Oil Change

you ask a dealer who has experience with thousands of cars, and they give you their opinion(based on their corporate experience with millions of cars, and the collective industry experience which now recommends 10kmi). They give you that opinion but you defer to the collective experience of a few dozen owners. Despite the fact that the small experience pool of the owners can provide no actual evidence that shortening the interval is in any way beneficial. just IMO's and hunches.

 

You may wish to reread that part of the manual.

A 2012 in the US should state that the interval is 10,000 with 0-w20 oil.

And that if you are FORCED to run 5-w20 oil to get rid of it in 5,000 miles and go back to 0-w20.

 

Riding on dirt roads... my mistake (That would be 5,000) miles for oil changes. Curious, if you do ride on dirt roads does the FREE 25,000 mile service cover that? Does anyone have the FINE print on the FREE SERVICE (not all services are free if you ride on dirt roads, additional charges my apply) or something like that?

 

The oil filter is there to collect any stray metals.

 

BTW, It does say (Riding on Dirt roads OR DUSTY roads) DOn't we all ride on dusty roads to some degree? lol! 5,000 miles it is!:rockon:

 

Wouldn't have to stop raining to be dusty?

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Traction control for a prius for sure...

 

Yes, some have not noticed the last 50 years of advancements occur, and prefer their 'old wives tales'. I often wonder how they operate computers without punched cards.

 

Do what makes you happy I did my first oil change at 1073 miles, I did not do a used oil analysis on that oil. My second and third oil changes were done at the dealer under the Toyota Hawaii Care Program it only goes to 20,000 miles compared to 25,000 with Toyota Care on the mainland. With my second and third oil changes I sent samples in to Blackstone Laboratories for used oil analysis, http://www.blackstone-labs.com/. On the second oil change I had 9,550 miles on the oil and 10,625 miles on the car the lab said all the numbers were good and recommended that I increase my oil change interval to 11,000 miles. On my third oil change the oil had 9,073 miles the odometer was 19,689 once again the lab said everything was good to go and recommended I extend my oil change interval to 11,000 miles. If your that concerned change it when you want to. I recommend having a used oil analysis done to make sure everything is okay.


Posted from my iPhone via the Tapatalk app.

 

What I was saying is that you're not far away from DIY oil changes being so difficult as to be impractical. As I said, Mercedes has done away with the oil drain plug, this makes DIY oil changing less attractive, as third party shops and owners have to buy a pump(as I did). Certainly easy to picture a time when the oil filter is under a valve cover and only really serviceable by techs at a 30kmi change.
btw, BMW and/or Mobil 1 ran a 325 for 100kmi with no oil change...when the took the oil out it was still within manuf specs.

 

Yes, on my 2010, and I am flat amazed how the synthetic oil still looks almost new at 10,000 miles.
I have run Mobil 1 synthetic in my rigs (not Toyota or Prius) for the last 30+ years.
At 10.000 miles, it would go from baby oil clear to like dark maple syrup.

The stuff in my 2010 Prius is only dark enough so it is a bit easier to see it on the Prius dipstick at 10,000 miles.
I can only imagine that the piston rings in the Prius engine are very good and allow very little combustion products past the rings and into the oil.
Maybe the fact that a Prius engine spends very little time idling also helps ?

 

I am siding with the Toyota manual.

 

Glad to hear about the oil samples. I know BMW and all have some very good oil they used, glad to see Toyota now has some good stuff too.

 

I traded my old Prius 2 for a Prius 3 (2015). After a couple of miles, it is time for oil change. However, I was surprised by the fact that Prius 3 requires a mineral oil, way more expensive. So here are my questions :
- can a Prius 3 run on mineral oil ?
- I make 10000 miles in about two years ; can I wait that long before changing the oil ?
Thanks

 

it's NOT more expensive, get mobil1 at walmart with the coupons or castrol from amazon/
change it once a year, as soon as comes out of the sealed bottle it will slowly start oxidizing/

 

Thanks... will do

 

Toyota USA says to change the oil and filter every 10,000 miles or yearly, whichever comes first. Again, FWIW, Toyota Canada says to change it every 5000 miles (8000 kms) or 6 months, whichever comes first. This is for 3rd gen: for 4th gen Toyota Canada has adopted the US interval. All that said: it's up to you when you change the oil. Personally, I prefer and stick to the 5000 miles or 6 months.

There's no mention in the Owner's Manula of "mineral oil". I think you mean "conventional" motor oil? There's also no mention that the oil needs to synthetic, but the 0W20 spec "implies" synthetic, since as far as I know all 0W20 is synth. There's also mention that you can use 5W20, though it's not the preferred. 5W20 can be conventional or synth.

FYI, I buy in bulk for a local Toyota dealership, both Toyota 0W20 (synth) and Toyota 5W20 (conventional). They're currently around $4.90 and $3.50 (CDN) per liter respectively.

 

This time last year, I put a Gen 4 short block in my Gen 3. This past March, I hit 8000 miles since install, and had an oil analysis done. At that time, the analysis recommended a change at 5000 miles due to slightly elevated silicon level in the oil. They said it could be either remnants of gasket maker or dirt leaking in past intake manifold. I am currently waiting on the result of the second analysis. But I do have to say that the oil was still very clean and clear when draining. There is probably no reason to have changed it, but I was playing it safe.