Oil Change. You be the judge

Well UOAs do tell the story. Of course that will be different in each circumstance but in general they tell the story. In most cases, the oil is getting pretty used up by 10K in the Prius on the average.

 

Oil changes are NOT that expensive. I'd do what you propose just for "peace of mind."

 

I don't know. On a new vehicle, I'm following manufacturers recommendations if only to maintain warranty. Outside of warranty I'm following Toyota's recommendation because as pointed out Oil Changes are relatively inexpensive.

Why spend 20,000-30.000 + for a vehicle and then try to save a few bucks on oil changes?

I'd rather be accused of changing too often...than push Oil Changes beyond recommendations just because "I" think it's possible. In other words, I'd rather be wrong about changing too often, than right about not having to change as often. No harm if I'm wrong about the first scenario. Possible damage if I'm wrong about the second. And at less than $50 once or twice a year, it's a very acceptable cost of maintenance.

 

Are you in the United States? Here it's every 10k miles, not 7k.

 

5K is a service warning. Tire rotation every 5K and oil change every 10K.

 

Guys at work are running 15k on synthetic oil I would worry about the oil filter plugging up and going to bypass that would be a problem........... Mazda says 7500 miles Prius is now at 10k. with the engine not always running 10k seems fine to me..........

 

I for one will continue to change my oil at 5k intervals. It gives me more peace of mind and gives me a reason to check the underside of the car for leaks, etc.

We use UOA at work on mechanical equipment religously but still have some premature failures. Like you, I also have concerns about the life of the oil filters.

I will let the rest of you continue to test the life of the oil and filters

 

Bottom line, do what's comfortable for you in terms of money, what's recommended vs not recommended and what you think about it. Every prius owner has it's own opinion with regards to what he/she might think about a certain maintenance procedure. You can stretch your oil change intervals to over 10k. But for me, it does not give me peace of mind. jdcollins5 posted a good reason why you should change oil intervals as recommended or every 5K which I do because I plan to keep my prius as long as I can. But it always boils down to " to each his own". I always do my maintenance methods based on my previous experience when I change oil regularly @ 5k or 7K.

 

I am not an expert on lubes but if you are going to extend drain interval, you might want to check for A5/B5 quality rating, which I believe means qualified for extended drain. The problem with this, I have not seen too many 0w-20 and 5W-20 with the A5/B5 rating. So there's a hint for you. The Gen2 the 5W-30 and 0W-30 do have the A5/B5 on Mobil-1 anyways. Even on Gen2 I would not extend drain past 7-10k becuase I have a feeling it picks up gasoline as a contaminant (Gen3 may be better there).

 

I have never changed oil every 3k FYI. I always do it on 5k or 7K when my reminder light tells me for convenience - don't need to write the mileage on a sticker or write it down in my maintenance log book. Driving style aside, your engine depends on the oil pretty much and you can argue when to change and when not to change at a certain number of miles. If you are happy about what you do with your maintenance procedure, be it. I was able to hang on my 1996 camry until it got to 365,000 miles and that is where my experience came from. Whether it be a new type of vehicle or not, an engine still needs oil. I don't think you can argue that new oil is better than old oil. As stated earlier, regardless of what the recommendations, what we hear, see and observe, it always boils down to " to his each own" and nothing "sounds fishy" unless someone rips you off from the stealership or your local change oil shop.

BTW, I even added this to my prius . Magnetic oil drain plug installed | PriusChat

 

When Toyota first came out with the 2010 Prius in mid-2009 the recommended oil change interval listed in the manual was 5k miles. Once customers started complaining about the higher cost of the synthetic oil and the fact that UOA of synthetic oil had indicated that it was good for 10k+ miles, Toyota came back in early 2010 and changed the interval to 10k miles. They sent out new Warranty and Maintenance manuals to indicate the change to 10k intervals.

Nothing fishy about this. This sounds more like a marketing decision to me than an engineering decision.

 

Toyota did change the standard from every 5k to 10K miles after the Gen III debuted. Early adopters of the 2010 were forced to change every 5K even with synthetic oil if we wanted to keep our warranty so it used to be much worse.

 

No, they are not the same. They are Better.

 

If you have to change your oil to 15k, make sure you have a "high mileage oil filter" which the manufacturer does not offer. Maybe you also need to install a magnetic oil drain plug to help out too which I'm doing to see for myself as posted in post #15. In another forum site, a member used the magnetic drain plug and showed decrease amounts of iron content of his oil after an oil analysis was done. Here's an article from Edmund's - When Should You Change Your Oil - Edmunds.com