Gen 1 2001 Tacoma 3.4L Oil Change

I have a 2001 Tacoma 4x4 3.4L with 134,000 miles. I want to change my own oil and the specs says 5w-30. Will an old motor like this hold a 100% synthetic? we live in Oklahoma where winter temps can range from below freezing to 70. 10w-30, 5w-30 or synthetic? Best brand for filter and oil?

 

Just follow the owners manual. If it calls for 5w-30 then use that. I see no reason to change nor any benefit if you change oils. The seasonal weather temperature changes where you are, aren’t that great. If you were talking about temps 20 or more below zero then you may have a reason to change oil viscosity.
As far as synthetic the only benefit would be longer intervals between changes. Other than that you’ll have no advantages switching to synthetic. Your truck will run just as long on Dino oil as it will on synthetic. Follow the owners manual as far as viscosity and change interval and you’ll be just fine.

 

Almost forgot -Welcome to Taco World! Some good and knowledgeable people here (and of course some aholes). Just a word of advice, stay away from oil threads here. There is about a zillion of them here. They all boil down to the same thing - use this oil cause it’s what I use or use synthetic because I use it and everybody should use it.

 

Any name brand 5w-30 dino on sale. All current APIs are better than what was specified for the truck 20 years ago, so they are all an improvement.

Purolator Pure One or Wix filters are reasonable $ and perform fine.

Get a new crush washer for your drain plug prior to your first change, as you don't know when it was last replaced. That said, I've run the original washer on many vehicles for several years/thousands of miles with no leaks. But i was the one doing the work. And I don't really trust the PO when they are unknowns.