ToyotaCare 5k Service - No Oil Change?

The way I feel about this 10K mile recommendation from Toyota is that it is more of a business decision than an Engineering one. They really don't want your truck operating longer than 100,000 miles so they can sell more new ones. Personally I want my truck to go 250,000 miles and as part of that desire comes changing the oil and filter at a 5000 mile interval. I also use what I believe is the best oil, Amsoil with WIX filters.

 

I feel the exact opposite. Toyota wouldn't stake their reputation on 10k changes to diminish their brand. I am sure they spent a whole lot of money determining how long an acceptable interval is.

 

Idk. They really only need the truck to make it past 60k. After that they dont care. And how many of the tacoma out there are leases? Even less reason to do the oil changes more often. I bought mine and want it to last... I'll keep the 5k intervals

 

That is why the oil filter gets changed at 5K on my truck. The oil can wait till 10K. Due to the location of the oil filter this may not be practical on all vehicles. But it is a 2 minute job with no mess on my 07. It's been working just fine for 11 years and 190,000 miles. Not sure of the filter location on the 3rd gens.

The filter matters too. It is a lot harder to get to the filter on my F-150 and Honda and changing the filter without a full oil change just isn't practical. I split the difference and do 7500 mile changes and use better filters.

 

Toyota sells an awful lot of trucks because the buyers EXPECT at least 200,000 miles out of them. That is the type of quality they are banking on. If it breaks at 60,000 miles why buy a Toyota and not just get a Chevy.

And they do care past 60K. I'm still getting notices to bring in my 11 year old truck with 190,000 miles on it to inspect and replace parts. I had to replace a U-Joint 2 years ago at 165,000 miles, Toyota is reimbursing me for the costs and offering to inspect and replace any of the others anytime during the next year if they go bad.

 

Any manufacture will last IF you take care of it. Toyotas are known for their dependability, but why chance it. I'm not willing to go 10k on an oil change for the same reason I'm not taking my trucks on sand dunes and hc off roading... I want it to last and I don't want s#*t to break.

 

I paid for 5k oil change. it didnt seem right to spend 10,000 miles on factory filled oil on a new motor... Since i drive mostly highway 95% I will start doing mine at 10k now (just had my 10k service done yesterday).

 

Not gonna tell you what you should do, but as far as filter quality? The machines that manufacture Wix filters don't use Wix filters... that should tell you something.
As far as business case on Toyota changing oil every 10K? Do you think it's better to only have your customers come to the dealership half as much? Remember less than 5% of people now change their own oil, most who buy new vehicles do it through their dealer.

 

Again, go read some literature not published by oil companies. With your logic, why wait til 5K? Why not 2K? Or 1K? Then you know its clean lol.

 

This point on the filters means nothing. Worked at Snap-on for 11 years and we used Cobalt sockets from Lowes instead of Snap-on ones.

 

Cost? Lol I'd change my oil with every fill up it if was free!

 

Just change it yourself, it’s $30 with the filter. And takes less than 30 minutes.

My time is worth more more than $60/hr. Sitting at the dealership for 2-3 hours makes no sense.

 

I always change my own oil. It's more cost effective and allows me to avoid mechanics over tightening drain plugs/filters... itll be interesting going in for my first "free service"

 

I'm just curious how you settled on 5K being your magic number. I know exactly how the engineers settled on 10K, because I follow the exact same methodology in my profession. We have testing, data, calculations and real world applications to use. Seriously just curious how someone disagrees with that.

 

Toyota makes a lot of money off people who buy a tacoma, run it 250k miles, then turn around and buy another tacoma and out 250k miles on it. Toyota counts on this brand loyalty and then that loyalty rubbing off onto others and creating the reputation it enjoys.

If they designed their maintenance schedule to make the truck last 100k miles then the tacoma would be extinct as a brand within a generation because nobody would rebuy it.

But seriously, if wasting your money on oil changes makes you sleep easy at night, by all means - but i will sleep just as easy with a little more money in my pocket and a truck that will last just as long as yours.

 

Well, the oil I used to buy Mobil 1 synthetic recommended 5k before the "long life" oil came out. That combined with the oil life indicator on my other vehicle that tells me it's time to change the oil at ~5k. I figure 5k is slightly longer than 3k so less oil changes and it's easy to remember. You're oil is literally twice as dirty at 10k, doesn't matter if the oil is still lubricating, all that crap is still circulating and can cause clogs etc. $30? Why not just change it? Also gives me an excuse to go poke around under the hood

 

Because his magical feelings told him that. Pretty sure if toyota recommended 15k mile intervals these obstinate oil changers would do 10k mile changes because they cant possibly trust the manufacturer to tell them the truth.

 

Unless your other vehicle is a third gen tacoma then its indicator means entirely nothing. My lawnmower needs oil changed at 50 hours but i dont let that influence my car oil change intervals

 

I'd still do 5 lol