Synthetic or regular oil change?

You do not need an oil change yet. Toyota calls 10,000 mile, or a year, change intervals in the US.
The Camry calls for 0W20, which is only available in synthetic. Personally, I think a 5W20 regular oil is fine when the time comes, if you don't mind the engine being a little less efficient. There is a big if involving the warranty in the unlikely event of major engine issues in doing so though.

 

What is the oil viscosity written on your oil cover, and or what does the manufacturer specify? These are some of the questions you got to know.




Dxta

 

Congrats! I did the same 2 weeks ago from RI to Dallas. I checked my oil after the trip and it still looks new. I'm at 2,970 miles in 2 weeks. I'm planning to change it at 5,000 miles at the dealer so they can inspect and refill all fluids. Then I will use Synthetic 0w20 oil and a Fram synthetic oil filter. Found out my build date uses the cartridge style filter so I will have to purchase a tool to remove it.

Don't forget to post the price you paid in the sticky prices paid thread.

 

You definitely don't need an oil change right away.

Toyota recommends oil change (if you are using synthetic oil), every 10,000 miles or one year whichever comes earlier. But, personally I am not comfortable changing it only once in an year (partly due to the old fashioned mentality of 3 months or 3000 miles, which is of course outdated). So, I plan to do it once every six months or 5,000 miles whichever comes earlier. In view of that, I plan to use regular oil once and synthetic oil next time.

p.s. I am not an expert. This is just my personal common sense idea.

 

Go ahead and change, it’s a new motor, your dime, Toyota pays at 10,000 and 20,000 miles.
Use synthetic, Mobil 1 0-20, or let the dealer, Your dime, they will use mobil1 0-20.

 

The engines today aren't the engines of yore. I'd change the oil at the specified time and use synthetic.

 

While it is extremely unlikely to have an engine failure, I'd stick with the required products at least during the warranty period. 0W-20 oil, which is only synthetic (any good brand), and Toyota branded oil filters. Fram filters aren't my favorites, and there is no such thing as a synthetic oil filter--that's just marketing hype. (Fram is foreign owned---Graeme Hart of New Zealand, the Rank Group, owns it.) Yes, I know about the Magnusson-Moss warranty act. You can use any brand of product. But, in the very unlikely chance of an oil filter failure, the oil filter maker is on the hook for damages. Who needs that kind of grief getting things covered, no matter how slight?

I ran my '96 Volvo turbo for 202,000 miles before I sold it, and I ran 10,000 mile oil drain intervals. The engine was still internally clean, tight, and strong. About every other year I sent an oil sample to a testing lab for analysis. The samples always came back with good results and said the oil was "Good for continued service" even after 10,000 miles.

Toyota gave us the most simple minded way of determining the oil drain interval. None of us know how many of those miles the engine ran, nor how hard, how hot, how cold the engine ran. Toyota could have given us a hour meter for oil changes, or total gallons of fuel consumed, or an algorithm based on usage, but sorry, none of the above. 1-year makes no good sense, but that's OK. 10,000 miles makes little sense also when do don't know how much was electric and how much was engine operation. I've run industrial diesel engines where some had the same oil for several years. The testing lab showed that the oil remained good.

Stick with 1-year or 10,000 miles, 0W-20 oil, and Toyota labeled oil filters. You can't go wrong.

 

Follow manufacturer's guidelines. (Read the manual)

 

There are synthetic filters. It refers to the material, and is the same as is with clothing. Cellulose or plastic based.

 

By my current calculations, when my Prime has 10,000 miles on it, I will have used less than 3 tanks of gas unless I do some cross-country driving. I doubt there will be enough engine wear to make the oil change color from when it was factory fresh.

 

Oil is not immune to the effects of oxygen, and neither is the crankcase hermetically sealed. Water makes its way into it, and if you aren't running the ICE much, it will stay around.

 

I have always used only Toyota OEM filters, I buy them online in bulk and can usually get a good price either on Amazon or also a lot of Toyota dealers sell parts online, just do a Google search on the Toyota part number for the filter and you will find a lot of places to buy them. I usually get a box of 10 which lasts a long time. I just did a quick search on the Prime's filter, the most I found was five-packs but seemed like a good price works out to just under $5 each including shipping. If you can get a better price at your local dealer with a coupon or something that's good too just be sure to buy a whole bunch of them when you get a good price not just a couple.

 

But what if you barely have 100 Gas Miles on the oil at 10,000 miles?

That sounds wrong.

 

Maybe only 100 gas miles but you would still have 10,000 "air miles"

 

Air and water is still going to get to the oil with that little engine use. Ideally, every car would have an oil life monitor system like GM and Honda use to reduce waste from oil being changed too soon. Most of the others choose to cut costs over using such. Even with it, the monitor in a Volt will call for an oil change after two years no matter the amount of time the engine ran.

 

Oil degrades very, very little from just sitting in an engine. I've had industrial diesel engines with much more sitting time than running time, and even in the tropics the lab results said that the oil remained good for years. The occasional running is enough to warm the oil and force out any moisture. The one year warranty requirement to change the oil isn't a bad idea to get everything looked over. And, keep in mind that the dealerships need us to get into the habit of getting all work done there...the service department at the dealership is the gold mine for the owner.

 

But what if that 1 year oil change has only ~ 300 gasser miles on the oil?
That's throwing away perfectly fine synthetic oil. (Bring it home for the lawn tractor!)
Plus you have to take the time to go the dealership and be exposed to Car Salesmen,,,,,, once a year

Some more advanced PHEV's have a simple time and miles on the gasser 'Oil Life Monitor' system allowing 2 year oil change intervals.
Even that may be throwing good oil away....

 

The point is if you want to keep it under warranty, change it 1 year or 10k miles. Once it's out of warranty you can do whatever you like.

 

Oil doesn't needs to be changed because it stopped being slippery. It is because additives get used up. One of those additives is a base. Water is going to get into the oil; there is no stopping it. When it does, it reacts with the little charred bits than make oil turn black, or other combustion by-products, to form acids. The base additive neutralizes them before they can cause harm. Anti-seize compounds are another additive that gets used up over time.

That said, I believe Toyota's oil change schedule is excessive for PHEVs, and even hybrids. The issue with going longer is in the rare event of needing warranty work on the engine. Not following the manufacturer's schedule can give the company grounds to cancel warranty coverage for the repair. If you want to extend the change interval while still warranty, I recommend having oil analysis done for CYA.

GM's, and I believe Honda's, monitor is not a simple time and miles on the engine measurement. They also take into account engine and ambient temperatures, plus the load on and speed of the engine. This data is compared to tables of known consumption rates of a commonly used anti-seize additive.