No Oil Change at 5,000 Miles?

Great! all dealers are not created equal.

 

I found this on the public site

http://www.toyota.com/owners/parts-service/synthetic-oil/chart.html

 

Nice Find. Rep to you.

 

Full synthetic oil change required every 5k miles for the 2011 4-cyl Tacoma? That's total overkill and I just don't get it -- might as well pour your money down the drain. At 5k my dino oil still has some good clarity.

 

If the manual states dino, I use dino. The synthetics seems to be the hot ticket, but dino does not break down normally before the 5000 miles mark, so protection is there. With the diffs and trannys, being longer intervals I feel synthetics may be better, but not sure. I set the clock at 3500 miles, then get to it when I can with my vehicles. Most of the time its between 4000-4500 miles. Please tell me why I should spend the extra $$$? Also, all theses stories of Toyotas going 3-400K was done with dino...

 

and pixie dust??

 

It is not so unusual for a Toyota 4-cylinder engine to go over 300k miles with normal maintenance using petroleum-based motor oil.

 

it's not so unusual for a lot of mfr's engines to go that far with good maintenance. it's not the engine, it's everything else that causes the problems that makes it unattractive to keep.

Problems like rusted out frames, and intermittent electrical accessories, worn suspension, etc, etc. etc. It's a project keeping any vehicle that long.

 

The maintenance log on my new 2011 says to change the oil and filter at 5,000 miles. Also, not sure if this has been brought up yet, but I was told somewhere that my truck has a specific oil with certain additional additives to assist in the break-in. Therefore, I didn't change my oil after the first 500 miles like I've done in the past on my car and motorcycles.

 

I heard from the dealer they switched to synthetic for '11 Tacomas and so this is the new interval. The synthentic oil probably will last that long with no problems, but the filter won't. My BMW I had before had 15,000 scheduled oil changes, which was ridiculous. I always changed the filters after 5 to 6k miles because I knew they wouldn't go 15k.

 

Sold my 97 4x4 Tacoma 5-speed at 267,000 miles, and it would still pull like a champ. Used dino and changed every 3-5k miles. Never had an engine problem. Probably should've just held on to it.

If you want to take care of your truck, don't let it go over 5k between oil changes, regardless of what the manual or dealer says.

 

I do mine every seven thousand, works great for me

 

No doubts about that... dino is very good oil and will do the job. I do, however, like that I can get that same performance with synthetic oil but at 10k OCI's. Maybe even more but that's quite good enough.

And my other point is: no vehicle is fun at 267K miles unless you also enjoy fixing things regularly. I get rid of mine at about 10-13 years, 130-150K miles just because of the accumulation of niggling things from blinker switches and seat springs to not-so-niggling things like A/C compressors, suspension bushings and fuel pumps that go bad.

 

A lot of people who have high mileage vehicles, put the mileage on very quickly. There's a huge difference between a 5 year old vehicle with 100k and a 10 year old vehicle with 100k. The 5 year old vehicle could still appear practically new, while the 10 year old vehicle could be beat to hell and worn by the elements for an additional 5 years.

Personally, I'll be at 100k in 4-5 years, and my truck will still look new. I plan to keep it for as long as I can...I would love to break 300k.

 

If you changed your oil @10,000 miles using synthetic vs dino @ 5,000 it seems like a wash $$ wise unless we can prove synthetic is better for the motor. But if you went in to the Dealer with an engine issue with the practice of using synthetic and changing @ 10,000 miles, and had all the service records, your claim may be denied because the manual states 5,000 miles/6 mo, for oil changes, with no exception of synthetic oil use and extended miles/periods stated. However, "tests" and many agree synthetics do last longer or do not break down like dino. All I know is as many have mentioned, this a small part of maintaining a vehicle, but when I change my dino oil between 4-4500 or less miles, it always looks "tan" or not worn out.

 

Lastly: I know you should NEVER go by looks of oil! Looks tell you NOTHING. The story of oil aging is in mechanical properties (film strength and viscosity) and it's chemical properties (TBN, or ability to deal with acids) primarily. So, I don't care about how dark it gets in use! Diesel oil can be tar-black within 500 miles of going in service: it's still perfectly doing it's job protecting the engine!

WRONG- there are many things oils can tell us by their "off color looks", ie water in the oil, etc. way before a lab can check on the above properties.

Plus, who was discussing Diesels?

 

I hear the synthetic oil is easily good for 10k, but the filter should still be changed at 5k. Hell I change mine every 6 months, eventhough I only drive 5k miles a year. But that's because the manual on the V6 says change it every 5k or 6 months .. whichever comes first .. to stay in warranty.

 

You have a 4.0 - if you had a 2.7 you'd have to get under it to get at the filter and have oil run down your arm - after that changing the oil is no big deal - U R under there anyway - U have done the hard part so Y not ?

 

My dealer told me this also, But when I saw an advertisement for this the tacoma was not listed. I would make them show you printing where it says tacoma.