1st Oil Change Poll

I highly recommend leaving the factory oil in your motor until the suggested change interval and also leaving dino oil in until 10K at a minimum.

I am a hard core synthetic oil user, but a new car needs to break in before the switch is made. There is nothing wrong with dino oil until 10-20K miles. It's not going to cause any damage, changing it too early could cause blowby.

 

Doesn't blow-by occur as a result of the piston rings not fully seating? If they don't seat by 1k-2K, the cylinders will glaze over and no amount of dino oil will help.

 

Just a question, don't kill me here but aren't these engines already broken in when new? Why I ask is I have helped on 3 rebuilds, one on an air cooled VW and one on an MG inline 4 cyl that ran out of oil and one on a 1967 Ford 289 V8 that we put into a Ford Ranger. All three times we just ran the engine till it was operating correctly at the correct temps with no leaks, shut it off, changed the oil and filter and just took it easy on it.

 

Best to dump that OE oil as soon as you can. I prefer synthetic due to my experience both previous and past with engines and wear. Mama always said, "You get what you pay for!"

 

I know this got started a while back but ......

Interesting reading all the opinions.

I attended a local diesel performance shops open house last summer and a Royal Purple rep was there giving demonstrations on his product. He told us that you should run a good quality (dino I believe is the term used above) multi grade oil in your vehicle until you have about 30k on it - then switch to Royal Purple!

????? What to do??

Larry R

 

lol when I bought my truck it was used from the dealership- i took it home got approval from every one then went back to dealership complaining about how still smelled like smoke so i got free inside detailing done I aint no rookie to buying trucks plus finally got my 1st tacoma so I made and hovered over them watching what they put in my truck as I made them change ALL the fluids and put in real stuff not the cheap shit. they checked everything belts/ tires/ alignment/ tranny/ plugs as i claimed they were used how do i know they were done right you guys should put in what is right for the safety of the vehicle and my own - got it all for a small charge of FREE! since still on warrantee

 

At 5000 oil gets changed with Amsoil 10-W40. Also at that time my oil filtration bypass filter housing gets installed. Then oil changes every 30,000. At 3000 miles I change the filter (toilet paper roll) and add a new quart of oil which helps keep additives current. That way I get max use out of that expensive synthetic and oil analysis always shows it to be in good condition. The oil does stay dark and that bothered me at first but not at all now. The stock filter does a very poor job of filtering micro-particulates and the bypass filter captures down to around a half a micron. Plus captures any moisture / acids etc. so it is always micro-polishing the oil. I would not run extended drain without the bypass filter. And I would not run extended drain with dyno oil either.

 

first at 3k and switched to mobile 1 5w-30. seems smoothe. comes stock with a synthetic blend doesn't it??? I don't know how going from blend to straight synthetic changes a whole lot maybe somebody knows...

 

Old engines used to need time to break in and you would need to change the oil between 500 and 1000 miles because of the the metal flakes that would accumulate in the oil during this process. However, modern engines have much tighter tolerances and they generally break in within the first 100 miles and very little metal shavings or debris is released. You don't need to change the oil until the recommended 3-5K on the late model Tacomas. This is also why thinner oil is recommended with these engines, because the tight tolerances.

 

I followed this plan with my last vehicle, and it worked out very well (it would still be going if the deer hadn't jumped in front of me...).

Factory oil until I change the oil and filter at 1000 miles. Use regular oil.
Change oil and filter at 3000 miles. Use regular oil.
Change oil and filter at 6000 miles. Switch to synthetic oil.

For the remainder of warranty, follow the applicable schedule and use synthetic oil. After warranty, periodically test oil to determine appropriate schedule. (In my last vehicle, the oil was still testing fine when I changed it every 8,000-12,000 miles.)

 

1k valvoline full synthetic

 

My MPG was crappy prior to hitting ~1200 miles (due to break in), then it slowly moved up to 21 MPG freeway/city (mostly freeway driving). I've still got another month or so before I hit 5000 but I will am thinking about changing the oil out with some standard dyno until I hit the 5K mark. At that point the dealership will replace (included in the price of the truck) the oil and filter. After that I was thinking about replacing the oil with synthetic blend (maybe full syn) at 10K or just before winter hits, whichever comes first.

