Oil change frequency?

From an earlier thread, I'm attempting to convince myself for-sure that a P.Prime in EV mode does not crank over the engine, the point being that if it's motionless, not much point in changing the oil. As yet, I'm not 100% convinced.

That thread left saying that EV mode drives the wheels via MG2 driving forward, MG1 driving backward, and the engine pegged at a standstill against the new sprag clutch. However, it appears that MG1, which is all I can think of that could push the engine against the sprag clutch, is only engaged under high-torque situations. If MG2 is driving and MG1 has not being driven, then I can't think of anything that would prevent the engine from moving, and thus requiring lubrication.

 

Are you wondering what Toyota's saying? You can download the Warranty and Maintenance Booklet, from Toyota Tech Info, in the Manuals section. Believe it's yearly or 10,000 miles, the usual.

 

Despite my efforts to understand this question though, the truth probably is that I'll just do oil changes right on schedule even if it turns out to be only marginally necessary. I'm having difficulties getting too upset about paying $30 (or whatever) oil change after spending $30K on a car...

 

The Warranty booklet states 6 months or 5,000 miles, which ever is first.

 

The Warranty Book, suggests servicing the vehicle every 6 months, or 5,000 miles to check the drivers floor mat, fluids, wiper blades, rotate the tires and inspect the brakes. Oil changes are noted at 12 months or 10,000 miles for standard maintenance and 6/5,000 for special conditions

 

12 months or 10,000 miles as mendel and vtbigdog state above, same as all gen 3 and 4 prius. many of us plug in owners have endeavored to ascertain empirical evidence that reduced operation of the engine would allow for longer intervals. but all we have are opinions and 'what other manufacturers are doing'. no one has done the hard oil testing to my knowledge.

 

Here is my plan; my round trip to work and home is a total of 7 miles, so I'll spend most of my time driving EV only. So I'll do the 10k changes and keep an eye on the oil.

When I go on a road trip, where I rack up miles on the ice, I'll change it by no later than 5k
I plan on keeping one of them little notebooks and using trip B to keep track of the little trips on ICE.


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Just driving the car, even racking up miles as you stated, does not necessarily qualify as unusual conditions. I think you would still be good with 12/10,000 unless you are doing a lot of idling, or stop and go driving. Of course, changing every 5,000 provides peace of mind.

 

Yeah it's more peace of mind and personal preference.
Although they say can go 10k, I never go past 5k on my oil changes. So far I've racked up many cars over 200k and as high as 400k and never had any oil related problems.

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Toyota should have put an hour meter on the engine and set the oil change interval by the hours of operation. They didn't. Oh well....

 

Maybe you guys are all "mileage governs", but anyway: keep in mind the maintenance schedule is mile OR months.

 

I like that idea. I wonder if I can find a used John Deere hour meter to hook up.

 

How would you determine when to change the oil from total hours of engine runtime?
Another method might be to record the number of gallons at each fill-up. Then multiply each fill-up by 50 (your estimated average MPG), and add that to the total number of gasoline miles. And use that total to determine when to change the oil.

Here's a Prime question: Is the Prime gas gauge any more accurate than the Gen 1 and Gen 3 gas gauges?
Or do Prime drivers use one of the trip ODOs as a gas gauge?

How many trip ODOs does the Prime have?
Can the maintenance reminder light be reconfigured to come on at a mileage OTHER than 5000?
If so, can the light be reconfigured to come at a mileage that the driver sets?

 

Corrected for the tire error, it is (has been) dead on accurate for our Gen1, Gen-3, and this Gen-5.

IMHO, if the engine runs, there should be a late Spring and Fall change to get rid of the acidic water from combustion by-products.

There also needs to be an early, accelerated change at 2-5k miles to flush the assembly and manufacturing debris. Both the engine and transmission.

Bob Wilson

 

The cars computer should track for you, and use tachometer hours for the oil change interval, same as small engine aircraft.
Miles makes very little sense IMHO.

 

I was thinking the other day that it might be even simpler than that, given that the goal is to change the oil every 5000 miles of engine usage:

Zero out one of your trip counters after each oil change (or when you first get the car ... actually they probably start at zero, but anyway!).

If I recall correctly from one of Optimus Prime's YouTube videos, it remembers MPG, in addition to #miles, for each trip counter (true?). If so, then miles/MPG = #gallons burnt.

Toyota's apparent target seems to be on the order of 5000miles/50MPG = 100 gallons (round numbers).

Soooo... all you have to do is look for when that trip counter's #miles hits 100 times its #MPG. When it does, take it in for an oil change!

I think I thunk that out correctly, again assuming that I'm remembering correct about the ODO's trip meters maintaining MPG in addition to miles...


iPhone ? Pro

 

Ah, a potential complication to that just popped into mind: I gather that the MPG readouts on the dash "peg out" at 199MPG.


iPhone ? Pro

 

We have already paid for the "free" 2 year/25,000 miles maintenance. I will take mine in every 6 months and get my "free" oil change and tire rotation for those 2 years (I don't drive 12,500 miles per year). I don't care how much the engine actually ran - maintenance schedule for warranty coverage is based upon the odometer, not engine miles. At least that is what my service department says.