The old 5k or 10k oil change debate

Hey old timer, were you whining about FI when it first came out, and saying that it was unnecessary?

 

Change mine about every ~5k since the truck sees harder use. Use whatever cheap synthetic I find at Home Depot, and an oem filter.

 

I can agree to an extent.
But it was not due to the maintenance being done. It was HOW the maintenance was done. As in improperly. Even I have fixed something until it’s broke.

The older I get, the more I tend to just leave well enough alone.

 

Its all the same imo. As you do get older you get wiser. You remember, and try not to repeat mistakes of the past.

 

My oil filter at 5k ish. I'm sticking to 5k going forward, every time the maintenance required light comes on basically.

 

When l bought my Tacoma it had 129,000km (80,000 miles). I know that people put off maintenance like oil changes, here.
I changed the first few oil changes at 5,000km (3,100 miles) as the oil came out dirtier than I'm used to seeing. Each oil change slowly got better. I'm staying with doing them at 5,000km because of my usage, low speeds, hauling etc.
I also use conventional oil 10w30.

I just thought I'd have fun and through as much into the ring as possible!!!

 

this is too funny.

so i'm apparently neither a "true toyota owner", nor "care about my investment"...

my subaru was designed by toyota, is now a ranger. and now my toyota can't be a toyota because i'm not a true owner...

this sort of stupid brand elitism and gatekeeping is exactly how my last truck became an Alfa Romeo SRT TRD Z71 HellCat.

 

I'm not "true" fucking anything. I am one of those strange guys who learn from those smarter than me and do that.
If directions are not clear, I research and write my own directions.

 

10K works just fine for me in temp ranges from -10F to +95F, lots of trailer towing (~4,000 lb), and offroad use. I use Mobil 1 0W-20 Advanced Fuel Economy and a

$11 Fram XG9972 (Pack of 1)

Fram XG9972 Ultra synthetic filter.

 

Idk, what's so hard to understand about oil changes in these trucks. You got 5k miles for severe duty, and 10k miles for everyone else. Of course you don't want to go past one year for both.

 

Because if men are going to argue about anything, it's going to be about oil and oil change intervals.

"Severe duty" describes the typical driver nowadays. Auto manufacturers give OCIs based on certain criteria with the intent of having a very healthy safety margin built in. They don't count on customers performing used oil analyses.

UOAs indicate that modern oils are more than trustworthy up to 10K in this truck for the typical user. Owners who confirm this have full confidence in 10K OCIs. It reduces oil changes by 50%. Sure, that's only $35 and one's own time, but hey, if I know for sure that I don't have to do it at 5K, then why do it at 5K? If one does not have that confidence or lacks UOAs or doesn't trust someone else's UOAs, then he can stick with "severe duty" 5K OCIs and be confident that he is changing the oil WELL within the safety margin.

 

Oil & filters are pretty cheap. Tacomas are not. I do mine at 4000-4500 mi.

 

I still error on the side of caution and sort of believe Ahmed from car care nut on YouTube. I've always changed the oil in my last vehicle the jeep Liberty CRD I had for 12 years about every 6 months or 6,000 miles. I had Blackstone test on that one and they all were encouraging me to go to 8,000 miles but I never did.
I am still doing the same with the Tacoma with synthetic oils like the jeep but now 0w20 were the jeep was 5w40 Rotella.
Oil is not expensive at wally world and I do it myself when I have time.
It is all really up to each his own. If never had an oil related issue so I'm doing what I do. Do what you like.

 

Fram? Yikes

 

Wtf 5k

 

Why "yikes"? Does something in the UOA (or in the 4 UOAs with this same filter in my Rav4) seem concerning to you? Hint: Take a look at the "insolubles" rating. That's what's left in the oil that the filter didn't pick up. I can show you the magnetic drain plug from both vehicles, too. We can then compare the datapoints with UOAs and magnetic drain plugs from others who are using ostensibly "good" filters to see if I should be concerned.

 

5k with synthetic

 

Now this is what I consider unnecessary. If you’re only going 4,000 miles a year, just change once per year. Oil doesn’t go bad in a year, let alone six months.