1st oil change at 5k or 10k?

^So it could fail at 105,000 miles of course. I'm now more confused than ever on when the first change should be done.

 

I completely agree with your comments

The irony of GC 0W-20 and Mobil 1 0W-40 is that they are priced the same if not cheaper than the "Extended" North America Only versions of Mobil 1

 

Take as many time outs as you want. I am not telling anyone to change their oil on any schedule, but that poster was trying to say that it was GOOD to leave contaminated oil in the engine, and UNbelievably, that it was DAMAGING TO THE ENGINE TO CHANGE THE OIL. That is a Lie, Bad advice, lunacy, and wrong, refuting such nonsense is why we post.

 

:yield:OMG, after reading most all of this thread....I don't know whether to wring my hands or sell my Prius! 8K on it now, in five months. I changed oil & filter at 2.7K thinking I was being CARING of my new car.

Then I remembered an old farmer way back in my adolesence when I was working at a Ford dealership in my hometown. The old farmer had brought his car in for something and I had to move it. It was only a few years old w/80K ? on it. It was filthy and there was chewing tobacco stains running down the drivers door, but what I also remember is that he had NEVER CHANGED THE OIL since he bought it new! And the reason he had brought it in had NOTHING to do with no oil changes! This was an early 60's model Ford V-8, nothing special. Would I have bought this car..? I probably wouldn't have taken it if it was given to me.
I plan on letting the dealership do the 10K and again at say 17.5K. But if I still lived in the city instead of 25 miles out..... I probably would still do it at 3K intervals,... because 6 to 7K might be all the miles I'd put on it in a year, where now it's 40K split between 3 vehicles.
So....IMO, I think the interval of changes depends more on the type of driving you do, rather than some specific #. And I don't buy into the dealerships recomendations, they are only trying to maximise their earnings from you!

And Oh, WHAT IS A "TRD" oil filter?? I know TRD as: "Toyota Racing Division"....does that have anything to do with the name of this filter??

 

Same TRD, they sell an oil filter under the TRD logo. No one has done any tests to determine if it is any better or worse than the "Normal" Toyota filter that most of us use. It does cost more though.

http://www.trdparts4u.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=326829

 

Well, hell if it costs more and it has "racing" in the name, it must be a lot better than the other one. Simple logic!

 

My dealer didn't stock these, I just went with the stock filter 6 bucks!
Did my first oil change at 5K!

 

I have always changed oil at 5k...I changed my 2010 prius at 5k and will continue to do so...Cheap insurance for an engine that is always stopping and starting..

 

No one said it was good to leave contaminated oil in the engine indefinitely, I said it was recommended to leave it in until the first 10K service and gave you reasons why. You can change your oil as often as you like it's entirely up to you but perhaps you should do some reading up on fully sythetic engine oils and how they work. E.g. Modern engine oils do not deposit and spread wear particles, from the engine components, all around the engine, they hold them in suspension in the oil. The larger particles are filtered out and the smaller ones are held in suspension until the oil is changed. The life of the oil (i.e. when it becomes spent) depends on many factors and UK spec Fully synthetic oils can last 20-30K before being spent, as shown by BMW AUDI etc. having 20K service intervals. But 10K, even in severe service conditions (as in short journeys, multiple cold starts etc.) is nowhere near a Fully synthetic oil's end of life.
I know it goes against the grain for many US owners to leave their oil in for more than 5K, but that's because it's ingrained into you by the big oil companies, they're the ones, if anybody, who most likely have a conspiracy, rather than Toyota.
Do a Google on oil spot check and find out how to check your own oil on a piece of card or paper, you'll see if your oil is still good for yourself.
I say use a good spec oil and change the oil only when necessary and stop wasting the planet's resources.

 

I wanted to add for the people bringing your car into a dealer or oil change place, changing your oil early will give you twice the chance of some underpaid person screwing your car up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Again you are talking so much crap. The stuff coming out of your behind is amazing. I think I will just stop reading your posts and ignore you. It is utter stupid what you wrote.

All tech at the dealers are trained and experienced. Changing oil is so basic they can do it in their sleep, it is the one thing the capitalize so quickly.

Even private garages it is just a matter if they scam you or not meaning they might tell you they've changed it but they actually didn't but other than that everyone one who has a brain can change oil and oil filter or just a quick simple maintainance.

Do you drive a car or a prius? I feel sorry for it.

