2012 v6 synthetic or not?

I have a 2012 tacoma 4x4 v6. 4000 miles. I took the truck to change the oil and service manager told me it had synthetic oil in it and not to change until 10000 miles. My manual says 5000 miles but no mention of type of oil. I dont like his answer at all. Ill change my own oil but trying to do the maintenance while its new. Any info on this?

 

I changed mine after 5000km when the truck was new. They say during break in there can be metal shavings. I don't know how true it is but for 25 bucks what is there to lose? I change mine now about every 8000km with full synthetic oil.

 

You bought it new from the dealer? If it has synthetic in it, it was done by the dealer, they don't come from Toyota that way. I can't imagine that the dealer dumped perfectly good oil and replaced it with synthetic as an upsell.
Either way, I think the going consensus is to change every 5000 miles for synthetic.

 

Note so there is no confusion, he is talking kilometers. VVVVV

 

Yes i bought it new from the dealer. I took it to another dealer close to my house for the free maintenance. The service manager said it come from the factory with synthetic.

 

The dealership also told me my 2012 takes synthetic.

 

Nothing has touched my crank case (while I've owned it) but synthetic oil. I change my oil every 10,000 miles but I change my oil filter every 5,000 miles. So like this...

10,000 miles - Oil and filter
15,000 miles - Filter
20,000 miles - Oil and filter
25,000 miles - Filter
....ect

The idea is that the synthetic oil itself lasts longer and doesn't need to be changed as often. Many people have done oil sample tests and proven this. However, the filter needs to be changed more regularly since it removes crap from the oil that circulates through the whole engine.

I have 72,000 miles right now and each time I change my oil I peer down the filler tube and look at the timing chain. Even after that many miles it's so clean you could eat off it!

 

According to the dealer that did my last oil change, my 2011 does not require synthetic, so after having them do a synthetic oil change the previous time they tried to charge me for the most recent one. To my knowledge the engines in the 2011 and the 2012 are the same, and would require the same oil. Anyway I ended up not getting charged but I still do a full Synthetic oil change every 5000 miles. Though many synthetic oils are rated for a change every 10000 or even 15000. But most filters have a shorter lifespan so I figure if you do one might as well do the other.

 

As I know it the 4.0 V6 comes with dino oil not synthetic and if you look in the manual it states oil change every 5000 miles. Also the Toyota care program is for and oil change every 5000 miles. I have heard that the 4 banger comes with synthetic.

 

^Agreed that both engines are the same (to my knowledge) and should require the same oil. I don't think there's a REQUIREMENT on 2012's for synthetic but I think it's the more cost effective option if done the way I do it.

 

I have a 2012 and my dealer gave me the same story. I argued for a few minutes and showed them the maintenance manual where it clearly says change the oil at 5,000 miles. They said the manual was wrong and I laughed. After about 10 minutes of discussing it with the writer and service manager I could see it was going nowhere...wasn't worth my time to continue arguing. I wanted synthetic oil and for the price they were going to charge me for synthetic I told them no thanks and had them perform the complimentary toyota care maintenance (which did not include an oil change at 5,000 miles) and I would change the oil on my own. I purchased a toyota OEM oil filter and my own 5w30 Mobil 1 synthetic and changed it at home.

 

Also, the dealer never told me it "required" synthetic...they just said it comes from the factory with synthetic. Regardless, I don't trust them...

 

I would say lose the dealer and go elsewhere. The Toyota Care Program covers oil changes, tire rotations, and a multi point inspection every 5000 miles for the first 2 years or 25000 miles.

Toyota Care

Your dealer's service manager is an Idiot. That said, if they don't know their own program I wouldn't trust the work they do either.

 

$52.40 for dino and 1 filter every 5k miles.
$57.40 (6 quarts, one extra quart to make up for loss of oil when replacing filter at 5k miles) for synthetic, and 2 filters every 10k.

$5.00 more to run synthetic "the way you do it" than it is to run dino the way Toyota recommends.

Prices gathered from http://www.oreillyauto.com

 

I have a 2012 and it came with regular oil and the dealer I take it to replaces it with regular oil every 5k miles, from what I have read running synthetic oil in our engines is actually bad for it due to the fact that synthetic is thinner oil than conventional and can easily make its way past the rings.

 

^That's assuming you do it yourself and aren't paying someone else to do it. For me, I do it myself because I want to make sure it's done right. And the whole process with cleanup takes roughly an hour. An hour of my time is worth a LOT to me. I guess it just depends on how much you feel your time is worth. Some of us don't have a lot to waste.

 

PS: Oreilly's is a rip off for oil. Walmart has the same stuff for almost $10 cheaper per 5 quart container.

 

Autozone has sales now and then for fully syn with a free oil filter.

 

I'd run synthetic if it were me just please dot do the stupid 10k oil changes. 5k is the max, I don't care what the oil bottle says. Also I do not recommend running Mobil 1 or Pennzoil both are shit in a bottle. Run a castrol or valvoline oil.

 

Right. Buying the oil, and doing it yourself, it is cheaper to do it with dino every 5k miles rather than synthetic every 10k miles.