nearly 21,000 miles on OEM filter

I don't think it is a good idea to service a Toyota according to a Honda maintenance schedule. It is always prudent to change engine oil according to the specific vehicle OEM maintenance schedule or sooner. I have been looking at the 2015 Nissan Murano. I found it interesting that Nissan specifies a normal service engine oil change interval of only 5,000 miles or six months for that vehicle. If I buy a Murano that's the interval I will follow and not exceed. Car manufacturers differ on the length of their oil change intervals for reasons their engineers understand better than us.

 

You just aren't getting it.
The fact that your filter looked the way it DID indicates that something is amiss.......either your driving habits OR the type of oil you are using (Penzoil had a bad rep. regarding sludge for a long time) because it should NOT look like that.
Your next change needs to be REALLY short, like 2K miles to see what comes out then; filter too.

Continuing on your obsession with extended change intervals and continuing with the same oil is a FOOLS errand.
But it's your car and you are certainly free to abuse it however you see fit.

 

Well the interval changes pretty abruptly for the Prius, at the Canadian border. Both distance and time cut in half, for Canada. And our west coast winters have little in common with US North Central States.

I think the marketing department has a fair amount of say so. And they completely took over for the transaxle fluid, lol.

 

Back in the day, OCI was 3,000 miles and FCI was every other OCI. Then it changed to 3,000 miles for both. Some then changed it to 5,000 and 7,500 miles for both. Now the US Prius is 10,000, if the recommended synthetic oil is used. Then there are the Extended Protection synthetics that purport to be good for 15,000 miles. My car is still under warranty, so I follow their guidelines. I understand though that those guidelines are based on using the recommend oil and filters, not EP oils or better after-market filters. Once the warranty is up, I see no reason not to extend the interval by using the EP oil. I guess my only caveat would be that I suspect the 15,000 mile claim is for oil breakdown, not necessarily for contaminants and filter performance. I don't know how oils are tested to validate the 15,000 mile claim under normal driving conditions and I don't know what Toyota would say if they were asked about using them to extend the OCI. There are people in this forum who still change the oil in their Prius every 3,000 miles because that's what they've always done and they feel more secure doing so. If they ask for opinions, I'll give mine, but absent that, it's their car and their money, so it doesn't bother me.

I will say that I used Pennzoil many years ago (I'm talking the 70's ) until I pulled the valve covers once and saw how much sludge had built up. I cleaned everything up, changed the oil/filter, switched oils, ran for a few hundred miles and changed it again. Then I pulled the covers again for the next few oil changes and they remained clean. I haven't used Pennzoil since and I honestly don't care if that was just an anomaly or that oils have changed since then.

 

Nothing I said was insulting; at least it was not meant to be.
It was an attempt to get you back to reality.......but it looks like that failed.
I am not angry in the least, unless maybe some naive young person follows your unwise lead.

RIGHT. I do.
Says the man who displays a picture of a sludge clogged filter which he left in place a bit over TWICE the recommended interval........and then who goes on to say that he intends to go 50% past the already long recommendation in the future.
Not too brilliant in my book. (Yes, that is an insult.)

 

Picture in post #1 that YOU provided looks like a really badly abused filter to me.

Not just brown like they usually would be but solid BLACK and with some black goo running down towards the bottom.

Are you saying that you EXPECT your used filters to look like that ?? I certainly do NOT.
Or are you saying that the picture is deceiving and it's not really that bad ??

I can't read your mind and can only go by what I SEE.......and to me it looks really BAD.
And your plan going forward sounds bad too.

But to repeat: Your car and your call. I just don't want others to think that what you are doing is somehow good.......because it isn't.

 

I was speaking for myself and others who have the enough sense to see that you are on the wrong track trying to save a few bucks on oil and filter changes. It only takes one neglected oil change or filter event to cause damage to an engine. That damage may show up immediately or not for thousands of miles. You may have already done that by leaving that oil filter on for 21K.

 

Seems to me all threads get boring when people don't agree with me.

That said, I have no problem with anyone using one of the newer 15,000 mile oils to extend the change interval, though I'm still not convinced it's a good idea from a filter standpoint. Unfortunately though, too many might miss the fact that you're using arguably better oil and interpret a thread like this to simply say it's okay to wait 15,000 miles between changes. And it very well might be, time will tell.

I think the disagreement comes from thinking that filter isn't overly dirty and not changing the oil sooner the 2nd time. I'm far from an expert, but unless the photo is misleading, it looks like there is a lot of gunk running through that engine and I wouldn't think that was good. Personally, I would change the oil the 2nd time a lot sooner, perhaps as little as 1,000 miles, just to remove the residual gunk. At a minimum, I would at least inspect the filter a lot sooner than 10,000 miles just for peace of mind. I'm just not sure why the big push to extend the oil change interval in the first place, fresh oil is ALWAYS better than used oil, but then I don't get the hyper-miler push either.

 

You are exactly right. I had a 1998 Camry that I bought new. That year was supposed to have sludge problems. I changed my oil in it at 3,000 miles. I talked to a Toyota representative about it. He said "that does not apply to you. It happens to people who do not change their oil". I drove that car 140,000 miles. No hint of engine problems.

 

So, the REAL question is:

WTH was your objective in posting this "information" in the first place ?

It appears that you didn't get the reaction that you expected.
That's life.

Sometimes you can actually LEARN something when a LOT of people don't agree with you.
Other times you can just keep stirring the pot without really accomplishing anything......which is what this is looking like.

 

Well, the used filter pictured in OP looks a lot darker than ones I extract, typically around 6 months and 5000~6000 kms between changes. That's the Canadian schedule. And I'd hazard it's also darker than one pulled per the U.S. schedule, at 10,000 miles or one year.

Its a filter, it traps particulate, gradually clogs. You go more than double the distance element of the schedule, the longer US schedule, that's gotta be pushing it.

 

It certainly has mislead several people who have seen it.

And yes, I at least have seen a LOT of filters, from diesel tractors and truck to motorcycles and lawn mowers.
Maybe the problem here is more of photography skills.

And you still have not answered the question:
WHY did you make this post and thread in the first place ?

 

Yes, I've seen used filters before, I used to change them, and the one in your photo looks a lot worse than any of them did. The photo makes it look like there is a lot of sludge built up, that's why I said the photo might be misleading. But since you seem to take offense at comments, I'll refrain from adding anything further.

 

Wow, you are brave. I am an owner of the newly used 2012 Toyota Prius. I just bought the car with 41,000 miles. Did my first oil change after I bought the car. I would do my changes every 7500 miles. I am uncomfortable with the 10,000 mile oil change. I am using synthetic 5W 20 instead of 0w 20. I am used to the 5000 mi oil change On my 2007 Toyota Prius. So this can thousand no changes worries me. Keep us updated when your plan to do the 15,000 miles oil change. I would like to know how that turns out. I am really curious to find out how good the new mobile one synthetic oil is.