Full synthetic necessary for 2008 Prius? If using full synthetic, is 5k interval still needed?

In my 260,000 Gen 209 Prius for about the last 25 or 30,000 mi I've been running the semi-synthetic and doing 10,000 mi oil changes pretty uneventful nothing has happened The oil doesn't even get a lot dirtier or smell a lot worse than when I take it out at 5000 with this many miles on the vehicle that just seems silly to keep the cost higher I also run cheap tires oh well they serve me very well too. So I'm okay with it this is not like a BMW M3 or anything like that so we're not looking for $210 a piece tires

 

At 60,000 a year you will soon be at 300,000. If the plan is to try for two or more years, I would stay with synthetic. A lot depends on how much major maintenance was done in the last 100,000 (year and a half). New not rebuilt hybrid battery? Brake booster changed? What would you do if the engine blows? Replace the car or the engine?

Desire short term savings? Use any $29.95 oil change they sell. Long term desired? Stay with quality.

Personally I would be planning on getting a ten year newer car a year from now. Uber is paying you to depreciate your car at an accelerated rate. The car won't last more than a couple years without many thousands sunk back into it.

 

I thought a gin too. Was too old for Uber or DoorDash or any of that nonsense that's why I bought my wife a 2010 or maybe it's 2007 I could be wrong but anyway that's why I bought the 10 because she has a three or four good years of use of the 2010 and then she'll be having to buy a newer car but by then she'll be out of that gig because it's not working out like she thought it never does so there's that. But I also attest that's why my 2010 hasn't faltered as an at a head gasket failure etc because it stays on the road it doesn't have time to sit around in the driveway it barely gets 6 hours and it's back out again on 10,000 mi oil changes is like every 63 days or something along those lines it has been 90 before but it's become less and less as she rolls more and more and there's barely a scratch on the car it's just the 2010 with solar roof and JBL stereo and sunroof I do like the sunroof and she's claiming she gets about 49 somewhere right in there and she drives like she would get 49 she is never been one to be moving.

 

I always thought with older engines to make your oil changes more frequent (to prevent sludge buildup and contaminants). Using synthetic or non synthetic probably wouldn't matter as much with our Prius cars, they are not very high performance, they just need good lubrication. My 2008 with 215k miles, I change oil every 4000 miles. I do lots of stop and go driving so it's in the "severe" maintenance schedule. I would think uber would be very similar.

 

The word "synthetic" is used once in the Second Gen Owner's Manual (on page 387), to describe a kind of cleaning cloth. It is not used at all, in the Maintenance Booklet.

 

My 2008 gen2 came with conventional oil. I had to specify synthetic every time I took it to the dealer. But that car never burned excessive oil. All cars burn oil but at a rate that is often hidden by the accumulated fuel and condensate in the oil. Which is the primary reason to change modern oils that rarely breakdown.

 

The brake booster is your brake by wire master cylinder, brake ecu and hydraulic pump. Both gen2 and gen3 have problems with them at high miles, often costing $2,500.

If you don't want to change the oil and filter yourself, one synthetic oil strategy to save money is to get a low cost manual oil extractor and suck it out through the dipstick. Change the oil only at the first 5,000 mile interval without getting under the car and let someone the change oil and filter at the 10,000 mile interval.

 

Is this what you do?

 

Per my Toyota dealer’s instructions, I change the oil and filter on my 2007 every five months or 5,000 miles with conventional oil. The time constraint seems a bit tight to me but so be it if it’s just insurance.

Have just shy of 200k miles on it. Prior two owners did the same according to records. No problems seen by me so far. No oil consumption apparent from dipstick inspection. I inspected and changed PCV valve a while back and it was clean. Figured I’d change it at that time as I already had it apart. Best time to do this is when changing plugs at 120k miles probably since it’s right there.

Local dealer just raised their oil and filter charge to $38. They also don’t overfill the oil as some jiffy shops might. Seems cheap to me.

 

I have the extractor to pull oil for oil sample analysis. It is more representative when hot and freshly mixed.

I normally let somebody change the oil for me. While I can and have done all aspects of car repair in my younger days, my expertise in other areas quickly became a more valuable use of time. Plus I have never owned a lift, an essential tool of the pros.

However I fully extracted the oil once as a volume test. I was able to extract considerably more volume than the drain method. The filter volume also was extracted but obviously not the filter. Since the oil is the contaminated fluid, extraction works pretty well.