Break-in Oil Change Interval?

It is not necessary -- but people like to do it ........ Old habits die hard.

What does surprise me is when people will do a service and then use any old fluid or oil because its cheaper .. and they "know it's the same"

 

I am waiting for the time I take my new 2012 in for it's 5k service and have the dealership service department tell me that due to the severe driving conditions in the DC area they want me to pay for an oil change in addition to my free Toyota Care Service.

To the OP, if it gives you peace of mind - go ahead and pay to have the oil changed at about 2k. But keep in mind that the ICE is used far less n the Prius than a regular car. If you want to do an oil change wait till the 5k service mark then IMO.

Sticking to the service intervals that Toyota says will give you a 200k+ miles car. Save maybe from an early transmission oil change from another thread on here.

 

I would not recommend following everything Toyota tells you to do during the service intervals. There are a lot of things on the list that you do not need the dealer to do.

I do recommend an oil change ever 10K and replace the trans axel fluid every 30-50K. Not the 100K recommend by Toyota.

I got over 300,000 miles on my last Toyota with less than $1,000 in repairs over its life. I sold the SUV for $6,000 at the end.

 

Congrats on the long life of your Prius. I will be doing what you have recommended on my new 2012.

Will be testing the dealer I end up using for the free Toyota Care to see if they do what is truly said is included. The biggie is the road test...wonder what Toyota considers a road test...2/10th a mile around the dealership? LOL

My fiancé stills pays $80 every 5k for their service at a Toyota dealership, while I paid $30 on my old Baja at at trusted local garage.

 

Originally Posted by adamace1
I will post some facts on why not to change it untill 10k

1. Not one person has proved that it needs to be done before 10k.
1. Not one person has proved that you will not benfit doing it.
1-1 Wasting money and importing oil does not benfit the car owner!


2. You can save 50-100 bucks
2. If you do it your self it will cost $30.
2-2 Still money wasted!

3. Less money goes overseas to people that hate us.
3. Not all oil comes from overseas.ok.
3-3 Because we consume so much all the wastefull people import that extra oil we need the more we consume the more we import.
4. Less waste, they have to burn oil to get the motor oil to you.
4. Not all oil comes from overseas.
4-4The more we use the more we have to import. Plus you have to ship it from the factors to the warehouse to the store. You have to use oil to mak plastic to put the oil in. ect. ect

 

Stop by your local friendly Honda powersports dealer and ask them if you don't believe me: Honda recommends a 600 mile oil change. So does Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Triumph..... These folks know a thing or two about engine design. Toyota and Ford have bowed to Yamaha design prowess before and used their engines in performance models.

I have no proof but simply believe that Toyota stretch the oil change to 10k for more "green cred". Since I use mobil 1 syn, I have no problem using that interval but I did change at 1k.

 

Huh ??????


REV

 

Glad to help. One of many studies on this phenomenon: Characterization of anti-wear films formed from fresh and aged engine oils 10.1016/j.wear.2006.12.026 : Wear | ScienceDirect.com

 

I think you'll waste your money.

At 5,000 miles, my oil is so clean, it's very difficult to see on the dipstick.

Look, Toyota has engineers who have evaluated and examined the engine's operating characteristics, and I'm sure they have good reasons for the recommendations that they made. If you want to change it at 5,000 miles, I'd be ok with that. But, for a 4-cylinder low RPM engine that really won't get much of a workload, I think it's throwing away your money. The recommendation is to use Toyota's synthetic oil, which can't be cheap.

 

Snipped

You can not properly evaluate and gauge the cleanliness of your oil from the oil on the dipstick.



Posted from my iPhone via the Tapatalk app.

 

I'm glad you posted the link -- This has been discussed for years but people simply don't want to believe it.

The same goes for transmission fluid -- lots of false information.

