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10K oil changes are BAD! ??

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by NewHybridOwner, Aug 3, 2022.

  1. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    The spin on filter conversionists here are twice the polluters!!!
     
  2. mtl

    mtl Junior Member

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    Our local garbage dump has a special reservoar for used oil and a special container for all oil contaminated parts: plastic bottles, filters, rags, etc.
    I do not think that car parts stores have that.
     
    #162 mtl, Oct 26, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2022
  3. ColoradoBoo

    ColoradoBoo Senior Member

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    Yep I just let the filters drain as much as they can in the oil catch container and then chuck them in the trash.

    Since our trash goes to the local landfill, the oil just goes back into the ground....which is where it came from, so recycled!!
     
  4. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    This video, starting at the 9 minute mark, is why I first changed the oil in my Prius v over 10 years, ago at 1k miles and at 6 months intervals ever since, with the last time beginning this month with only 9k miles since the previous oil change.

     
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  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    ... and into local aquifers ...
     
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  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    There are places that’ll responsibly recycle them. There’s a gizmo that grinds them up and presses out the oil. Sorry but chucking them is not the way to go.
     
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  7. ColoradoBoo

    ColoradoBoo Senior Member

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    Yep, AMD is an amazing Toyota expert....I watch all of his video!
     
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  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    At 11:20 he clarifies a question I've had: the Toyota filter box says to lube the filter's gasket, but there's a plastic seal over the end, and when you peel it off there's some sort of gelled grease already on there. I've not added oil, seemed pointless, maybe even counterproductive. He concurs.

    When I raised the question here some wag was telling me I better slop some motor oil on top of that grease.
     
    #168 Mendel Leisk, Oct 27, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2022
  9. RRxing

    RRxing Senior Member

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    That's what I do. It can't hurt, since filters without the "grease" always have you slap a bit of oil on the gasket.
     
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  10. PriusII&C

    PriusII&C Active Member

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    He is very good and I have watched many of his videos. With that said, I still feel it's probably an overkill to have 3 oil changes within 1 year and 5,000 miles.

    Although Toyota's maintance schedule in the Owner's Manual only serves as a guidance, it is still hard to image their OCI is off by a factor of 10x (from 1k miles to 10k miles) .
     
    #170 PriusII&C, Oct 27, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2022
  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    1k mile oil change is contentious (though interesting).

    I follow the Toyota Canada third gen guidance*: 8k kms (~5k miles) or 6 months. It’s always 6 months governing, by a landslide: doing barely 3k kms per year now.

    I would just abide by those two factors, whichever comes first.

    * For fourth gen Toyota Canada matches Toyota USA.
     
  12. CR94

    CR94 Senior Member

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    Cartridge filters are much easier to dispose of without polluting scrap metal or landfills with so much oil. If the anti-drainback valve of a spin-on filter isn't somehow defeated, there's a lot more oil trapped in the filter than what the media absorbs, even if it has been turned up to drain for hours..
     
  13. mtl

    mtl Junior Member

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    I like to watch him also, but I have my own opinion.
    Maybe three comments from my side:
    - regarding the metal parts in the oil filter: this is exactly the role of the oil filter to trap these parts inside the oil filter. It is not the role of the oil filter to be clean, without these parts. You can replace it every 300 miles then. Although I am for replacing the oil and oil filter after 500-1000 miles from new, because the engine parts are still ''matching'' together and there can be more of these metal parts, but after that...
    - he states in the video that the oil after 1000 miles/6 months is black, bad. How? What kind of oil does Toyota USA/he puts inside? I have just checked my Mobile 1 after 2000 miles from oil service and it is still colourfull with black starting to build up slowly. And yes, my car does only long trips with moderate speeds, but anyway. Replacing QUALITY oil after 1000 miles (even of harsh driving conditions) is for me a waste of resources and money. If the car was really used only on short trips, I would definitelly take it to a longer trip so that all the fuel in the oil would evaporate and that's it.
    - also replacing the wiper inserts every 6 months. Why? In the summer I basically do not use them, the car is always clean, so I would be replacing new wiper inserts and throwing them away. Huh. Really eco friendly. I replace them when needed (usually after 3-4 years) and I have never had a scratched windscreen.
     
    #173 mtl, Oct 28, 2022
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2022
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  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Haven’t mentioned this in a while: Honda’s official maintenance advocates changing oil filters at every second oil change; cuts spent oil filter output in half. IF you follow it: dealership near me treated me like I was nuts, when I asked them to do that.

    I’m guilty of very low mile oil changes, oil filter changed every time, and I converted our 2010 to spin-on. At least I get everything to a recycle depot. It’s walking distance from us too, lol.
     
  15. mtl

    mtl Junior Member

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    But is this only by the time based service or also with distance based service?
    Or was the interval for oil change really short?
     
  16. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    The answer is tricky: Honda vehicles have a built-in Maintenance Minder, and AFAIK, no published schedule. It seems to be monitoring more than just miles/kilometres; I’d speculate start-ups, mean engine temp, stuff like that.

    It counts down in percent to next service, and the miles can vary. When it get to only 15% remaining it displays a code as to what the next service entails. There are TWO oil change codes (A and B); one includes oil filter change, the other doesn’t.

    In my experience the service intervals invariably came up every 8000~9000 kms.

    One benefit: it gives you some leverage to tell service departments to take a hike when they start pushing extras.
     
  17. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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  18. mtl

    mtl Junior Member

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    Yes, the same is also on some other cars. For example VW, Skoda, etc., you can choose variable or fixed service interval. Well, I have tested once variable service interval and with my type of driving according to the computer the oil would be good for 34.000 km :), so around 21.100 miles. Of course I have replaced it before that at around 28.000 km and you could see that the oil was not the same as per my usual oil change at 15.000 km mark.
     
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  19. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    Here's another reason to frequently change the oil and filter at 5k or less, and lesser miles is even better.

    Thanks to member RightOnTime for posting this photo of the variable valve timing inlet screen after 200k miles compared to a new one. variable timing filter screen.jpg
     
  20. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Where is that? Is it part of this?

    upload_2022-11-8_8-55-11.png