Oil Changes - 3K or 5K

have a new four-door 4wd tacoma...... manual says oil changes every 5K, but the dealership says 3K, not sure if this is what they say for more business or not.

The service manager told me that here in the Northeast (Vermont), it's best to do them every 3K to avoid the engine "gunking up" in the long run.....

any thoughts?

 

I'll be changing mine every 25000.......AMSOIL SYNTHETIC.......

 

If you go that long make sure you at least change your oil filter every 5k.

Ok what is required to keep your warranty intact? 3 or 5? I've been doing it every 3 on my 4x4 because I thought it was required for the warranty. I'm using full synthetic though. No way am I going to keep doing it every 3 if I only have to do it at 5 for the warranty.

 

if you are using full synthetic.........imo, its kind of a waste to change it every 3k. you'll be fine doing it every 5k. synthetic has longer drain intervals than reg. dino oil. my dealer says every 5k, as does my owners manual. i use mobil1 5w30 full synthetic,and i change it every 5k!

 

I have used AMSOIL for about 15 years in all my vehicles, their filters used to be good for 12500 now they are good for 25000 or 1 year. Same as their oil 25000 or 1 year. My Dad has a '94 Chevy 4X4 Ext cab he bought new and has 290000 on it and still going strong with no blue smoke, started using AMSOIL at 5000.

 

I brought this up to my dealer when I bought the truck. He said that I could do it every 3k if I wanted, but it would somewhat mess up the maintenance log. The log is for every 5k or 6 months. Which ever is first.

 

My owner's manual says 5k and also my dealership... Just got my first oil change at 5k last week!

 

i wonder if driving in extremely cold temperatures makes a difference....

 

I change every 3K on my IS300 that says it can go to 5K and i use synthetic also, and will do the same with the Taco I bought. Some say thats a waste, but to me its a small price to have the purest, cleanest oil hence longer engine life. Also its driving habit, the harder you drive can cause contamination faster, and the IS see's autox duty and hard driving from time to time on the street.

Synthetic oil can last for a car's lifetime (jets do not change their syn. oil, they just make sure its topped off) its just the contaminants from combustion that deteriorates it/contaminates it with junk which is why the TRD SC w/ self contained syn. oil has a life of up to 100K, and its not the oil that goes bad but the nose drive wear depositing particles into the oil and some cars differentials/LSDs fluids are rated for the cars lifetime). The "long life" oils that go for 10+K just have tons of cleansers and additives that "swell" up gaskets and what not. Not a fan of that.

bradn88, synthetics were originally released to the public advertised for cars (via an Air Force pilot gone business man that noticed the synthetics they used on his jet survived all the crazy temp extremes) for cold start protection in cold regions (synthetics maintain rated viscosity at extreme temps where as normal oil will be like tar in freezing weather and too "thin" at over temp). Its resistance to degradation from over heating and its lack of "free radical" like rough particles (synthetic is "perfect", normal motor oil has mixed in it oil molecules that are not "smooth" and protecting but like to the human body act like free radicals to the engine's moving parts) were an afterthought.

Here is a damn good link about oil.
http://63.240.161.99/motoroil/

Simply put, don't feel like a fool if you change oil earlier than "rated" especially if you are using only normal oil and not synthetic, you can't go wrong as oil wears and gets contaminated, and its YOUR engine.

 

newer vehicles are recommended to have oil changes done every 5k miles by toyota. Thats why the service manual has intervals of 5k miles in it. Any dealer who tells you it's still every 3k miles in wrong.

 

I try to change my oil every 3k, I guess I am old school though.

 

My manual and dealer says every 5k. I am running full synthetic though, which can last up to 15k. I dont drive very hard so i'm gonna find a happy medium and change my oil at every 10k miles. With new synthetic oils that is not a problem.

 

my dealership said every 5k for me...

 

Dearlership tells you 3K miles because they want your business. I usually change mine out at 5K miles depending on how hard i drive my truck.

 

i just added the mobil 1 synthetic to my truck last week.. doesnt synthetic make the oil changes even longer? the dealership said still every 5k.. whats up with that? and i also noticed my mpg went down... my last tank b4 getting my oil i was getting bout 20.5 mpg (apx 265 miles per half tank)and this last half tank i sat a a whopping 200 miles... i dont know if its the oil or i added a quarter tank of 89 on top of a tank with 87 in it.. i dont know if that would cause my mpg to drop like that though.. and i havent been lead footing it either. any suggestions guys?

 

i just did my first oil change at 3,200 an used a synthetic blend, i'll keep an eye on my mileage. Everyone tells me for the cost, it's best to just do it every 3,000 miles to avoid any potential engine issues in the long-term.

not sure which way i'm going at this point since this was my first change.

 

If you're going to do oil changes at 3K miles with synth, you're just throwing money out the window, any type of dino oil would suffice then. Dino oil these days are much more superior than your father's motor oil that used to come in a can. I would do an oil analysis to find our how much farther you CAN go on synth rather changing it out every 3K. Just my 2 cents...