First Oil Change!

Change at 10,000. This is just an annoyance you will have to deal with every 5000 miles. There is a way to clear it. I forget what you have to do but it is in the manual. Maybe someone else remembers.

 

I'm so skeptical about what they call fully synthetic oil anymore, there's no way I'm waiting the full 10K miles to change my oil. Just my opinion.

 

Take it to the dealer. At 5000 they will check your fluids and rotate the tires and do the dash reset.

 

Oil & a filter are cheep. My first oil changes on my vehicles are at 200 miles. Then again at 1000 miles, 2500 miles & 5000 miles and every 5000 miles after that. I would rather have spotless clean oil in my motors.

Mike :tea:

 

Did you buy new? If so, you should have the two year Toyota Customer Care package... take it in.

 

Toyota won't pay for an Oil Change at 5K, but some believe it is wise to perform the first Oil Change before 10K. Our Toyota Dealer will let you pay $54.95 to perform a 5K Oil Change. Then you can change the oil at for Free at 15K and 25K.
Just a Suggestion.

 

With Toyota care you get the services -- is it not 2 years 20k? Or is it 25k

They will rotate your tires at the 5k or six months -- 1 year or 10k for the oil with the Toyota care.


You will find that the oil is sill extremely clean at 6 months and 5k -- you don't need to change it.

 

Is that because of the motor shutting off so often? That is the part that is hard to figure out how much actual use is on the oil.

Mike

 

I have 8800 miles on mine and the oil looks new.

 

Absolute, total waste of money ... but hey .... go for it if it makes you feel good ....


REV

 

The regular oil in our Lexus vehicles is clean at 5k -- and I am talking clean. I just checked one this morning with 7.5k on it. looks like apple juice ......No need to change it.

I don't think the Prius motor operation makes all that much difference.

I would obviously change it early if something looked strange.

 

You must own one of the major oil companies.

 

I just checked my oil today with 8500 miles on it at 28.5K. You can barely see it on the dipstick it's so transparent. At exactly the same level as it was when it was put in at 20K.

10K intervals for me.

REV

 

The changes that occurred in engine technology about 10 years ago is nothing short of amazing -- and Toyota was a leader in this area. We still have a 2000 Lexus V6 in the company fleet that has almost 250k on the motor... it runs like a top and maybe uses 1/2 a quart of oil in 7.5k changes. For the first 100k we used 5k intervals and 7.5 from that point on .. all on regular oil.

I will say that the german cars we have that use 0w-40 Mobil 1 look dirty at the 12k intervals -- The M1 0-40 has a lot of detergents in it ..so maybe that is why. But MB has been using 12k for more than 10 years with no ill effects using synthetics.

 

HOw many quarts of oil does the 2011 Prius hold. Is it 4.4? And when serviced should I ask for less like 4 or 4.2 quarts? I know with my 2005 Prius I always made sure to get 3.9.

 

But doesn't the break-in (first 500 mi?) put some metal in the oil?

 

Yes it does. This is normal part of the break-in. Though better now than years past, it still happens. And for the non-believers, reference the same reason for early Trans fluid change so widely accepted here.

Mechanic

 

I agree with an early first oil change, although how early is up for debate. In spite of modern improvements, there are still increased metal particles in new engines. Does the oil filter catch them all? No, it doesn't. Appearance isn't an accurate method for judging the condition of oil. If you truly want to know its condition, use oil analysis.

 

The question that needs to be asked is "does it make any difference?"

Does dirt or any small metal particle have any detrimental effect on the engine and transmission - considering the filters/screens intended to catch any that would cause a problem?

The engineers will tell you that it does not and that the fluid characteristic change is anticipated. Fleet testing proves this to be accurate.

Remember -- years ago the early change was to remove the special oil that was intended to set the rings and did not provide the lubrication the engine required.

None of this matters - if you want to change the oil/fluids .... fine. It is just to educate those who have no knowledge and are told by service people that the car is going to be affected if you don't change the oil every 3k