Toyota Care Oil Change Intervals

I just sent an oil sample to the lap and it look like the oil is good for high mile use. Once I hit 10k I will send another one and see how the oil held up but I think it will be fine to use up to 10k.

 

I just got my prius serviced, the car has 4700 miles on it,but the one year came into effect, the owners manual says oil to be changed every 10000 miles or 1 year.so toyota did do the service after i complained about it,but that will be the last time toyota will touch my car unless a problem happens,i didnt know they can screwup so many things,but they did, so just be carefull and always check everything they touch.

 

K9frog,
Can you be more specific about the things they screwed up on your car, please?

 

Well sure i could,first thing was when they rotated my tires, my lug nuts were tightened between 120 and 130 ft lbs, next toyota gave me a paper with all the specs,example it showed tire pressure, brake lining thickness etc,well they wrote down my tire pressure was set at 32lbs,which is incorrect to begin with, but in real life the tires had 44lbs rear and 42lbs front,which was my original pressure, so they write down whatever they want i guess they figure no one would check,for whatever reason i had to bring my car back twice to get the oil changed, first time they told me i dont have enough miles,well my car is one year old and the book says i get a free oil change, so i had to call up customer service, so they can explain to the dealer i do get a free oil change at one year, so they finally did the oil change and what a surprise they over filled it by just about 1/2 qt,
for all they did on my free service it would have been easier for me just to do it ,which i will for now on.
And most of all rodgerv best of luck with your new pip

 

If I were you I would call Toyota and let them know about this dealer. Also post on Yelp and Google for a review. You can also let the BBB know for the record as well. Its worth it! Don't let others fall prey!

 

At my local dealer, you get 2 free Synthetic Oil changes, usually at 10K and 20K miles. You can get a free service (Tire Rotation, and overall simple checkover at 5K, and 15K, and 25K.

I paid $54.95 to get a synthetic oil change at 5K as a preventative measure, and piece of mind.

 

Can i ask how old your car is.I feel the same way you do on the oil changes,im not used to 10000 miles on a oil change,but i got mine done for free based upon toyota service manual , oil change to be done at 10000 miles or one year, and the same for the second year

 

Damn... 10 000 miles?? My dealer said 8000 km for the oil change...

I will verify this in my user manual tomorrow.

 

I do believe the interval is/was different for Canada for some odd reason.

 

Intervals are 10k if using synthetic oil, 5k if using dyno oil.

 

and you can only use dino oil once.

 

My Honda Fit used regular oil and the car had a computerized maintenence minder that told you when the oil life was getting low. I only ended up having to change the oil about every 10 or eleven thousand miles and never had an issue. And that's using dino oil. I am nit suggesting you do, but with synthetic you could easily go 15000 miles between changes without issue.

 

These days, 10,000 mile oci's is not extraordinary with the use of high quality synthetic motor oils. You can learn more over at Bobistheoilguy.com, but I run extended oci's in all my cars with Mobil 1.

 

My manual suggested HEAVILY to use 0-20 and keep to 10k intervals. It also stated to go with 5k mile intervals should you be so rude as to use a 5-20 oil.

It would be difficult to find a 0-20 that isn't a synthetic. 5-20 comes in conventional form. I would rather not go with 10k mi intervals, myself.

 

It is actually harsher than that, you can only use 5-w20 once, for 5000 miles, then you HAVE to go back to 0-w20.

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM52B58U/pdf/sec_6-1.pdf
Page 4 of the PDF, page 493 of the paper manual.

 

Prius C, 2012
Warranty and Maintenance Guide
Maintenance Section
Page 54, Paragraph 2
"NOTE: Your vehicle is certified with
Genuine Toyota 0W20 motor oil. For
VEHICLES CERTIFIED FOR 0W20 motor
oil, the oil change interval is 10,000 miles
or 12 months IF 0W20 MOTOR OIL IS
BEING USED. If 0W20 is not available,
5W20 mineral oil may be used. However,
it must be replaced at A 5,000 miles or
6 month INTERVAL with 0W20 motor oil."

I read that as saying you can use 5w20 mineral oil for 5k mile intervals, and 0w-20 synthetic oils for 10k miles, and they would prefer you to use 0w-20 synthetic. I do not see anything about 5w-20 damaging your car. If it really would damage your car they would very much say that and imply your warranty would be in jeopardy.

I looked up some leading 0w-20 and 5w-20 specs. They are not very different.

I am not advocating any course of action for anyone other than myself. I am only saying what I think about what they printed. They have their things to worry about as a huge manufacturer and we have things to worry about as car owners. If anyone doesn't feel comfortable buying non-Toyota oil and filters, I'm certainly not going to make them.

 

Kind of the odd thing about Toyota's recommendation between 0w-20 synthetic and 5w20 dino, is that Toyota seems to suggest 5w20 can be used, but for the shorter interval, followed by you MUST replace with 0w-20.

If there was absolutely no difference except for interval between using 5w-20, and 0w20, then why would Toyota attach the caveat that after 5000 miles of 5w20 Dino, one should be sure to switch back to 0w20?

My personal opinon is that on an engine that is used like the ICE on a HSD hybrid? I'd feel much more comfortable using a full synthetic. HSD actually encourages your system to use the engine as little as possible. That means more total time of inactivity. In that case? I would feel much more comfortable with the durability and longevity advantages of synthetic.

Having said that? I'm guessing the statements made in Toyota's owners manual are correct. You can probably put 5w-20 in, go for 5000 miles and be perfectly okay.

I'd still choose full synthetic and 0w-20.

 

Beware the tendency to write "5w-20" as a temporary substitute.
It is 5w-20 mineral oil

 

The Canadian oil change interval is 8000 km or 6 months, whichever comes first.

No caveats about synthetic vs non-synthetic oil.

And there doesn't appear to be a shorter interval proviso for "Special Operating Conditions", ie: repeated short trips, extreme cold, etcetera. I think the US maintenance schedule does have a shorter oil change interval for severe conditions.


The Canadian oil change interval is basically half the US one, which kind of begs the question: what is so different a few kilometers or miles either side of the border?

Personally, I like the 6 months or 8000 kilometer oil change interval. It's already twice as long as what I used to do, many years back. Some will argue it's overkill, Toyota USA for one.

But a few extra liters of oil are cheap insurance imho, and I've been doing my own changes, have the facility and tools, and like doing it.

I've posted a table format interpretation of the Canadian Schedule in post #12 here:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...10-prius-maintenance-schedule-canadian-2.html

(the schedule posted in post #1 is my first draft, post #12 more up to date)

And a similar table for the US schedule here:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...93946-2010-prius-maintenance-schedule-us.html

(with this one post #1 is most up to date)