How often should I be changing the oil of my Prius?

4000 conventional oil 6000 synthetic

 

I change with Mobil 1 every 5,000, but I’ve owned the car a long time and I’ve let it go 9,000 miles before a change.

 

With 3rd gen Toyota USA says 10k miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. Toyota Canada says 8k kms (~5k miles) or 6 months, whichever comes first.

Both recommend 0W20, which likely is only available as synthetic. But they don’t come right out and insist on synthetic. I think in particular with the CDN interval either synth or conventional would be fine.

 

Yes, 10K mi is the interval for standard use.
But I aim to change every 5K mi, which is also the interval for heavy use (they have some term for it).

With my car at 160,000 mi, I’ve switched from the 0w20 to 5w30. Toyota definitely specs 5w30 for the engine, in addition to 0w20. I think they specify the super low viscosity oil because it improves mileage. That’s important, but engine life is important too.

 

Here's why I do 3-5 thousand mile oil changes.

 

That settles it! 5K oil changes!

 

OEM recommends 10k miles, and that is being conservative (and CYA) with 0W20.

 

Try this additive for your oil consumption.

 

Oil and filters are a lot cheaper than a full engine rebuild. Toyota only warrant the engine for 5 years or 60k miles, whichever come first. I also believe that they only considers loss beyond a quart for a thousand miles abnormal.

 

The test in the attached TSB sets eligibility for block rebuild sets excessive oil consumption parameters as under 60K miles and more than one quart in 1100~1300 miles.

I appreciate for high mileage owners it's not a factor, but: while everybody's talking just miles, the official Toyota schedules are miles or months, whichever comes first. For our Canadian 2010 the official edict is 6 months or 8K kms. We're doing maybe 4K kms yearly. I'm changing the oil and filter every 6 months.

 

Since it’s a 2011, change oil & filter every 5,000 mi or 6 months, which ever of the 2 (miles driven or time duration) comes first.

Stick to synthetic and don’t use “high mileage” spec, it’s printed right on the label.

 

Here they put Castrol Magnatec Stop-Start professional 0W-20. That is some 17Eur per liter. Pricey, eh;-). Especially if car consumes some. Mine consumes about half a liter per 1000km. If i change oils every 6months i’ll be sending quite a lot of money to Castrol. I think i need to find some lower cost option.

 

A Gen 3 car should only be running synthetic.

Missing from the equation is how fast are you piling the mileage on? If you're driving a ton, longer intervals, even past 10K are fine. If you're always short tripping the car, shorter intervals are required.

 

Who is "they", a dealership? That's robbery.

I don't think Toyota says that.

 

Yes official Dealership. It sure is robbery. And that stuff is hard to find from other sources perhaps because of price (nobody want it).

 

I’m still going to say that I think 5,000 is the right interval. Toyota used to specify 5K until they included scheduled maintenance and they still specify 5K intervals under higher stress conditions. That’s why the Canadian interval is still 5K.

Toyota doesn’t care what happens to your engine after warranty/extended warranty. We know these engines develop head gasket and piston ring issues. I don’t think the 10K interval is a good choice for longevity.

 

15k intervals on mine since I got it at 42k. Oil analysis comes back amazing. One size does not fit all. It's just not as simple as that.

5k-10k is a good cya for Yota to cover the averages between dead beat owners, varied driving/operating conditions and warranty concerns. Lowest common denominator and all that, not necessarily what is required for long engine life in all cases.