 

I did mine at 2000 miles because:

it made me feel good

it gave me something to do

I got to look in each pleat of the oil filter and saw several small flecks of metal in each pleat

I was able to install a magnetic drain plug, which I have on all of my cars. It collects the ultra tiny bits of metal the filter will not collect. The residue on the magnet does not feel abrasive at all, it is like metalic paste. I can't believe that stuff working itself into the bearings will be good for a car I plan to keep well over 100K. If you want to wait until 10K to do yours, fine with me!!

 

So the filter did the job it was intended -- would the filter have held onto the particles until 10k? Yes.

You may have more particles -- sometimes from the mechanic spinning on a new filter and cutting the threads on the oil filter .... they will stay also.

The point is the oil is not going to need to be replaced at 1k miles -- just take a look at it on the dip stick.


If you want to change it thats OK. IMO the important thing is for those not mechanically inclined. I don't want them to be told that they need to have it done at 1k or 3500k when they don't. Lots of time and money is wasted changing oil and doing other services that provide no benefit.


Save the money on the extra oil changes and put it towards a better set of tires than you would ordinarily purchase ...... and change them out early -- good use of the money.

 

Correct. But that seems to be how most of the "oil change experts" evaluate it.

Again, at 1,000 miles, I believe it is overkill. The filter will trap the particles, if any. I can get to 1,000 miles in 6 days of commuting. Would you also suggest that I change it every 2,500 miles? Of course not.

The interval is more closely related to the driving habits of the primary driver. Lots of stop-and-go in a conventional car? Change it more frequently. Lots of long-distance highway miles? Change it less frequently.

The Prius is not a conventional car, and the ICE has different operating characteristics than most other non-hybrid vehicles. That is the primary reason why Toyota made the recommendations that they made.

I don't have a problem with someone wanting to change the oil early, but 1,000 is just too early IMHO.

 

If you know better why write it? What "oil change experts"?


Posted from my iPhone via the Tapatalk app.

 

When the 2010 Gen III came out in 2009 the original Toyota OCI was for 5k miles. It wasn't until customers started complaining about the higher cost of synthetic oil changes and the fact that synthetic oils were good for more than 5k miles did Toyota change to the 10k OCI.

It was much more of a marketing decision than an engineering one.

 

Marketing !

Have any of you guys worked in automotive manufacturing?


Toyota did not change this because of the marketing department -- A more conservative bunch does not exist. If anything they are way behind the curve ....... european manufactures have been using the extended intervals for well over a decade.

What did happen is many of the early flexible service systems in the 90's did not work correctly in some situations - they also did not mandate synthetic oils.

We stopped using the 5k interval on our Lexus V6 vehicles back in 2000 -- and that was with regular oil -- we have never had a problem with any of them and they all went 200k + ..... and had no engine issues. And I'm talking about many many cars. The oil is still clean at 5k!

 

Allow me to suggest a compromise if you're simply uncomfortable waiting until 10K miles for the first oil change (out of habit or whatever). Get your 1st oil change at 5K miles then subsequent oil changes every 10K miles (i.e. 15K miles, 25K miles, etc.). This keeps the warranty intact and the major side benefit is you get to avoid the pricey 30K service by replacing the cabin and engine air filters yourself.

 

I agree that the Prius is easy on oil (if one doesn't redline it daily like my wife does.) After maybe 10k miles of wear in, I changed the oil on our 2006 Prius once every 5-8K miles using Castrol 0W-30 European Formula full synthetic, often referred to as German Castrol. In never consumed any oil until past 90Kmiles, when it started to consume a quart every 5K miles. The oil was always clean and hard to see on the dipstick. The few UOA's I orderd came back suggesting I run the oil longer.

Even though I agree that Priuses are easy on oil, I'm thinking of changing our new 2012's oil early. When I first read the oil on the dipstick at 200 miles, I found that the oil was hard to see on the dipstick, but when I wiped the dipstick with a paper towel, it left a heavy metal-gray colored mark on the paper towel. Clearly not all of the fine metal filings are trapped in the oil filter. I nearly changed the oil and filter today at 500miles to remove some of the fine metal particles. I'll probably do it next weekend at 700 miles, since I've heard no indication that the Prius uses any special wear-in oil.