Oil change frequency?

Nope, 97 Camry V6 LE.

IIRC, the service interval was 7,500 "normal duty" or 5,000 "heavy duty".

I drove between Chicago and Denver 2-3 times/year before I moved back, and the jobs I had in both places required a lot of driving, so I changed the oil every 3,000 miles based on something I heard on Car Talk.

Vehicle Engine Sludge | Consumer Reports

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Doubting is fine. I just want a reason besides "I know better than you", and in the case of this thread, know better than Toyota

I did not think supporting the manufacturer's oil change interval would be so controversial.

Thanks, I had thought the problem was with just their 4 cylinder used in the Camry and others.

 

They lose some credibility with me due to: flip-flopping on oil change interval, one generation to the next, and/or having vastly different intervals in different countries.

With my Canadian 3rd gen, living in balmy lower mainland British Columbia, Toyota Canada says 8K kms or 6 months. In Alaska, or the US prairie states, bitter cold winter conditions, the interval was 10K miles or yearly. For the same car.

 

Unfortunately, non-technical reasons could be in play that could be coming down from above the engineers.

Then there are technical reasons for differences between countries. I mention that the US was getting the ultra low sulfur gasoline earlier. Well, Europe has had it for years, and it is part of why they have longer oil change intervals. They also have better oils, because of Castrol's court victory in the US. Their full synthetics are 100% Group IV or V oils. In the US, a full synthetic can contain Group III oils, making them just a little better than the synthetic blends.

I suspect changes happen between generations because it is simpler book keeping, and less prone to errors by low wage technicians. No matter what the manufacturer says, the dealer has always put a 3000 mile or 3mo sticker in my car after a change.

I was thinking Toyota might consider driving in Alaska as severe duty, which would cut the change interval in half. Then I got curious about what the Canadian manual says about severe duty, and made an interesting discovery. After the first oil change at 8000km, the interval goes up to 16,000km or 12 months. The layout in the 2010 manual is confusing, relying on a "A Maintenance Service is required at 24 months/ 32,000 km, then every 12 months/16, 000km, whichever occurs first." footnote to clarify. It is clearer in the 2012 manual.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/toyota.site.p01/toyota/manuals/OMS1010U/OMS1010U.pdf
http://s3.amazonaws.com/toyota.site.p01/toyota/manuals/OMS1012U/OMS1012U.pdf

 

Me too. I wasn't trying to cause trouble with the BobIsTheOilGuy observation. I was truly surprised it hadn't come up in this thread yet. Every vehicle forum I've even been in since I can remember, his site always came up in these kinds of discussions. I was surprised it hadn't here.

I remember all the spirited discussions that came up when we got our letters from Toyota informing us of the new 10,000 mile OCI. Lots of spirited discussion.

 

I admit it was odd too, but perhaps most here are less hands off when it comes to maintenance than other model/brand sites. If you aren't getting messy changing your own oil, you likely aren't even aware of oil analysis testing, like gets discussed at Bob's.

I like knowing the why of things, which why my posts here are what they are. It is just info I have picked up through the years. If it is wrong, give me a source showing that so I don't continue repeating bad info.

It appears Toyota does not want to invest in an oil monitor system like GM and Honda, nor do they want to make the effort to have a different schedule for the Prime. Nothing wrong in the decision, and I'm sure other manufacturers have made the same one. That said, I personally say exceeding the Prime's oil change interval will not risk damaging the engine. The risk is more legal in nature if the need of a warranty claim comes up.

 

I am coming from Toyota Matrix to Prius Prime. The only way to find out your oil change intervals is by doing an oil analysis from company like blackstone-labs or others. I've used Blackstone since 2005. when you change your oil you can send sample to the lab and they will tell you about your engine wear and recommend what to do. That's how I am going to know at what interval to change oil.

Anything else is just speculation and guesses.
Every engine will wear differently depending on what type of oil you use and what type of detergents are in the oil itself etc..

this is what I am going to do change oil at 10K miles send it to the lab find out what the wear is and go from there.
I was doing this on my to matrix xrs and as of right now I have 298K miles on it. and it still runs I haven't touched the engine internally only change brakes/rotors, clutch and of course oil filter and oil changes.

Hope this helps

 

On my first read of the 2012 Canadian booklet I was thinking that too, that down-the-road the oil/filter change interval was increasing to 12 months or 16K kms, but if you read carefully, you'll see there's either "oil and filter service" or "maintenance service", every 6 months or 8K kms, and both of those entail an oil/filter change. Confusing presentation, to say the least. Some snips from the 2012 publication: