Is oil change at 10k?

I already gave up once! What more do you want? You win!

 

:mod: From Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc. I got my official notification on the 2010 Prius stating "... use of the new synthetic 0W-20 Genuine Toyota Motor Oil in your Prius allows for the oil change interval to be extended to 10,000 miles/1year (from 5,000 miles/6 months) under normal operating conditions." But note that "the Maintenance Required indicator light will continue to illuminate every 5,000 miles ...". There are three steps in your owner's manual, page 420, for resetting the oil change reminder. Some will want the reminder every 5,000 miles for rotating tires, etc. I choose to do so every 10,000 miles.

 

TWO thoughts on your post . . .

1- The 4.5 quarts of engine protection, even at 10 bucks a quart for the most expensive 100% synthetic motor oil is not much money to keep your 30,000 dollar investment safe.

2- Draining engine oil and replacing the filter removes the wear particles, metal filings, water, dirt, etc. that accumulate in your motor so why would you want to keep all those destructive things in the engine twice as long ?

Personally, I never go more than 5000 miles between new clean oil and filter installments on my Prius. But then I want it to last a really long time.

Perhaps if I was in the business of building and selling new cars, I'd want the engines to wear out sooner, so I'd double the time the dirty contaminated oil & filter remained with the engine for maximum damage. That way people would buy more new cars.