Oil Change

Anyone can change oil, but Jiffy Lube has a less than excellent reputation here. Just make sure that the oil is not overfilled.

 

if you have no clue, and no one to help you, i would look for a triple A certified shoppe.

 

Where you go is less important than who does it and what they do to it. There are excellent mechanics that work at quick lube places and are there for fun. However most there are just little tech monkeys. An oil change is a "brainless" job, so they put the mechanics without brains on that job. The smart ones are doing actual repairs like engines and transmissions where their more valuable skills are put to good use.

There are also various grades of oil and if you go to a quick lube place and know nothing about it, they will give you the cheapest stuff most likely.

If I were you I would take your favourite brand and type of oil in (like Mobile 1 0w20) and in the quantity you need like x4 1 quart bottles. Tell them to use your oil and watch them pour it in. They should have 0.5qt to a bit less left over. Do not let them put all 4 quarts in.

 

Check around online at nearby Toyota dealers. Some of them have excellent prices on oil changes.

 

I have a local dealer who seems to offer a good price on maintenence packages. What does everyone else think?

For $99 you get 3 conventional oil changes, 3 tire rotations, 3 multi point inspections, and a safety and emissions inspection.

For $130 you can do synthetic oil, but it will only include 2 oil changes instead of 3.

I drive about 450 miles each week, mostly highway commute. If I go conventional, could I comfortably do an OCI of 5,000 miles? If so, that seems like a good route...

 

Actually, using conventional mineral oil, I would say you could easily go 7.5K miles between oil changes, given your highway commute schedule, as long as you make sure the changes actually happen - vs. your car sitting in the service parking lot all day without any work actually being done.

1) Make sure you check engine oil level at least at every other refueling so that you keep track of engine oil consumption and replenish the oil level as needed. Under no circumstances allow the oil level to drop below the lower dipstick dimple.

2) If you use synthetic oil you could go 10K miles between oil changes, but keep an eye on the engine oil level per #1 above.

3) The Prius maintenance schedule previously required 7.5K mile oil changes on mineral oil prior to 2004. In 2004 this was reduced to 5K miles in response to lawsuits that Toyota faced regarding oil sludge buildup on certain V6 engine models. The oil sludge issue was not a problem in any other geographic area outside the US. My belief is that the affected owners did not actually change engine oil on schedule - or went to poor-quality oil change places.

The result of #3 is that all US Toyota owners since 2004 had to change engine oil more frequently than strictly necessary - until Toyota moved to the use of full synthetic oil (in 2010 in the case of Prius) which allowed 10K mile oil change intervals.

 

What happens if they put all the 4 quarts in??

 

Unless you have a brand new never oiled engine or somehow managed to drain ALL the oil in the car, adding 4 quarts will make it overfilled.

 

2k1 is one of gurus here.

I will just add a slight additional comment. Too much oil can create foaming as the crank dips into the oil, so instead of pumping a fluid stream of oil, the pump delivers a foam, made mostly of air, mixed with oil. Foamy air does not provide much in the way of lubrication.