Sched maint - sales recommendation vs. maint guide

Toyota made a manual on this subject, I suggest you stick to it.

The only additional service I will do on my v is to change the Automatic Transmission Fluid at 30,000 miles and then every 60,000 miles.

 

One early oil change is the habit of us old timers. I do it for all of my new cars, but I seldom get the chance since my cars last a long time.

I was among the group that did long term lab testing of Prius ATF that indicated that Jimbo is giving you good advice about periodic ATF refreshes.

JeffD

 

When I got my Prius (and the wife's Avalon) they gave me a certain number of free oil changes and tire rotations but limited the time I could take them to the first 2 years IIRC.

I wanted a change at 1K (just believe in it, no blind taste testings or UOAs to back it up but I've owned ~50 cars over 54+ years and I believe in bedding the brakes, rotating the tires and changing the oil more frequently and at 1k with fully synthetic) and they tried to talk me out of it but I insisted and they just used one of my free changes and the computer will know when I run out of free ones and will start charging me.

Oddly too, my wife's Avalon in for an oil change and they say they used conventional and not synthetic and that is what the factory specified. I asked them to put a note in their service record on the Avalon that it was to get Syn from now on. The Prius automatically gets it.

 

Yep, I also change a new vehicle's oil at 1000 miles, then every 5000 miles. Since Toyota pays for the 10,000 mile services, I change my oil, filter, rotate tires myself at 5000-15000-25000 miles. Also agree to change the ATF-W fluid with Toyota brand at 30,000 miles.

 

i would also flush out the brake fluid @ 30K

 

Somewhat expensive and typically not required in a Prius. My Prius brakes (and the fluid) are original at 238k miles and 9 years.

JeffD

 

Where are you?

 

Brake fluid absorbs water vapor from the air and thus can corrode sensors like anti-lock brake sensors as well as cylinders. My son neglected his, I think he has spent about a thousand in parts and labor and still has no anti-lock brakes working. I might stretch to three years but at that point I'm flushing the fluid and replacing it completely as, when I'm coming down a mountain or something similar where the rotors heat up and the fluid does too, I don't want the water that has been absorbed into the fluid to turn to vapor because vapor doesn't quite compress the same way.

 

Honda has a 3 year, no mileage interval for brake fluid change, for all their vehicles I think. Considering the electronics this is one I'd just pass to the pros. And since it's not in the schedule, you might have to be persistant, depends on the dealership.

 

I just turned 5k miles on my 2012 Prius and the maintenance reminder blazed across my screen. I changed the oil myself at 3k miles because I believe in doing that for the 1st change. I called the Toyota dealership for my "free scheduled maintenance" and they said that they will rotate the tires, top off the fluids and check a few things over. I asked if they change the oil at 5k and they stated that no, oil is changed every 10k miles. I'm glad that I dropped it myself because I believe it should be done between 1,500 and 3,000k, and I could see metal shavings in the filter.