Bought a used Prius - how can I tell if it needs an oil change?

congrats and welcome! no, if you can't get hold of any records, just change it. the dealer can look up service by the vin number. all the best!

 

Yes.
There is a "maintenance needed" alert that is timed to 5000 mile intervals, I believe.
In conjunction with your owners manual it's suppose to alert to Oil Changes and Tire Rotations and basic maintenance.

But if it was me?
I would just take it in and get the oil changed. Ask the dealership to be sure to reset the timer, and start from there.

Oil changes are really not that expensive, and knowing when you last had one, as a new owner of a used vehicle is a good starting point.

If you have the owners manual, you can look up recommended maintenance...and I'd just keep up with it.

 

I do take mine to a Toyota Dealership.
Because it is a Hybrid, and a Toyota product, my hope is a dealership represents more familiarity with working with the vehicle than you might have at a corner mechanic or....well a Honda Dealership. Even though, nearly anyone SHOULD be able to do a Oil Change, I think it's wise to try to establish a relationship with a repair facility that has familiarity with hybrids, because eventually if you keep the vehicle long enough, you probably will run into a problem with a unique hybrid component. That's just my opinion.

I'd look up reviews for local Toyota Service Departments, and/or specialized Hybrid shops in your area. Try to find one you trust.

Unfortunately a Toyota Dealership Service Department is NOT a guarantee of great service. There have been enough posts in Prius Chat of people having various disappointing relationships with their service department. So I think looking up reviews, and giving a place the "test" of how they handle basic maintenance a good thing. Better to feel out a service department with something potentially simple like an Oil Change, and hopefully find a good one, and build a good relationship, than NOT have a known quantity if something more serious in the future should happen.

By the way, after the oil change. Be sure to check the level the next day, following week. Enough stories of mistakes being made, make me ALWAYS check. Cannot trust that anyone really has done it right.

 

Hi Electric,

I always look forward to your responses and advice. Your answers are more based on logic, which, in my opinion, helps people the most.

 

It is a good idea to take your Toyota to a trusted dealer for service. First, at least here, my dealer's price for oil change with a "free" wash is the same as anywhere else. Second, the dealer keeps records of the service it provided. Should by some rotten luck you need to get warranty or hidden warranty this service record should help. These cars have a lot of electronics inside. Fixing them can be real expensive. However, I had bought tires and had break service elsewhere.

 

i have a trusted mech at the local mobile station. guy can fix anything, and he's honest.

 

To add to the good advice above, you can also sign up on the Toyota Owners website (Toyota Owners Official Web Site), and add your car's VIN. Records for services performed at a Toyota service center should be visible there. You can also manually add any non-Toyota services (e.g. DIY filter changes) to keep all of your service history in one place.

Of course, the previous owner may have used a non-Toyota service center for the last oil change. If in doubt, just go ahead and get it changed, as @The Electric Me suggests above!

 

Trust but verify.

Always check the oil before leaving the lot.

 

If the car is new to you, change the oil immediately, either yourself (just did my Gen 4 over the weekend, about a 40 minute job) or take it to a dealer. Then take to the dealer on the preset interval (or do it yourself). Always insist on the recommended oil. Since I do my own, I chose Mobil 1 0w 20. Always put in a new filter and oil plug washer.

 

What disappointed me most in the fine print of that site is, when you add service records there, you can see them, but not any future owner or prospective buyer.

It seems like they could cover their liability adequately if they just had some disclaimer like "this record was added by the owner, we can't verify it."

Even better if you could add records and link, for example, the dealer invoice number if you bought the oil and filter element there, which could serve to partially corroborate your entry....

-Chap

 

Yeah, and the download-to-pdf format leaves a lot to be desired. Definitely not helpful if you do your own work or have it done at a non-Toyota facility. For a non-DIYer like me, though, it means 90% of my maintenance records get logged automatically

 

I agree. I tried to add my new tires and subsequent replacement of the TPMS sensors by America's Tire. It only shows up as a self reported service with no details, even though I keyed them in. Such a record is easily verifiable as I keyed the invoice number and identified the shop in the details. Again, it shows up simply as a self-reported service labeled "Other". Even I can't see those details.

I track it all elsewhere anyway but it is disappointing.

 

I can sort of see how Toyota might not devote staff time or develop a system for verifying work done at other shops. (Sure, you could add the name of the other shop and invoice number in your record, but it would surely be up to some later user of the information to call up the shop and find out whether you made up the invoice. I can't see Toyota providing that service.)

But on the other hand, if you do some work yourself and you bought the supplies at the dealer (not such an outlandish idea, around me their price on 0w-20 oil, for example, is the best I've seen), it should be absolutely possible for you to put in that Toyota invoice number and have it show with your record of the service, with a little verified icon showing Toyota knows they sold you the stuff, at around the same time you say you did the work.

-Chap

 

Right. That data might be useful to a future owner such as Rhiannon C. As I understand, not even the dealer can see owner-added maintenance data, even if they know and trust you. Overall, it seems a lot less useful and more cumbersome than independently maintaining your records in whatever other format you find most convenient.

 

Realistically if u check the oil level on the dipstick and it is not low then you can just change it when the maintenance required light goes on. Check the oil level weekly. Engine failures are almost always the result of not checking and letting it run low. When it is low then change it.