Official (OEM) Toyota Prius 2016 (Gen 4) oil-change instructions

If you think about it, leaving the old filter in place is like only draining some of the old oil out. As soon as you start the car after you change the oil you’ve contaminated the new oil with the old oil in the filter. Additionally, the contaminants that the filter removed are still present. For the $5 or so, not changing the filter really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

 

Honda's on record, advocating (with their Maintenance Minder system) to change the oil filter at alternate oil changes. The MM counts down to next maintenance, and displays a code, either A or B for oil change.Dealership (in my experience) ignore the difference, change the filter every time. And of course grossly overfill.

I ended up doing a compromise (with our previous Honda Civic Hybrid), at service A I removed, drained and reinstalled the filter.

 

Roughly, in our experience: there’s no set interval; the Maintenance Minder is a “smart” maintenance reminder, seems to be monitoring several things on the car. I suspect with more highway miles the interval will be somewhat longer.

 

I usually let my filters go 8k-10k or a little longer, when I change my oil every 4k-5k. New filter ever other oil change. You get a little bit better filtration with a filter that's broken-in.

 

Never heard THAT ONE before! . Following that reasoning, how long does it take for the filter to get “broken-in”? Of course a dirty filter will effectively have a “finer mesh” than a clean one, so I suppose you COULD look at that as “better filtration”.

 

Maintenance reminder can get people in trouble. On the YouTube channel "Just Rolled In" they had a 2022 Chevy Trailblazer and the dash displayed "Remining Oil Life 1%" so they added 99% of the engine oil capacity which was almost 5 quarts. Technician drained almost 10-qts our and the engine wouldn't start, was in vaper lock! (A 2022!!!)

 

Still, it's not that calamitous: Toyota USA and Canada now spec 10K mile oil and filter changes. If you do just an oil change halfway through, not so bad?

 

WHY? You claim you remove the filter and drain it and then reinstall it. My understanding is that the filter is there to remove contaminants, so you filter your new oil through the contaminants to save slightly more than $5 US?
Additionally, that 10K mile OCI is based on certain factors that the footnotes and other conditions reduce to 5k.
I am amazed that so many PC “engineers” apparently ignore the multiple ICE cycles a hybrid goes through even in a relatively short trip. One of the very limiting factors for oil life is ICE cycles. Every time that ICE shuts down gasoline remains in the cylinders which then drains past the rings into the oil sump contaminating the oil. At least that’s what I was taught. Perhaps I am ignorant of something that Toyota has come up with to prevent this from happening.

 

Back in the 1950’s my dad had a bullet nose Studebaker that required the filter change every other oil change, but by the time I was buying my own cars in the late ‘60s oil filters had advanced enough in design to the point where it was required to change them every OCI. With the functions the oil performs in today’s engines (which is way more than just lubrication) and the tiny passageways it passes through, not filtering it as much as possible (ESPECIALLY to save $5 or $6 dollars) is, well not necessarily the best thing to do. Now if an automobile manufacturer could come up with a way to monitor oil conditions (INCLUDING additive conditions), then I would accept that. As far as I know, not even Honda has reached that level of engineering expertise.

 

Maybe the bypass valve needs “breaking in”???

 

Well this was on a previous car, where the the manufacturer recommended to do this. Don’t burst a vein over it lol.

 

Filter manufacturers have always struggled with the balance between optimum filtration and restricted flow. As a filter traps particles, it DOES provide better filtration, but only up to a point. For people doing 5k oil changes, a 10k filter change would rarely, if ever, exceed that point.

 

I never cease to be amazed at what I can “learn” on Prius Chat! Following that reasoning, I fully expect some PC “engineer” to start claiming “you should fill new oil filters with old oil so it can be more efficient” Or better yet, just sprinkle some dirt in there!

 

Oh no, we're giving away too many secrets.....they're getting onto us!!!

FWIW, I've never filled new oil filters with oil even though some recommend it...the thing fills up super-fast when the engine starts so I don't see how that could be harmful to anything.

 

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