Oil change intervals

What intervals do you change the engine oil. I’ve read anywhere from 5000-10000 miles with synthetic oil.

 

The Owners Manual recommends 10K for normal use.

 

every 6 months regardless of how many miles under 10K it is. usually around 3.5K miles and it comes out pitch black.

 

RTFM. "Severe Conditions" is 5,000.miles. Severe Conditions is defined as how almost all of us drive. Unless you live somewhere rural and only drive at 50mph on desolate county roads and have never seen any traffic.

 

I’m not saying you should do as I say.... But, my truck is a 16’ bought with 13 miles on it in late 2015. I currently have around 150k miles and have been changing the oil only every 10k miles. I swore to myself I would start changing it more often when I got to 100k but I never did.

I do the same for my wife’s Corolla which has maybe 100k??? ( I NEVER drive it so have no clue).

 

FWIW. I change engine oil and filter at 5000 miles.
I use full syn oil, typically 10w40 or 10w30.
Filter brand I prefer is WIX.
IIRC, my 2nd Gen Owner's Manual states to change at 5000 miles.


Some people change at 3000, others change at 10,000, some go longer based on an oil analysis with recommendations.

 

5k for severe, 10k for normal.

 

Toyota says 10,000 with SAE 0-20. But you can change it whenever you like. I'm going with 5000 miles. I only drive about 7000 miles per year.

 

When it looks dark or levels are low

 

Call me old fashioned, but I still say every 3-5 k

 

I go by the owners manual...

I've worked at 3 dealerships and before that parts stores for years. I've seen people that didn't know oil changes were necessary and people that changed every 1000 miles. People that kept immaculate records and people that didn't worry about anything until something broke. I've seen mechanics that recommended 3K oil changes on cars that use synthetic oils... and those mechanics drain the oil and put it in their own rigs. I've bought vehicles with loud engines, collapsed lifters due to oil sludge after no oil changes, and I ran them with the idea that if they blew up I'd replace the engine. A quart of high detergent transmission fluid and an oil change every 500 miles and after three oil changes the engines ran fine. Years later I'd sell the vehicle for more than I paid for it.

Recommendations in the owners manual are very conservative. There is no reason to do anything more than recommended. Might something break? Sure... there are always those vehicles that are exceptions. But they would break with the most OCD care.

In fact, concerning dealerships... I stay as far away as possible. Some of the mechanics are artists, but it is as likely to get a guy that doesn't know lefty loosey. (A slight exaggeration to make my point.)

 

I follow the manual.

 

Toyota says 10k. The way I see it, it is cheap insurance. I was always taught 3k for conventional and you could stretch it 5-7k with synthetic. Currently trying the 10k recommendation just to see what it looks like after 10k.

 

This topic again!?

 

Or 130 miles a day on freeways lol. Welcome to my life

 

Haha. That sucks, but I suspect you are in the 10,000 mile interval club, but I don't envy you.

 

I've been doing mine at around 5k and it looked fine both times.

 

I did 10,000 mile oil changes with a new filter at 5000 for the 1st 180,000 miles I owned the truck. At that time I was driving about 20,000 miles/year with it and that worked out to about every 6 months. It isn't our primary vehicle any more and only gets driven about 10,000 miles/year for the last 4 years or so. I still change it about every 6 months which works out to about 5000 miles now.

I've seen enough to convince me that 10,000 miles is actually conservative with synthetic oil. But I also believe that age is a factor too. I sure wouldn't go more than a year even if it were only driven a few hundred miles. And maybe my 6 month interval is overkill.

Regardless, I really don't think the exact interval is nearly as important. The main thing is to keep oil in it. I've never heard of anyone having an oil related engine failure at under 100,000 miles as long as they actually kept oil in the engine.

A few months ago I asked my mechanic if he had seen any issues. He told me about a middle aged widow who bought a new car shortly after her husband died. 5-6 years later she had it towed to his shop with a locked up engine. She had right at 100,000 miles on it and had never once checked the oil, changed the oil, or even added oil. That was something her husband had always done and she had never done anything but put gas in it and drive it.

 

Haha!! Oh it’s bad on the way home when I am tired!! Beautiful drive but half the time I am half awake on the way home .


Positive is I drive through snow this morning...in San Diego lol. Campo is a different beast for sure