Change oil at 1000 miles?

In a previous 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid I had, I changed the oil every 10,000 miles like the manual indicated. Drove it for 258,000 miles over 8 years before I sold it to my brother. He drove it for another 60,000 miles until the transmission gave out. That was a weird 4 cylinder engine; had 8 spark plugs.

I definitely won't be going 10,000 miles between changes for the Prime. My guesstimate is that for every 1,000 miles I drive, the engine will only be used 50-60% of the miles.

 

The battery survived all that, without driving you nuts with “recalibration events”?

our 06 (second gen) started recals quite early, finally threw a code, around 200k kms (in our sons hands), got a replacement battery and wasn’t long before it was recal’ing just as bad.

transmission packed it in around 245k and it was traded-in for something new, basically scrap value.

 

The 4 cylinder in the old Ranger had 8 plugs. Pretty sure it was Mazda supplied. The main reason for it is better efficiency and emissions.
Why do some engines have two spark plugs per cylinder?

If that is going to be a consideration on when to change the oil, then also consider the engine use cycle could end up being the equivalent of a short trip. Those result in more moisture in the oil, which leads to faster degradation and consumption of protective additives.

 

As long as I'm plugging Honda, their Maintenance Minder system is pretty cool, others should maybe look into it:

Maintenance Schedule Download for Your Honda Vehicle | Honda Canada

In the above click on this for more info:

 

The battery pack was definitely showing it's age, starting at about 150,000 miles. My brother took the pack out from behind the rear passenger seat, and replaced all the defective D-cells.

For the transmission, I changed out the fluid every 90,000 miles like the manual indicated. Never noticed any slipping and neither did my brother until it went belly up at around 318,000 miles.

 

Honda Canada replaced ours gratis (I think there'd been a court procedure obliging them to do this); only had to pay approx $150 CDN labour to dealership. The new one was soon a pain though.

I've pulled discussion off-topic, sorry.

 

GM has a similar oil life monitoring system. Seen at least one report where a lab analysis of the oil agreed with its call to change the oil.

 

They allowed me to do it at my local dealership with with my G4. They said recommend blah, blah. I said, I want my oil changes. I believe it was X number of oil changes or X miles, or 2 years; whichever comes first.

I remember asking for it at the first recommended service appt. which is 5k miles. I think I did it at 10k after that, and then I went in a few days short of the 2-year mark and said change it again (well under 10k). They complied.

This time I'll push for 6 mo. changes. Perhaps the terms will have changed and they'll tell me to pound sand. But they were fairly generous in the past.

 

Pretty sure Toyota USA just "owes" you two free oil changes, judging by their scheduled maintenance. We don't have that quandry up here, no freebies, no odometer alert either.

 

I believe so, I had it when I got my 2021 but was NOT happy when I asked if they did the break-in oil change and they said no and then they told me the only thing they did at 5,000 miles was to rotate the tires? What? They said they only did oil changes at 10,000 miles. So I did my own oil changes at 1,000 and 5,000 and let them do the 10,000 oil change and rotation and the dealership screwed that up...put in 0W-20 instead of 0W-16 and overfilled it by over a quart!

That was my last visit to the dealership for service.

 

Why give them a hard time; they're abiding by the Toyota USA schedule.

If you want to do extras just DIY them, or pay dealership or whoever, but don't expect free lunches lol.

 

My first oil change is due at 8000km of those 8000km I'd say 2000 were using the gas engine.

 

No, you don't need to. However, drive as gently as possible during the first 1,000 miles, and keep the speed below 57 mph (55 mph actual) if you can—that's the most important thing you can do for break-in.

Wear metals in the oil will be high for first few ten thousands of miles, but that's normal.

 

Drive it like you stole from day 1

 

I found out today the first oil change is actually at 16000km

 

As far as the OP is concerned, Priuses have an oil filter and their engines are not hand built.
There's not pounds and pounds of leftover metal shavings from the machining process to worry about, and the oil filter itself is pretty good at trapping stuff anyway.
If it were MY car I would develop a plan to change the oil at the 5,000 mile mark and every 6 months or 5,000 miles thereafter, adjusting that outwards a bit if you have a PHEV (prime) depending on the number of fuel tank fills versus battery cycles.
There is a break-in period but "break-in oil" isn't mentioned IIRC.

MY advice....for MY car.
YMMV

There's a passionate debate in the Prius community about OCIs - or Oil Change Intervals.
You can skip all of this and get on with your life if you know you're not going to put over about 120,000 miles on the car or keep it for more than about 8-10 years.
Just do what the mother ship tells you to do in the manual, when they tell you to do it.
Lather, rinse, and repeat about 10 times (meaning 10 car purchases) and you have a lifetime of care-free car ownership with little or no owner involved maintenance problems other than monitoring that your dealership sticks to the maintenance schedule, doesn't overcharge for extras, AND does things right.

That's ALSO an excellent way to fund a fairly nice early retirement plan!!!
(If you own a dealership)

Just bought a GMC and I'm thinking that I'll probably follow my own advice and change the oil the first time around 5k.
My dealership offers the first oil change for free, and they're less than 10 miles from the house but I'm not interested in hazzarding my vehicle over a $35 savings - which is sort of the whole thing about these daffy oil wars, isn't it?

GMC uses an oil life monitoring system based on a 7,500 mile OCI, and I hear people bragging about how long oil change intervals save them lots of money and all the whole thing.
...and they're right.
I usually spend $35 on an oil change. (Dexos2 oil and a GMC filter) but I like easy math so if we presume $40 for an oil change over a 200,000 mile vehicle life cycle I don't even have to take my shoes off to do the math.
It comes out to $1600 for 5,000 mile changes versus $1066 for roughly 7500 mile changes or about a $533 delta over 15+ years.
The OLMS monitors lots of things like engine run time, coolant temp, RPM, OAT, who Taylor Swift is dating etc....and so sometimes the interval will change, but based on the oil life remaining values for my 2020 when I reset them at 5,000 miles they're not changing by much.

For some people that's worth trusting the OLMS system.
For others it's betting the vehicle's life on a 1/800 savings.
ACTUAL mileage will vary but for me it's a 6-versus half-dozen argument....for a GMC.

For Priuses, it a 'slightly' different argument since you're dealing with a smaller sump and a longer OCI.

 

10k miles has been the norm for the US since the gen4, maybe even the gen3. I think Canada stayed at 5k miles because of the climate; potential of more water getting into the oil. Either Toyota Canada decided it was no longer an issue, or the gen5 has a larger oil capacity.

 

More succincltly, that is what Toyota Canada is recommending. Historically, with Gen 2, both Toyota Canada and Toyota USA recommended 8000 kms (~5000 miles) or 6 months. With gen 3 Toyota Canada kept the same interval, but Toyota USA went to 10K miles or 12 months. Then with 4th gen Toyota followed Toyota USA's lead.

Still, when the oil change happens is your decision.