 

Again, I had a blown motor because of the Highly Qualifed tecs you talk about. They rebuilt the motor without giving me any problems, They knew they messed up and paid the $3,000 bill.

I have seen the guys at the Toyota dealers. I have went to two Toyota dealers so far. They first one overfilled oil, They spilt oil all over the top of the motor( great smell from a car with 5k on it I would like to thank the highly trained tecs you talk about for this, and didn't snap two of my wheel covers on all the way, If i didn't notice they would have flew off the car. Then at the second dealers they parked my car in a parking spot after changing the oil, they pulled it way to far over the curb, now the plastic is damaged under my car!!!!!!!!!! YEA highly trianed!!!! I know a few people that change oil for a living they make 15-20k a year their not highly trianed!!!!

I'm sure many people here would like to tell you there oil change stories, they and i'm also talking about Dealers hire people train them poorly and not pay them much, and like everything in this world you get what you pay for.

Google " they didn't tightin my oil plug"
Google " they over tourqe my wheel nuts"
Google or look around on here " they put wrong oil in"
Google " oil filter leaks after oil change"
Google " oil change place wont pay for repairs"

LAST OF ALL MY DAD WAS ALMOST KILLED BECAUSE THE OIL CHANGE TECS DIDN"T CHECK THE REAR AXEL IN HIS VAN OVER YEARS he had ten oil changes slips that said "rear axel checked", SO IT DRIED UP AND LOCKED UP WHEN DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i can go on for days about people making mistakes while doing oil changes.

Call me stupid all you want, I know everyone screws up, and oil change guys that make around 7-9$ an hour screw up alot.

Maybe things are different in the UK? I doubt it though

 

I brought my Prius in for 5k service and all they did was the standard check and rotate the tires. I don't think I will hit 10k before my 1 year mark, so I should get the oil changed around then, in August? The sticker they put on my windshield says to bring it back at 10,000 miles, but I don't want to mess up my warranty by bringing it in late or something. Not sure how it all works.

 

Its one year or 10,000 miles. So if you hit a year before 10k, take it in.

 

Yep

 

I am not going to say that you are lying but I find it difficult to believe. Maybe then it is your dearler thats really bad. I don't know how dealers in America works.

As for the UK my brother is chief mechanic in one of the Toyota dealers and they are top of the top. Highly qualified and they earn a lot of money. $7-$9? Where are you getting those figures from? Seriously you are just making things up.

One of the super mechs in the dealers that works with my bro his anual income is £100,000 pa before tax ($150,000) including bonus. You work out the maths how much he earns, definitly not $7-9/h.

I really find it hard to believe what you say when you are just pulling things out from no where. There are times when mechanics do mess up and thats when they have apprentice in to learn their trade and the experienced ones teach them. But the apprentice do make mistakes from time to time but they usually only get the very simple jobs.

 

One of the problems in the U.S. is that while the head mechanic might well be very competent the kid that works in the lube bay or changes the tires might have been flipping burgers the week before and is probably making close to minimum wage. The kinds of things Adamance1 lists happen all the time and the dealers usually try to lie their way out of them.

 

As far as I am aware of is that when there are apprentice under his wings, whatever the apprentice has done my brother will check to make sure he has done it properly before the car is ticked off to go back to the customers so whatever the guy has said before I find it hard to believe.

If they have made a mistake they will corrected it before the custumer gets to know about it.

Maybe the dealers are better here in the UK, I don't know. One thing for sure is that mechs in the UK gets a lot of money and even our press has done a story on this before. They are no.1 in earning power surpass even lawers at no.2. When they did the story a year or two year ago they were on £100/h ($150)/h of course I think dearlers takes in most of that money. But cupled with thier private jobs and etc the amount of money is amazing.

 

Your dealer network might well be better than ours. We do have some dealers that do a good job and that you can trust, unfortunately they seem to be in the minority.

IMHO an apprenticeship program for auto mechanics would be a good thing for us also. Unfortunately it costs money and dealers usually don't spend any more on the service department than they can get by with. I think most dealers here spend a lot on advertising and other marketing and not very much on improvements to customer service.

BTW my first oil change was at 1500 then 5K, 10K and 20K. 10 K intervals from now on. All done by me because it's the only way I can be sure it's done correctly.

 

Same here. I didn't chage mine at 1500 though but at 3000k. I havn't change it at 5k either because I think the syn oil now is very good and last time I checked the oil is still golden so I am just going to change my oil filter now and then add more oil to the car. Actually I am going to check my oil now since I did some crazy driving yesterday.