I just find it hard to believe that an engine could be fully broken in at 500 miles. I think those folks who have put in full synthetics early are paying the price with poor mileage. Of course a truck doesn't get great mileage anyway but these days you should take it where you can get it.

-Joe

 

Engine's broken in before it even gets dropped into the bay. If anything is "breaking in" during the early ownership period it's the tranny and computer systems.

 

So what you're saying is the piston rings are fully seated when I buy a new vehicle? or are you making a statement about Toyota engines specifically?

I'm an oldtimer and maybe I need to change the way I think but it was my understanding (definately a fact for older engines when they were new) that you needed to break in an engine due to mainly piston rings. Sure there were bearings wearing (piston rod, crank, cam) in too but those were not the break in everyone was conserned about. If the rings were not seated properly you would have blow by and would burn oil as well.

Now I understand tolerances for new engines have greatly improved but have they improved that much that they are considered "Broken In" upon arrival?

Here is the info from my 2009 Owner's Manual... The picture discusses the break in period. Then on page 361 under Oil Cunsumption it states "A new engine consumes more oil". I suspect this is due to the break-in period. What I couldn't find was any reference to not changing the oil early and putting in full synthetic. But I have to believe they expected the first oil change at 5000 miles so the engine should be broken in by them.

Curious on your thoughts...

-Joe

 

I didn't ask that specifically, but the service manager I talked to at my toyo dealer said they arrive at the lot ready to be driven normally. She said if they weren't, they wouldn't let people test drive them, let alone test drive them on the interstate.

She said the only stuff that "breaks in" on new vehicles these days is anything electrical and computerized (i.e. if something is wired poorly/incorrectly, you'll find out in the first few months) and the transmission (i.e. imperfections in the machining of the hypoid gears etc). She recommended changing the diff fluids/transfer case fluids on my truck with my first oil change for this reason. I told her I was planning to go full synthetic engine/diffs at 3k and she said fine, no problem, would probably extend the vehicle's life.

See above. She said the process is Toyota builds the engine at the factory, runs it with break-in oil, changes all the fluids out and drops it in the truck. Of course, it's not attached to anything else in the truck when this is done, hence the tranny stuff.

Digressing to my own personal opinion, I would think if you're going to get blow by you're going to see it during the warranty period.

Says the same stuff in my owner's manual. Per the service manager, that's more of an owner break-in than an engine break-in...they want people to get used to the vehicle before they try anything exotic or new with it.

That manual stuff is useless anyway without specifics. "Do not drive at extremely high speeds". How high is extremely high? Over 55? Over 70? Maxed out in 5th/6th? "Do not drive at a constant speed for extended periods". How long is extended? 8 hours? Less? More?

 

Thanks for the tip on fluid change for manual transmission / transfer case at first change. That would be good advice and a great time to go with synthetics as well. Need to be careful in the rear differential though as they may have lubrication with special modifiers for limited-slip, if so equipped.

 

Just a note: I have an automatic 4x4 and asked about the rear/front diffs and the transfer case along with the engine. I never asked about a manual transmission, so you'll want to check into that yourself. Just as a side note though, I can't imagine a situation when changing a fluid that needs regular changes could be a bad thing unless it's a hydraulic system. In other words, I don't technically think it's possible to change gear oils too often?

As for the LSD additive, it doesn't matter on '09 forward because the LSD is electronic, not mechanical. It's not a gear assembly in the diff that does the LSD in 09s and later, it's brake modulation, computer controlled. 08s and earlier will need additive.

 

First change was at 3,000 and will do so religiously every 3,000 with Castrol GT 5W30 and OEM filters. This truck is #6 and I've had excellent results doing this so not changing now.

 

For you guys that use Amsoil... Help me out here... The truck recommends 5w30 if I am correct... I have always ran 10w 30 in everything I have ever owned... I wanna run synthetic Amsoil in my 09 Tacoma 4.0... Can you guys give me some tips?? I have 2500 miles on the motor... I am gonna wait till close to 5000 like it said for the break in... after that I am doing a complete swap...

 

No need to wait until 5000. That's just the recommendation.

Engines are broken in from factory. Transmissions are not, which means you're better off doing diff oil change sooner rather than later.