A little confused.

From the Toyota Factory it is 0-W20, in the US it should always be 0-W20, but as I recall, Canada has a shorter OCI and perhaps a different grade of Oil, but I think it is still 0-W20 even in Canada.

 

It's just 0W-20 in Canada too. As far as I know, all Toyota puts in there is (Toyota) 0W-20. And no need to change the oil immediately. In the States the interval is 12 months or 10,000 miles, whichever comes first. Cross the border into Canada, more-or-less the same conditions, and it's 8000 km or 6 months. I like the latter, even if it's overkill.

If you're doing your own changes, and want to continue with the Prius, I'd get familiar with the engine underpanel, and look for an oil socket wrench with 14 faces, and 64.5 mm face-to-face. Toyota has one, Honda uses exactly the same size and also offers the socket. There's also third party manufacturers with offers. The filter is a cartridge only; the housing is permanent.

You can just open a flap on the underpanel to access the drain bolt and oil filter, but the plastic is a poor design, very thin/brittle. I've stuck to removing the whole panel, it's actually quite easy, just more time consuming.

 

Yeah, don't complicate things. Just use 0w20 all the time. Yes, you can use 5w-20. And it states that in the owner's manual if I remember right. And if you do, it's suggested that on the next oil change you go back to the 0W-20. I guess it's an option in case maybe you have a higher mileage Prius or something. I don't see why you would need to go with the 5W-0 every other oil change. I'd just keep it simple and just use 0W-20 every oil change no matter what the mileage. So I'm sure every Prius leaves the lot with 0W-20. I doubt there are very many people who use anything else.

 

When the car was made 0-W20 was rare and you might not be able to find it, today it is much more common.

 

I'm old school and I changed at 1k and at 5k. My experiences (maybe 30+ cars over 55 years) led me to these intervals, and while they might not be as necessary with more modern manufacturing tolerances and oils, I still follow them. Engine rebuilders I know do too.

 

I would be too.

I may not be an ASE certified wrench, but I never cheat myself, lie to myself, over charge myself, and if the job gets screwed up, I'll know who to blame.

Good Luck!

 

Reading the dipstick right after an oil change is just short of impossible. The oil is near-clear, tends to smear up the edges, and reads about a pint low, at least in my experience.

I just slam in 4.2 liters, check the dipstick JUST to make sure oil is in there, and check it more seriously after a day or two driving.

 

Right! The smearing (due to the S-curved dipstick tube) makes the exact level ambiguous. You can get a clearer indication by inserting the dipstick just far enough that only a little of its bottom end (below the low mark) reaches the oil. Measure the distance shy of full insertion, and add that distance up from the oil level you can see - more distinctly - at the bottom of the dipstick. That works, but is a lot of bother to do something that was easy on my previous cars (which all had straight dipstick tubes).

 

Perhaps the new prius's are being shipped with the higher quality oil (sl rated) that is outlawed in the USA.
The older rating sl had about 1500 ppm of zinc and phospur anti-wear additives.
I 've had experienced three bran new prius's that untill about 6k miles, the oil finally got dirty enough to see on dipstick.
This was with 2010 gen iii and two rentals that had under 6k miles back in 2012..

Anyway first oil change on my gen III with mobile 1 0-20w advanced fuel saving full synthetic (green cap) oil got dirty enough to read on dipstick at 3500 miles compared to 6000 miles with orignal japan oil.