How often do you change your oil?

Yes.

If you read the Owner's Manual for your Prius, you will see that Toyota recommends 5K intervals for oil changes.

Be sure to use a quality filter.

 

There is ample evidence from UOA's on this site to say "Yes" you are wasting oil and money by changing at the same interval as we did in the 1960's with 30W dino in an idling engine. Run synthetic 5W-20 or 0W-20, and wait 5,000 miles.

Many oil changers will sing the 3,000 tune forever, even though both engines and oil additive packages are improving.

Just my 2 cents.

 

For me, 5000 miles is only 2 months, so my oil hardly has time to get introduced before it is gone.

 

i go every 10K or so, but, i don't keep my cars very long.

 

5000 miles. I know I should do it more often (eg, every six months), but the stupid warning thing only goes off measuring miles, not time, so I go with that.

 

I've been running 7500 miles (12000 km) intervals and the oil always still looks in good condition when it's drained. Personally I think even a good quality "dino" oil is fine for 5000 miles.

I use 5W30 which I think is preferable to 0W20 unless you're in an extremely cold climate. Patrick Wong said that his engine got a bit noisier and started consuming oil when he switched from 5W30 to 0W20. There are plenty of 5W30 oils that will still give you great fuel economy.

 

I change my own oil & filter every 5,000 miles and use the 10-30 weight Dino oil that I pick up at Costco and Toyota filters I purchased from Champion. The 5,000 mile mark is easy for me to remember and is also when I take my car into Costco to have the tires rotated. I tried the synthetic oil and did not find a difference in my mileage, so went back to the cheaper Dino oil.

 

Most modern cars are designed for 5w30 oil. Thicker oil is not suitable and lowers MPG.

I use 5w30 synthetic oil and change it (DIY) and the oil filter every 5000 miles (about 2 months) in my 2004 Prius at 180,000 miles.

JeffD

 

I just got my 2007 and see no reason that it shouldn't be able to go 10K miles between changes using a good synthetic oil. My Dodge Hemi pulling a 8K lb trailer for half it's miles can go 10K miles with an UOA showing it is still well within the limits. My old Honda Element also went 10K miles between changes. I plan on getting a UOA for the Prius after 6K miles to see what it says and base my changes on that.

 

Hi Jeff. While I also prefer to run 5W30 I've got to say that there's nothing wrong with running 10W30, especially if you don't get a lot of very cold whether.

It's the 30 specification that's important for normal operation, this indicates the viscosity at normal operating temperature. The 5W or 10W part is only relevant to cold starting.

I'm not sure about the climate in mjustice's location, but I know that where I live (never freezing) there would be very little practical difference between me using 5W30 versus 10W30.

 

Cool. Make sure you post those UOA's here so we can all see how it goes hankster.

 

Based on UOA, my '04 Prius I went 16,000 km running the dealership filter and Mobil 1 0W-30, later on Mobil 1 0W-20. No oil consumption, good lab results

With my FJ, since I rarely put 4,000km a year on it, I change the oil every fall. I use the made in Germany Castrol Syntec 0W-30 and the dealership filter. Good lab results

 

Used Oil Analysis

 

While the car is under the powertrain warranty (5 yr. / 60K mile) I would suggest you replace the oil at 5K mile intervals if you desire to maintain that protection.

After the warranty has expired then I would suggest using full synthetic oil and changing it annually (i.e., every 8K miles.)

I use full synthetic oil on my Prius and change that and the filter at 7,500 mile intervals.

 

I use Mobil-1 Synthetic 5w20 and change it out every 7000 miles.

 

I chang oil myself every 10000 miles with Toyota/Mobile 1 - grade 0W-20.
It is a must to use 0W-20 oil, except 0w-30 if you driving freeway at most as per Toyota japan site.

 

I barely put on 6k miles per year. I use Toyota 0w20. I did my first change at about 3.5k miles, and the dealer tried to talk me out of it.

I plan to change once per year or 7.5k miles, whichever comes first.