Synthetic or conventional oil

I recently purchased a 2012 Tacoma.
I have heard some opinions in the past about not using synthetic oil in a new engine until you have xxxx miles on it. The theory to that is engines need a break in period to let everything seat in good before switching to synthetic. So i am posting this to get a concensus with Tacoma owners to see what they think about this theory?

 

According to Mobil1 website they say:
Question: Changing to Synthetic Oil in a New CarI have a new car. I have read not to change to a synthetic oil until there are some miles on the engine to give the rings a chance to seat. How long should I wait or how many miles should it be before I change to synthetic oil? Thank you for your time.-- Edsel Heath, Jr., Richmond Hill, GAAnswer: Modern vehicles can use Mobil 1 fully synthetic oil right from the factory. As evidence of this fact, more than 40 new car makes and models use Mobil 1 as factory fill. So there is no reason to wait to start enjoying the benefits of Mobil 1.

 

The new tacoma already has synthetic oil in it.

Edit: This is in reference to the 4cyl

 

I did not know that. Does it say that in the book? Or maybe on the oil cap?

 

Probably both. I have not looked under the hood of a 2012. They started putting synthetic oil in mid 2011.

 

I thought only the 2011 4 bangers Taco used synthetic but my 11 might b b4 mid I haven't looked at month of production on my taco

 

Kind of off topic, but maybe this will help.
I had a 2008 Ford Fusion that would randomly smoke at start up. Sometimes it would go weeks without smoking at startup, and maybe every few days. It was the PCV valve sticking. Changed it out and no more issues.

 

Not true for the 4.0, just the 2.7. They still use conventional 5w30. You can swap this out on the first day for any of the typical "synthetic" oils like mobil, pennzoil, etc. The reason the old adage about not putting synthetic in right away is because in the old days synthetics were truly synthetic, whereas today they start out as a group 3 Dino oil and get tweaked. In other words, they are basically an ultra high quality Dino oil. Now, there are true synthetic oils like amsoil, red line, eneos, etc. Personally I would wait until at least 2k before switching to one of the more true synthetics, but even this is likely unnecessary as they have some extremely high grade Dino oil (grp 4 and 5) in their formulations. FWIW, my favorites are eneos and amsoil, but anything other than conventional is probably overkill for either the 2.7 or the 4.0.

 

Thanks for the wisdom.

 

I've got the 2.7 in my 2012 AC and the owners manual states that 0W20 is used in it and it is only a synthetic oil. The oil Change interval is 6 months or 5000 miles. The 4.0 litre V-6 uses 5W 30 and it is conventional oil, but the oil change interval for it, is 10,000 miles or 10 months.
Toyota is doing this for a reason, but I wish we knew more about this. The 2.7 is the only engine in the whole Toyota fleet that uses the 5000 mile oil change interval, the rest use the 10,000 mile interval. But for the 2012's the oil changes are free for the first 2 yrs are free, so that means we have till 2014 to think about changing our own oil. I am sure the world will a different place by then.

As far as breaking in a new motor, you only need to seat the piston rings, according to the manual, and that requires you not drive a constant speed for a long time for the first 500 miles. After that the engine is broke in, according to the manual. The tolerances on engine now are so tight and the quality of the assembly is so good that a break in oil is not needed to seat bearing in their races.

 

Oil is oil, both lubricate the same. This same debate always comes up in the HD forums I participate in. If you plan on going 10K between oil changes go with synthetic, if you plan on going the recommended intervals Dino is sufficient.

(Standing by for the uninformed flaming.)

 

Incorrect....Not all new tacomas use synthetic oil. I have a 2013 Tacoma 2wd 6cyl and a 2014 Tacoma 4wd 6cyl. Both use conventional oil but I'm in the process of reading up on switching them both to ful synthetic oil instead of a synthetic blend.

 

I switched to full Syth last oil change. It's all I will use in any vehicle since I live in extreme climate. Hot and dusty in the summer(in the hundreds) and cold in the winter(down to -20's). Plus I live in the middle of nowhere and go up to 7K between changes.

Back in the day, vehicles used cork gaskets, now they don't. That was the only reason they leaked when switching to syth.

 

This shows the vehicle, engine, model, oil capacity with filter, and change interval for our trucks. Toyota Tech Tip T-TT-0005-10

READ IT AND PUT A COPY IN YOUR GLOVE BOX FOR THE DEALER

http://rav4world.com/pdf/T-TT-0005-10.pdf

 

2015 Tacoma maint and warranty guide calls for change every 6 months or 5,000 miles.

 

So a high mileage (208k) 2007 would be ok to switch to syn?

I just moved to a cold climate (Anchorage) and syn would be nice just for cold starts alone

It's been reg Dino all it's life with oci of 5-6k and runs perfect, I don't want to screw up a good thing Owners manual actually recommends 0w-20 in cold weather and that weight only comes in synthetic I believe

 

I would like to - Ive heard that syn's can break down some "sludge" from the engine and could possibly cause harm to high mileage engines.

 

I own a 2015 Tacoma. Just went for my first maintenance at 5000 miles and i spoke with a person on the phone asking what the maintenance consisted of. She said they rotate tires, check fluids and filters. I asked about oil and she stated that since they put synthetic in the new cars, 10,000 miles is the recommended oil life. HOWEVER, when i went in i asked the service guy and he said that all new Toyotas EXCEPT the Tacoma uses synthetic oil. The tacomas use conventional oil for towing reasons or something like that(he wasn't too clear about why.)

 

I switched to full Synthetic last oil change, (80K miles) to my knowledge previous owner only ran conventional oil.

MPG seem higher and overall the truck seems to perform smoother. I don't plan on going back.

I can put in Mobil 1 and OEM filter for only $32

 

I switched to full synthetic at 4500 miles. Personally, I'll only use synthetic and stick to the 5000 mile intervals but I've used conventional in vehicles in the past and never had a problem. I will say this, the guy on TW with the 375,000 mile second gen uses Mobil 1. Take that for what its worth