Oil Analysis and change interval

I like 5,000, especially since the gen 3 debacle.
Dealers are clueless

 

Gen 3 debacle???

 

Head gaskets


https://priuschat.com/search/573802776/?q=Head+gasket&t=post&o=relevance&c%5Btitle_only%5D=1

 

I had the same question, so I read the linked thread. Not sure how changing oil at 5K vs 10k would have avoided the “debacle”. We’ve got over 152k on our 2014 Prius Four and after an early oil change at 5,000 miles, we’ve gotten it changed at 10,000 mile intervals. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really mean much, the head gasket could blow tomorrow…..whether or not we change the oil earlier. FWIW, we still have the original 12v battery too and when I first joined this forum, I fully expected to be on our 3rd or 4th battery by now, especially given how hard the Arizona heat is on batteries. The link does explain why folks recommended getting the EGR cleaned, though I’d be curious to know how many head gaskets by year have actually blown. I have to admit I was part of the 3k and 5K crew, so I was skeptical of the 10k in the book too. But then I looked at the oil at 5K and just decided to follow the book.

 

I've just followed the factory change schedule. Taken several cars over 100k miles without issues due to oil.

If doing an oil analysis to see if it is still good, you want the total base number test. This is the measure of the remaining acid neutralizers. Those getting used up is one of the main reasons to change the oil. With a new engine, the wear metals being higher than average will be normal.

 

For Gen 3 Toyota USA says 10k miles, and Toyota Canada says 8000 kms (~5000 miles). Not exactly singing from the same hymn book.

 

Climate does play a role. Cooler and wetter can lead to more water ending up in the oil.

Then there are factors that have no bearing on oil performance. Strong dealer groups can get shorter intervals for increased revenue. A culture can be resistant to change. I recall Canada taking a bit to adopt changes the EPA made to testing procedures. They did go to the longer oil change interval with later models.

 

Unfortunately, there's already too many people that don't check their oil routinely and end up with low pressure lights. Some people just believe a 5k mile OCI means you don't need to check level until you've driven 5k miles. Change the interval to 10k and it just gives those people a much higher chance of running 'er dry.

 

10,000 miles/16,000 kilometers is good for TGMO 0W-16 synthetic.

What do you intend to see in the used-oil analysis (UOA)? Since you are still breaking in the engine, you will see a lot of iron, copper, and aluminum anyway.

Unless your UOA has TBN, TAN, oxidation, nitration, and sulfation, you are not going to learn much from it.

 

FWIW I am a fan of a first oil change sooner than later, as IMO that removes the fine metal break-in particles.
Your oil analysis at 5K will answer many questions.
An oil change at 5K and then again at 10K I like .
Then follow the service manual recommendations (1 yr or miles) and get a second oil analysis.
That second analysis could answer a 5 or 10k interval for you.

 

With the Prime, it depends on how many of the miles are on the ICE. I put 35K miles on my Gen 4 before trading it, and about 2/3 of those miles were ICE. I did my initial at about (ODO) 8K (5K ICE), then again around 18K (13K ICE) and 28K (21K ICE). If you mostly drive short hops, your ICE is probably only logging 15-20% of your ODO mileage. So, it pays to monitor your usage.

Even for my Gen 3, a HEV, I figured approx. 75-80% ICE utilization, so kept pretty close to the 10K factory reccom. Never had any trouble running 9 years and new owner is soldiering on. Even at 10K intervals, the oil looked almost new (clear).

 

During the powertrain warranty period I would stick to the Toyota schedule. After that whatever, but myself I’d change it at least yearly, which is the months component of Toyotas recommendation.

 

Would be nice if total engine hours could be tracked.

 

Even better would be a monitoring system like GM and Honda use.

 

Yeah this would be far better than tracking engine hours. The issue with engine hours alone is the fact that there are additives in oil that can degrade, and start/stop, operating temperature of engine, and all that can degrade oil more quickly too and not boil off water. Its possible to unintentionally create "short trips" that would trigger the more severe maintenance schedules too.

So for me, personally, I plan to be extremely conservative with the time interval, and hope that in the future on future cars they do a Honda style oil quality and oil assessment system to tell us when we should go to change and not rely entirely on guessing, or getting oil analysis based on our usage to know for ourselves etc.

 

Dealership website, but fairly deep explanation of Hondas Maintenance Minder system:

Honda Maintenance Minder FAQs | Curry Honda.

 

Knowing how they like to squeeze profit out of old tech, I wouldn't expect such from Toyota.

 

I'm not buying another new car for a very long time. Maybe a low cost used car to replace our secondary/backup car when it dies (an 03), so realistically, 5+ years before anything fully new from Toyota. A man can dream that 5 more years brings us something new lol

 

New and improved? From my perspective at least, seems like that ship has sailed. Every time I see something "new", seems synonymous with cost-cutting and weirder.