Change oil at 1000 miles?

It's up to you. I'm a firm believer it's a good idea and I had mine done at 800mi, but others here strongly view it as a waste of money.

Personally, I think it should be based on how long you plan to own the vehicle. Any possible benefits won't show themselves for maybe 10 years and/or 150k+ miles. If you think you'll own the car for 10+ years, it might be cheap insurance. If you plan to sell/trade it in 7 years or less, then it's probably a waste of money unless you want to pay it forward for the next owner(s).


The why of a break-in oil change: Toyota may have among the best machining and finish of engines of the major car makers, but there will always be a bit of extra wear in the first 500-1000 miles as the moving parts inside an engine mate with each other for the first time. That wear will create some extra very tiny metal particles. The oil filter should catch these, but that early oil change helps take care of the problem in case some slip by and embed themselves in seals and gaskets.

Again, the tiny amount of extra particles won't do any damage for many, many years and many, many miles, but it might cause some seals or gaskets to fail in 10 years where they would have otherwise failed in 15 had those particles been removed before they became embedded. It's kind of like eating a healthy diet starting all the way back in your 20s; you're not going to see the full benefits for decades, but they probably will be there.

 

I'd just adopt a 5000K mile or 6 month oil change policy, even for the first oil change.

 

Yes, I've heard that even modern engines have a break-in period of around 500 miles....not supposed to "red line" the RPMs or drive for long distances at the same speed for long intervals. (The new pistons need to break in.) And then change out the oil/oil filter anywhere from 500-1,000 miles to flush out any metal fragments.

 

As far as I know it’s only the cylinder walls and piston rings that break in. The Prius sort of uses a good break in procedure from it’s design. Load cylinders moderately, then back off, then again and again. Having cleanest oil is best, don’t know how else to look at it. People see sparkles in the first oil change, especially in bright sunlight, not in a dark area. That’s what I always went by as logical.
Right now I have a car that may not have had an early oil change, don’t know. Probably not. But on my first 2020 I was obsessive about it. I think this second 2020 has a slightly better engine. I guess there can be variations even with computer controlled machining and assembly.

 

I changed mine at 1000 miles and I will change it again at 5000 and every 5000 after that.

 

Each to his own, but that would be short sighted on the 1st oil/filter change in my opinion. After that, 5K/6mo is a good policy.

 

I went ahead and had first oil change at just under 2,500 miles. But probably half, or more, of that was on pure EV driving, not on gas engine. I just did it with the first included maintenance, but paid for it at the dealer since they don't do the oil change that early. Just for peace of mind. Good they did the rest of the service, so one trip to dealer. I'l now do next oil at 10K.

 

Old school thinking from back in the day when manufacturing tolerances was limited by the technology of their time, gas wasn't as clean as it is today, and the oils used was just dino oil, not synthetic that most manufacturers recommend today.

 

There actually is a break in period specified in the manual. While it does not specify an early oil change, i consider them linked.

 

Plus main, rod and cam bearings, wrist pins, valves and seats, springs. All of those move around just a little bit extra at the beginning until they wear enough to find their "permanent" position. There are a LOT of moving parts inside an ICE.

 

It's because they don't specify an early oil change that I don't consider the two linked.Toyota would be assuming a lot from people to make that kind of connection.

Of course, Toyota assumes everyone reads the manual too.

 

Does toyota still give 2 years of oil changes? I never used their service but i imagine not calling it out is a huge savings for them

 

Yes they do, part of their free maintenance plan for the first two years or 25,000 miles. I plan on doing the first oil change at 5,000 miles and then decide on what the oil change interval will be depending on how my future commute schedule works out.

 

I'm going to do it every 6 mos that way I get 4 changes and tire rotations out of them. I average around 8k miles driven per year so...

Once I'm out of Toyota Care, I'll do it every 10k.

 

I think the two years free maintenance plan includes only two oil changes. Some dealers may add on to that if they choose.

 

You likely won't get four changes out of them. The maintenance plan follows the schedule, and oil changes in that are 10k miles or 12 months.

As for the first oil change, I've only done it at the recommended time of 5 to 10 thousand miles with cars I have taken past 100k, and never had an engine issue.