recommendation to synthetic in the gen 3, and the oct to 10k.
we have knowledgable members here who feel that 10k is leading to early wear and oil burning starting around 100k. so they are doing 5k changes.
erring on the side of caution i suppose, but there's not much scientific evidence either way.

 

Gen2 has 5k, Gen3 has 10k but both engines are known for oil consumption after 100k miles. The difference? With the Gen2, you've spent twice as much money on oil changes.

 

actually, a synthetic oil change is quite a bit more expensive.

 

That is quite a silly assumption as dealers get almost zero PM work on the brands they sell, it is mostly done DIY or by a far more convenient shop. I think the NADA puts the OE dealers share of wallet for maintenance items at well below 20%.

OCI has more to do with oil capacity and fuel consumed during the interval than most anything else. The reason is simple: The smaller the oil volume the faster it becomes contaminated. In the case of the Prius, there is a VERY small sump and filter.

 

I must have "the goose that laid the golden egg" deal up here: $4.50 (Canadian dollars, roughly $3.73 American) per liter for bulk Toyota 0W20 synthetic, or $5.91 for bottled. Through a dealership. The damn drain bolt washer is up to $2.53 though...

 

An oil change for my 2012 synthetic costs me more than twice as much versus my 2005 dino. I can get coupons for dino oil changes for $25. It runs $80 for synthetic oil in my area. Hence, I started buying the cheapest off brand garbage on Amazon and do it myself.

Anyway, I've been doing 7500 mile OCI on 1992 Honda Accord with no ill effects past 200k miles. Ditto on a 1998 Toyota Corolla part 200k recommended by the owners manual. That's why I was surprised Toyota regressed on my 2006 Corolla and Prius to 5000. I also did 10k on dino on my 2006 Civic using maintenance minder. So 10k OCI is absolutely fine by me.

All cars burn oil. A car that burns half a quart may not be noticed at 5000 miles. But at 10k it would be over a quart. This forum warned me that Prius tends to burn oil past 100k. My speculation is the reason is more a doubling of the OCI than a Prius actually burning oil. So far both of my Prius at over 135k miles exhibit negligible oil burning. Super lucky or small sample size?

 

same here, i'm over $85. and yes if you diy, you can narrow the gap significantly.

 

Maybe next time you cross into the US, pick-up a lot of drain plug washers? OR, if someone from the US will be visiting you, order the drain plug washers online, and have them shipped to the person in the US?

Prices in USD.
Camelback Toyota, $0.95/washer, 2007 Toyota Prius Parts - Camelback Toyota Parts - Genuine OEM Parts - Free Shipping
Toyota parts e-store, $1.01/washer,
Amazon; some are non OEM, but should work, some OEM. prices all over the place, but a little over $1/washer. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dautomotive&field-keywords=toyota+oil+drain+plug+gaket

If you really wanted to stretch your washer use, you could use it twice. After the first change, flip the washer over, then tighten. Some friends do this and have had no leak issues so far. To prevent a 3rd use, before flipping the crush washer over, clean the washer and use a sharpie to put a mark on the washer side that just faced the oil pan. When the oil gets changed next, you will know you can't flip this crush washer because of the sharpie mark.

 

Since you will be DIY, might as well get the better stuff, for the same cost of a few dollars more than the cheap stuff.

Use flip.com, or theit phone/tablet application, to search sale circulars for items you are interested in buying. You can request stores/websites be added, that flip does not list/search.
Here's an example of a search for "Mobil 1". You can see WrongMart has it for $22.88/5qt jug.
Flipp

Don't forget, Mobil 1, seems to always have some rebate promotion running. Although the rebates always have restrictions and approved participating retailers, you can always contact the people email/phone to see if Walmart, Costco, PepBoys, etc would be allowed. When fatwallet.com was running, people would post Mobil 1 sales and the results of their rebate submissions with retailers who were not on the approved list for the promotion.