Toyota Care

My new tacoma come with Toyota Care 2 yr or 25,000 miles. Basically free oil change and tires rotation and top off fluids. I'm a big fan of changing oil myself and use synthetic oil. Should I bring it to the dealer at every 5k miles for free or should I just do it myself with synthetic? My truck is at 3k miles now and I'm thinking about just change the oil filter now and wait til 5k then bring it to the dealer. What do you guys out there think? Tires rotation is annoying to do at home since I don't have more than 1 jack. Thanks all

 

Just do the Toyota care you paid it for so by not use it and its only for 5 oil changes then you can run all synthetic and you will have saved a little money over that time

 

depends on how much time you have--wait 2hrs for a change plus travel time-or do it yourself-you decide.

 

There's no need to change the oil filter until 5k miles. As long as you use good quality filters, or just the toyota filter, 5k miles is just fine. Whether you want Toyota to do your oil changes or not is up to you.

 

The dealership I bought my truck from has mine done in 45 minutes and no loose oil bottles or anything left in my bay...they do a good job. I know it varies dealer to dealer. After the 25k ill definitely be doing t myself though.

 

yes

 

I wonder if you can pay an additional fee to do syntetic on top of what Toyota Care covers!

 

yes

 

X2. I pay about $43 in the upcharge. (Groan)

 

Walmart: 5qt. 5w30=$22.47
1qt. 5w30=$ 6.97
-------
$29.97+tax
I take it to the dealer and they install with their filter. Never had a problem.

 

My 2011 came with an extra year of Toyota care (3yr/35k). They'll even do the plugs and xcase/diffs at 30K plus I get free lifetime washes which is not great but good enough. Find yourself a good dealership, mine is great and in and out in 45 minutes or less. After Toyota Care, I'll switch to synthetic and do them myself.
My 2009 came with lifetime filter and oil change every 5K miles. You just have to endure the 2 hour wait or come back for it.

 

$43....? How much do they charge for reg oil and synthetic without Toyota Care?

 

This in combination with Toyota Care? So you getting labor, and filter free right?

 

Yes, labor and filter as part of Toyota Care

 

I don't mind the waiting so getting free oil change and tires rotation until 25k miles at the dealer then do it myself with synthetic does make more sense.
Great feed back guys.

 

Great thanks...

 

Synthetic was $75ish?

Backing out the difference it's probably like $30-35 for a regular change.

I figure synthetic can't hurt. Since it's a non-turbo, I'll run Mobil 1 5w-30. I do plan on doing a UOA or two at maybe the 10K/20K intervals. I do UOAs on my STi every oil change. I use German Castrol Syntec 0w-30 in that.

 

Off topic a little but I change mine every 3k, I know you can go to 5k just fine, but can you service it to much?

 

Be kind of a waste to not use it if you paid for it. Its not like the dealer oil and other fluids is going to hurt the truck or anything. This is assuming you live within a reasonable distance to a dealer.

 

Why 5,000? Go every 6,000 miles!