Break in oil

If you do an internet search on the subject you'll find that break in oil does not have any advantage for standard motor vehicles and is primarily for rebuilt engines, especially high-performance engines with flat tappet camshafts, as they benefit from the specific properties of break-in oil designed to promote proper wear during the initial running period.

That being said if I owned a brand new Prius I'd change the engine oil after the first 1000 miles with full synthetic. I'd also replace the transmission oil once in the first 50K to 100K miles as a one time deal. Both of these oil changes would be the extent of my break in oil concerns specifically because on PriusChat we've done oil deposit analysis on old oil and the data supports this approach.

 

Isn't that what's already in it?
IMO, messin with factory fresh is ill advised. As far as the 3 year 30k miles free, if that's still a thing, I'd keep a closer eye on that and the dip stick for the for the first 10k.
And be sure to read the owners manual before you make assumptions about what to do with the car.

 

Just do a first oil/filter change, no more than 5k miles.

 

I've never heard that Toyota puts a "break in" oil in their engines at the factory, so I just do my break-in oil changes between 500-750 miles.

Our VVTI's are VERY sensitive to oil viscosity so folks who do stuff like putting 20W-50 in their Toyota's are just being dumb. When my dealer gave me a free oil change in my new Prius, they put in 0W-20 instead of 0W-16 and I drained it out and put in the right stuff as soon as I got home....not risking this car not lasting 300,000 miles.

 

oy vey…

 

I know, my stupid OCD is like that! (But they had, also, overfilled it so the double-OCD hit....else I might've just lived with it for 6-months.)

 

With our last car that specifically tripped me, to go back to DIY. Lying under the car, holding an almost-out drain bolt, tricking out the nearly a liter overfill. Decided I could do better, and work cheap.

 

The original factory oil is still in my 2024 Prime and it and the original filter will stay there until the first oil change is due at 10,000 miles.

The factory oil contains high levels of molybdenum and I trust that the Toyota engineers have done a good job in setting the maintenance schedule. There’s lots of historic evidence that my engine will live a very long life if I just follow the manual maintenance instructions.

The engine in my Prime doesn’t run much when I am at home, plugging in. First gas fill-up was at 2000 miles!

 

Toyota has a greater interest in selling you a new car than getting you into the 300K mile club.

We've done studies on used motor oil on here and that first load of oil in the engine has way, way more metal particles than future oil changes will have so I'd recommend not pushing the limit to maximum miles before an oil change.

And keep in mind many of us change our own oil because the Toyota Stealerships and oil change places aren't going to care about doing the job right as much as the person who wants the car to be running beyond 300K miles.

 

I don't want the dealer to give me the wrong oil on the free oil changes, can I ask for the parts and DIY?

 

I'm just going to use mostly HV mode (to keep the ICE working a bit) and then do a filter/oil change at 500 miles with Toyota's 0w16 oil. After that, will start treating it more like a phev. I'll change the oil/filter again around 2k. That should remove any wear metals from the break-in.

 

Of course. The parts is basically an oil filter and drain bolt washer. Oil spec and refill qty is noted in owners manual.

I seem to recall someone posted 5th gen oil change info from Toyota Tech Info here (may be mistaken), which basically is needed for drain bolt and oil filter torque values. FWIW, third gen it’s 28 and 13 (ft/lb) respectively, the latter presuming spin-on filter.

Maybe of interest: Honda Owners Manuals include an oil change instruction, and transmission fluid change as well. At least they used to, hopefully they’ve not followed Toyota’s lead, more recently.

Regarding “wrong” oil: I doubt anything bad would come from using 0W20.

 

I don't have the patience nor the OCD to worry about break-in on a new Toyota.

 

If they actually change the oil When I took my Prius in for the first inspection.tire rotation, they put i writing they adjusted the air pressures below recommended. They actually did not change the air pressures. I performed my own maintenance from that time on. I even drove over 2 hours to a different dealer to do the wire harness inspection recall. I only trust my local dealer for a test drive before purchasing elsewhere.

 

It was -25C here last night. My low tire pressure light was on, but I didn't want to add any extra air to my tires. They would be over-inflated once the weather warmed up. I know that the tires would warm up with driving, and the light would go off. That's exactly what happened.

 

I simply don't want the dealer to put in thicker oil on my near new engine which may eventually wide the gap between the cylinder walls and the piston rings and causing oil consumption.

 

Synthetic oils have been improving, and viscosities have been getting lower. The lower the better for fuel economy.

 

There's no scientific basis to validate this concern... It's just motor oil, not sand...

 

Engine break-in is not as important as it once was. Manufacturing tolerances are much tighter than they once were. That's why they no longer recommend break-in procedures. I'm not the type of OCD driver who frets over every possible thing.