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Scheduled Maintenance, by date or mileage?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by ZC1, Jun 17, 2008.

  1. ZC1

    ZC1 Junior Prius Owner

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    According to the owner's manual, I'm recommended to have dealer servicing at 5,000 miles or 6 months, which ever is earlier.
    The same for the next 5,000 miles or 6 months, so on and so on.

    There is no way I'll be able to put on 5,000 miles every 6 months, so do I take the car in every 6 months as the owner's manual says, or do I take it in every 5,000miles if I was to accumulate that mileage before 6 months is up?

    On a crazier note, do I take it in every 6 months, then at the 5,000 interval too, assuming the 6 months always comes up first?
    As in, brought in at 6 month marker, another 4 months passes and I reach 5,000, do I take it in now or wait for another 2 months which would be my 12 month schedule?
    (I can make it more confusing, if you wish...hehe...)

    My dentist tries the same old trick. He and the Hygienst wants, badgers and almost demands to see me every 6 months. I simply refuse, taking 8 months, sometimes one year or more.

    Every time I go in they both say "Wow, we don't know what you are doing, but keep it up, you've got great teeth, gums and hygiene. There's nothing for us to do.....Well, except to charge you a hygienst fee and dentist fee for telling ya this stuff."
    :mad:

    ZC1
     
  2. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    During the warranty period, I suggest that you have service performed as specified by Toyota, i.e., at the earlier of 5,000 miles or 6 months.

    In your case, that would normally mean every six months even though you haven't driven that much. However if you take a road trip vacation and log 5,000 miles before the six month interval is up, then have the car serviced at the 5K mile interval, instead of waiting for six months to elapse.

    Whenever you have the car serviced, then the timer resets. So the next service would be performed 5K miles later, or six months later, whichever event comes first.
     
  3. morpheusx

    morpheusx Professor Chaos

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    I agree with the above poster. If you were out of warranty I would just make sure to use a Quality Synthetic oil and go at 7500 or 12 months in your conditions.
     
  4. ZC1

    ZC1 Junior Prius Owner

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    Again, that is going to be alot of unnecessary servicing there, Pat.
    6 months, then 5,000(at 10 month marker), then 2 months later (12month marker) then 6 months later, then 10,000 (at 21 month marker)...on and on and on....

    ZC1
     
  5. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Hi ZC1,

    No. Suppose you service the car at 10 months. The timer resets. Hence the next service would be performed at either 16 months, or 5,000 miles from the 10 month mark.
     
  6. ZC1

    ZC1 Junior Prius Owner

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    I asked my wife, who is no car expert.
    She said "You're always gonna be at the dealer in that case" so she suggested "What ever schedule you hit first, whether 6 months or 5,000 miles, maintain that schedule instead."

    Pat, so when I get/need warranty work, and the service manager says "Oh....so I see you didn't come in for your 12month servicing...okaaayyy", I will have to delve into a long story about how I'm managing my service times.
    Eeek..

    ZC1
     
  7. morpheusx

    morpheusx Professor Chaos

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    You're making it too complicated. Pretend you bought your Prius on January 15th and now its 6 months later July 15th You only drove 3500 miles in that time.vvYou would need to go ahead and get the oil changed. The reason is because its not just wear that degrades the oil, but also water moisture from the air and even a bit of unburned gasoline occasionally gets in the oil and really can make it start to sludge if it isn't changed. If a car is used more frequently the water vaporizes and it isn't an issue and it breaks down more from wear and metal particles mixing in the oil.
    You don't follow one schedule you follow whatever comes first since the last change if you drove 5000 miles in 2 months after an oil change you would change it, then your schedule resets and if 6 months pass and you barely drove the car again you would change it again. In your case it seems like you will most likely change the oil twice a year because of time.

    If you are not concerned about the warranty aspects if you were to need a warranty repair on your engine (unlikely given its only 60,000 miles on the powertrain) you really wouldn't go wrong if you used a good quality Synthetic oil like Mobil-1 or Castrol Syntec 5w 30 or (0w 30) and just change it once per year if you are driving less then about 7500 a year.
     
  8. rsforkner

    rsforkner Member

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    I had this same issue with my Camry, pre-Prius. By taking it in at the prescribed time interval I was up to the 20,000 mile service at a little over 12,000 miles. Next time I go in the service adviser schedules a 15K service then says, "Wait, you already did that. I guess we do the 20K. Wait, that's already been done." When I sold the car it had 18K and service through 25K had been completed. It was all very confusing.

    The problem was that while the manual says 6 months the data stored in the Toyota computer is set up for the number of miles. It was a real workout every time I went in, trying to decide exactly what should be done.

    Sometimes I felt like I should just drive around the block a few thousand times just to run up the miles to make it simpler.


    Bob
     
  9. bbald123

    bbald123 Thermodynamics Law Enforcement

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    The reasoning behind the time interval is that water builds up in the oil when the engine is not brought to optimum operating temperature and held there for a sufficient period of time.

    The hard part is knowing what is "sufficient" since that varies with environmental conditions. I'd recommend doing the 6 months.
     
  10. ZC1

    ZC1 Junior Prius Owner

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    Here's my dealers service managers explanation, I called him today:
    "Forget what the book says about the 6 months interval. What if you only drive a few miles a day, you haven't put enough mileage on it to get the oil dirty. We get people in here like that all the time, retired folks, housewife, they don't put much mileage on but coming in every 6 months for servicing is crazy since they hardly use the car. Sir, just use the mileage figures, come in at 5,000 miles, then 10,000 miles, Toyota will not ding you because you didn't come in every 6 months. The book is wrong."
    I ask "Do your computers use the month interval or the mileage as the indicator of service"?
    He says "Only the mileage", "so don't worry about it, use the mileage figures and you will be fine."
    My response "If the computers only use mileage figures to track maintenance then I guess that answers that."

    ZC1
     
  11. Nords

    Nords Member

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    The problem is that the manager's explanation is a load of crap.

    We're retired on a 600 sq mi island and I'm lucky if we put 3000 miles on the car in a year. Most of the driving is 30 minutes or less at under 50 mph, and at least half our driving is 10 minutes at under 30 mph. The oil doesn't heat up enough to drive off the water vapor and fuel that gets into it, let alone circulate through the filter enough for a thorough cleaning.

    A typical oil change for us (every six months) is 1500-2000 miles. The oil is filthy. If it came out cleaner then I'd be more inclined to agree with the service manager.

    I wonder if he'd be happy to transcribe his phone chat into a signed statement that you can use with Toyota for warranty service...