4th gen Oil Change

There's a long and storied history to service intervals changing in response to manufacturers' marketing driven decisions to cover maintenance. Longer oil change intervals and "lifetime" fluids didn't appear due to technological innovations; they happened overnight when they decided to cover scheduled maintenance.

 

Yes, regular walkarounds, watching for any new spots in your parking spot, and the occasional glance under the hood should hopefully be part of folks regular routine and not at an interval.

 

So why did they also occur with brands which don't offer any scheduled maintenance, or which offer just one? What's their incentive?

 

You'd hope so but most people don't even look at their tires until the TPMS light goes on lol

 

To show lower cost of ownership

 

Also, two oil changes will get you past the usual duration of a lease (24mo)... Toyota doesn't want to do more free oil changes on a lease vehicle than they have to.

 

Perhaps, though in my experience few people pay any attention to oil change frequency when choosing which make/model to purchase.

Yet let's say that's the only reason manufacturers extended OCI's, per your claim "Longer oil change intervals [...] fluids didn't appear due to technological innovations"

We would then expect typical motor lifespan to decrease.

Except it hasn't, it's increased.

Back in the 70's and early 80's it was rather a feat for a motor to make it to 100k miles despite 3000 mile / 3 month oil change intervals. In the past couple decades 100k is just getting broken in and you can easily expect over 200k miles even with a 10k / 12mo interval.

It's pretty easy to find plenty of discussions across the Internet referencing the myriad manufacturing improvements in motors and lubricants.

 

I thought average lease lengths were more like three year, though two not being uncommon.

 

Dumb question but anyone else have a hard time reading the dipstick? I got my oil changed at dealership and checked about 500 miles later. To me it seems overfilled but even when I change my oil I have a hard time reading the level. Especially with new oil. It always seems like it is overfilled even when I make sure to add only the capacity.

I’m expecting to clearly see the level between the two dots.

The gauges in the car show oil level as fine and I’m assuming the dealership knows how to add oil correctly.

Bottom line is there a trick to reading the dipstick?

 

T24A-FTS takes 5.9 qt with the filter, I bet most of the time they do 6, I wouldn't worry about it.

My dipstick looks the same coming back from the dealer at the 1000 mile change and 5000 mile change. It takes way more oil than that to get issues with the crank frothing up oil in the pan.

By the time you need an oil change again the part that's over the full line will be blown by through the rings

 

They're all hard to read with clean oil. Plus some oil always slops against the dipstick when it's pulled out. What I've found that helps is don't tilt the dipstick more than 90 degrees so the oil doesn't run up the dipstick, check both sides of the dipstick because I've found the backside has a clearer oil edge to see and do this as quickly as possible before the oil spreads around. Also if you look closely you'll see the area where the oil completely covers the width of the dipstick and an area where the oil is maybe half the width and tapering off. Where the oil completely covers the width is the oil quantity area. I wipe the dipstick and repeat a few times to be sure.

 

Is that oil pressure or oil volume? Is there really an oil gauge or am I missing something?

 

Oil pressure bar. You should see it move as engine rpm increases.
On the hybrid it stops while on battery and quickly moves as the engine starts
Move thru the 3 settings to find it or just look for a bar that moves the most as those oil and water
symbols can be a little confusing at first

 

That's what I assumed, but someone implied it was a volume gauge.

 

They are directly related

 

You and I disagree. The engine can still show good pressure when the oil is at the bottom of the dipstick.

 

Only when the oil volume has dropped so low as to impact oil pressure. By then you've probably ruined the engine.

 

You’re putting this in a weird kind of way and not quite understanding your intent. Yes whether you have a full 6 quarts or 3 quarts
the oil pickup tube will still provide the same oil pressure and oil volume to the bearings regardless.

 

I'll be swapping out the gear oil for the manual transmission, transfer case, and front & rear diff soon just to get the break-in oil out of there and put in the long-term fill of synthetics. Here's the oil I have on hand:

• M/T: 3 quarts
  $33 Ford Genuine Fluid XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid - 1 Quart, Black
  Motorcraft XT-M5-QS (GL-4)
• T/C: 2 quarts
  $22 Red Line 50604 MT-LV 70W/75W GL-4 High-Performance Full Synthetic Gear Oil Lubricant for Manual Transmissions & Transaxles - 1 Quart
  Redline MT-LV 70W/75W (GL-4)
• Diffs: 7 quarts
  $18 Motul Gear 300 75w90 100 Percent Synthetic Gear Oil 1 Liter (105777)
  Motul Gear300 75W-90 (GL-5)

Putting a Motorcraft product in a Toyota might seem like sacrilege but this particular product is apparently a miracle oil which has seen great performance (happy synchros) in a lot of GL-3/4 applications. The Redline at $22/quart substitutes for the Toyota transfer case oil which runs about $90/quart (yikes). Some people have used Ravenol 75W GL4 but it doesn't explicitly state compatibility with this Toyota application. The Redline does.

 

That Motul Gear 300 is some good stuff apparently. The WRX/STI community swear by it. I actually have the 5 pk in my wish list for my VA WRX to change before winter.