Fake oil change from dealer, maybe??

There's no "obligatory 1000 mile oil change."

 

I turned 25k miles this weekend and never used one of the "free" oil change coupons. Wanna' guess why?

Next time take a clean white napkin, swipe the dipstick in front of the service manager when you drop it off, then again when you get the car back and compare the two.

 

I imagine it could happen, either jack up the front or drive up on ramps and smear some grease on the oil drain plug, then when you get home after the service jack it up or drive it up again and check your grease smear, now if you have it jacked up, why not jack up the rear and change your own oil, no questions about how much was added, was it synthetic, what filter, what viscosity?
Or just let the dealer do what the dealer does best.

 

I assume this was under the Toyota Complementary Maintenance? If so, they won't change your oil @ 4,200 miles, but rather check fluids and rotate tires. At 10K they will do the oil change. Did they actually state they did the oil change on the paperwork?

 

So if you don't see a price that means they didn't change the oil on purpose per factory recommendations.

They're just in the habit of calling it oil change because most models still require oil change every 5k miles.

 

Well at least his oil was not changed TWICE unnecessarily, just the once at 1000 miles.

 

Unless the OP didn't know any better and replaced it with dino oil.

 

The warranty and maintenance guide for the 2011 states the following:

5k
check installation of driver floor mat
inspection / adjust fluid levels
rotate tires
visually inspect brakes

Additional maintenance under special conditions at 5k
Replace engine oil and filter if...
Driving on dirt or dusty roads
Repeated trips less than five miles under 32F
Extensive idling and/or low speeds such as police, taxi, delivery

Did you meet any of the special conditions? Otherwise it should not have been done...and if was under the complimentary service, they just wasted time and money.

 

My car was built in Jan. '10, dealer got in Feb and put it into service, I bought it Oct. with 70ish miles and put 1,000 miles on by that December so I changed the oil. By my manual, I was 6 months late.

 

I was wrong.

http://www.yellowtailmusic.com/audio/katz/wrong.mp3

I drive 30,000 miles a year, I forgot there IS any other criteria than mileage. I have an oil change every two months, but I am not thinking months when I do them.

 

I prefer to change my oil sooner as well...just habit. But is it not true that 10k on a hybrid car is not the actual mileage on the motor due to EV use? So 10k is really like 8k? Does the frequent motor start and stop offset that? Of course time is factor as well.

 

Well since Dec.'10, we've put another 24k more miles on it so, like you, we're back on the mileage interval.

 

I've got 13k miles on ours, and the oil barely has a tint, changed once per year (June '10, June '11) by the selling dealer, delivered before the 24 month free service coupons began. Any idea what caused the sudden darkening assuming you viewed the dipstick between your 1k and their 4.2k visit? If they did not charge anything on the invoice line, I doubt they added anything.

 

Maybe the OP replaced the original synthetic oil with dino oil at 1k. Synthetic oil shouldn't be "dark as molasses" even after 10k.

 

The invoice from my oil change (paid by the dealer) lists the multi point inspection at $11.50 which is credited out. The oil, filter, gasket, etc. are all N/C.

I don't believe syn oil can get black.

Look up your maintenance records at http://www.toyotaownersonline.com/index.html to see what they did.

 

My last change (8K) was pretty dark... not molasses black but dark. Probably should have sent it in for UOA.