30,000 miles between oil changes

@ Fred - thanks for your input too. I really look after all my cars very well in terms of maintenance and am a huge advocate of preventative rather than after it's broken. I always carry out the service before it's due etc, but these Prii are not like any regular car and I want to make sure that I have no hassles with it in the future

@ John (Britprius) - the advice that you give will also be very relevant as there's less than 60 miles between our countries! lol

 

Truckers do NOT ever go 100k between oil changes. All Diesel engines experience blow by where fuel gets into the oil. Thus washes out bearings and destroys engines. Diesels ( especially semis and dump trucks used for work) are changed every 10k.

(Source- certified diesel mechanic and CDL A driver )

 

So in the country where car oil is changed every 5,000 miles, you change truck oil every 10,000.

But oils and engines have changed significantly since those requirements were introduced back in the 1970's (or earlier?). It is not unknown over here for cars to have their engine oil changed every 20,000 miles or more often. This is from companies like BMW, so they obviously know what they're doing.

With regard to trucks. Truck (semi's) oil is changed infrequently here too due to the massive improvements in oils and the low(er) revving nature of the vehicle. The largest truck maker here recommends intervals of 120,000 km between changes. That's over 70,000 miles!

Oil-change intervals up to 120,000 km - scania.com

But carry on doing what you did back in 1967 and let the world move on

 

Whatever you say man. The manufacturers of these engines CAT, international , ect want the oil changed at this interval. It voids warranties otherwise. 15w40 Diesel engine oil hasn't improved that much.

 

Who's the diesel tech here anyways? Don't believe everything you read.

 

It's not fine, dealer likely used cheap regular oil, engine flush time and hope for the best.

 

You know what it is

 

You say that why? Because the oils sold near you at that grade are of no use? There are specialist fully synthetic diesel oils of the same wide variety sold here to match the various requirements of the different diesel engine manufacturers.

Because diesel is a small share of your market you'll get limited choices for oils. Because diesel is 50% of the market here, we get same selection of oils designed for diesel engines as you do for petrol engines. What I'm trying to say is that a supplier isn't going to sell the same range of diesel engine oils we get in an area where nobody will buy them. Maybe the following will surprise and confirm this too: Service station fuel pumps have four nozzles, 2 x grade of petrol (premium & super) and 2 x grades of diesel fuel (regular & super). The super diesel being used in performance diesel engines!

I believe in the US you mostly get diesel pumps at truck stops and presumably just the one option of diesel. Here you get diesel pumps at every service station and at every pump and often with the two choices of diesel fuel.

 

Ok

 

Very long intervals or long intervals under severe duty are allowable mostly by having an increased sump capacity. Remember that the Prius only uses 4 qts. As oil is lost or consumed what's left behind has to pick up the slack, and heat, and dirt, and viscosity changes due to whatever reason.

Oil is cheap here. Non-extended intervals are not an issue at my house. Plus changing oil earlier than some others might is one of my cheaper hobbies/vices.

 

The belief with so many Prius owners that preventative maintenance is un-needed or un-wise is fascinating. Toyota is wrong about the transmission fluid, the brake fluid and the engine oil life cycles. As my signature states, fix it before it breaks...and I just might know what i'm talking about.

YMMV

 

I've got no problems with doing shorter oil change intervals on lower cost "conventional" oils, or going for longer OCIs with full synthetic. They both work in my opinion.

The thing that I would stress however, is that whatever route you go, do make sure you check the oil regularly and top off as needed. Running with no oil is infinitely worse than just running an oil a little longer than ideal.

Personally I use a good quality synthetic oil and run it up to 10k miles on a 6 monthly interval. I also top off whenever needed and never let the level get too far below full.

But this works also

 

5k miles, and I get all tingly...

We all have different ways of looking at the world, and there is no RIGHT way. Some people want to eke out the last, tiniest bit of use from their oil and some don't. Some wouldn't dream of getting under a car and turning wrenches, and some find it enjoyable and look forward to the challenges.

I garden, compost, mulch to save water, reuse bread sacks and baggies, repair/reuse anything reasonable, and other things to save time, money, trash space, and feel good about. I even recycle the oil I take out of our multitude of vehicles with two five gallon steel cans. But I do not feel guilty in the smallest amount for changing synthetic or plain oil at 5k miles. Nor do I feel pained about changing trans fluid at 30k miles, or using 5w-20 instead of 0w-20. All of life is about choosing one of many available options.

I do, however, draw the line at wearing black shoes with a brown belt.

 

You have to check your freaking dipstick, but now days people don't do it.

I have a good example my buddy's "10 Acura MDX. He did about 10K miles after his oil change at the dealer, which is within appropriate range. The problem is, the engine got damaged because the oil got too thick, and it was below the minimum.

The damage was already done and cost him around $7k out of warranty. Yes, you can blame the dealer for not filling it up, for not using the correct oil, etc, but if you have had checked the dipstick regularly...

 

Normally I do my own oil changes, but on the occasions when I've had it done, I usually check the oil in the parking lot. Several times the oil is only filled to the "add" mark on the dipstick. In these cases, the cars in question had a larger oil capacity than the year-older model had.

Another time I happened to be looking through glass wall into the service bay and saw the tech removing the cartridge filter after the oil had been drained (which on this flavor of Chevy causes the oil from the filter to drain into the pan). I asked the service writer about this and he was immediately apologetic and had the tech drain the oil again.

I reasonably believe these were honest mistakes, and they're easier to fix immediately than having the debate about who pays for the blown engine. Trust but verify certainly applies to auto repair. I find some minor mistake about half the time I bring a car into service, and that doesn't seem to change if I go to a different garage.

 

which bypass filter system do you run in the prius? Where did you install it?
I run the pareto point system. Had it installed behind the left side of the front fender, where American cars have the thermos.
Last oil change was done at ~30k miles.