maintenance required at 5000 miles

Your owner's manual has a schedule of maintenance which is fairly detailed.

Probably the most important thing that you can do to keep from using oil would be to check your oil level every 1,000 miles or so and monitor for any oil use. Also be sure to check the oil volume before and after your oil is changed.

Good Luck!

 

All they do at 5000 is rotate your tires and look things over. First oil change is 10,000 miles and they rotate again. The cycle goes on to at least 100,000 miles but they will change cabin and air filters when needed.

 

My dealer says there is a 500 mile grace period to bring in the car for service or perform necessary service. YMMV.

 

Here we go....I follow my own schedule....... I change the oil every 5,000 miles, and paid for the extra oil changes in-between the free changes. I would like to point out that each country has different maintenance schedules, and our neighbors to the North, Canada, follow oil changes every 5,000 miles. For me its a personal reason, as I will more then likely have this car forever, as I tend to keep my cars. Its no different then changing the transmission fluid at 30,000 miles even though Toyota says the fluid is go for the life of the car.

 

The reason we used to change oil at 3000 was that the conventional oil and their early additives wore out quickly and the carbureted engines with no computer control were fundamentally less efficient and contaminated the oil faster. Mobil One full synthetic changed the oil paradigm and engine technology changed the contamination expectations. And there is still a safety margin at 10000 miles. BMW and Jaguar allow 15000 miles between changes.

So Toyota specifies 5000 miles with conventional oil (although conventional "mineral" oil is for emergency use only) and 10000 with full synthetic oil. Very dirty or extreme environments may justify 5000 mile changes. With that said, some like to change oil early the first time to possibly remove any manufacturing contamination.

 

I would want the Toyota Synthetic 0W20 to be used. I think it's first choice for the Prius engine.

In which case it makes the 5000 mile "customer care" covered maintenance check, basically just a tire rotation and a visual check.

I would definitely do it, to establish a relationship with your service department. To get a feel as to whether you like them or not, and to maintain a service record in case you should need warranty work in the future.

I personally paid out of pocket, to have them change my oil/filter at 5000 miles, it was ahead of Toyota's schedule. So for oil and filter changes my intervals have been 5,000, 10,000-20,000 and I intend on staying on the 10,000 mile interval and always using the 0W20 synthetic.

Do the 5000, but don't stress about it. Assuming you don't have any problems, it's basically just a tire rotation and a rudimentary visual check.

 

Is your car owned or leased? If you are going to keep the car change the oil. If not, follow Toyota's recommendations. Either way, don't miss that 10k oil change. Mobil 1 is great oil. Toyota, in the recent past, has had oil gelling problems (the oil gets so hot, it gels in the cylinder head). Mobil 1 cures this problem. Not necessarily is this a problem with Prius, ever.

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