Does Toyota Use Special "Break-In" Oil?

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Also no brakes. I stop it with GOOD INTENTIONS.

 

I dosed mine with a bottle of Slick 50 and run with no drain plug. Slightly better mileage without the oil in there, and also defeats the Atkinson cycle due to lack of hydraulic pressure, giving me more torque. It’s really great. I love it.

 

On the other side of this wall behind me sits a '93 4-Runner with 411,000 on it. Still runs great. Uses less than 1/2 quart every 5000 miles. It is a member of the family, and will attend my funeral. My children were carted to everything they did in it. My wife (its hers) drove it home from the dealership and I changed the oil out to Rotella to break it in, again at 1500, again 5000. At 10,000 I went to Mobil 1. Been that ever since, every 5,000. Manual trans, transfer case and diffs only changed twice.

Years ago an additives engineer for a company that makes some of the additives that Mobil puts in its oils once gave me some good advice. He said the problem with running oils beyond 3,000-5,000 miles is not the loss of lubricity of the oil, but the ability of the oil to cleanse the motor and suspend those burnt hydrocarbons in the oil. The oil has a detergent effect, but the additives that promote that effect will only suspend so much by-product of combustion. That is what limits the utility cycle of the oil. The oil keeps lubing, but at some point the oil stops cleaning. He asked me if I had ever washed a big sink full of dishes. Asked if I had to add more soap before I got done. He was right. The detergent effect of the oil is the limiting factor, not the lubrication. Its ability to clean goes first.

When I raced that shifter kart over there in my avatar we had to change the piston and ring every 1.5 hours of racing, and the wrist pin and bearing every 3 hours. Stick with me here, I'm going somewhere with this. The cylinder was Nikasil coated. Hard stuff, which maintained a cross-hatch for a very long time, IF you didn't stick a piston running it too lean. (Ask me how I know. ) As hard as that cylinder bore was and as good as the cross-hatch was, the ring would not seat if we tried to break it in with synthetic 2-cycle oil. We had to run it on petroleum-based oil or castor bean oil for about 15 minutes to get it to come in, then we changed over to synthetic so as to be able to run leaner and it tolerate the higher EGTs. Between the two, castor was the best break-in oil. (Besides, it smells cool burning! ) Synthetic oil is NOT the best oil with which to break in an engine, but don't go put castor oil in your Taco! So I come from a background that taught me that you use petroleum oil to break anything in, then you switch to Synthetic. I've got about 100 miles on mine now. I'm putting Rotella in it this weekend. I know, the metallurgy of today's engines is better, but our engine's ultimate long-term success depends on two metal surfaces successfully mating to each other in those first 5,000 critical miles. Better done with dino oil.

So Toyota might not use special break-in oil, but I do. After all, who benefits most if my motor craters at 150,000 miles rather than 500,000? Marketing is all about building perceptions in a gullible public, when it is really all about washing dishes.

 

Great idea, that and STP oil additive should do it. LOL

 

I admit I dribble a little STP in to quiet the lifters when I’m racing. It is a TRD after all, that was developed for racing.

 

What type of oil does the 2019 Taco's come with? Also, is it a blend? I'm waiting on my new one in 3 weeks . . curious.

 

This is what I use in my marinades.

 

Pro tip: do the fill bolt first. Many internet stories of draining a diff and then not being able to remove the fill bolt leaving a person stranded. Haven't seen it here yet, but on BMW forums. Same goes for any case that has a fill plug/bolt.

 

I changed mine at 5k at the stealership when my maintenance light came on at 5k

 

Hmm, only 15% extra virgin.

Not sure I would trust that for a heavy duty marinade.

I've got a buddy in the aerospace marinade business and he says they only use....

 

Sounds even more simple than changing the oil/filter. Thanks!

 

I'm using them for the Taco, I plan on keeping this thing forever, and want to stay on top of any potential issues. Also plan on testing the motorcycle oil there as well.

 

Don't use baby oil, it will cause condoms to degrade and break. 18+ years of payments vs. a few bucks on the right tool for the right job? I know what I'm choosing.

 

You already had your answer. If you are looking for reassurance, I didn't change my oil till 10K. After the dealer freebies, I started changing my oil every 10K and sending the samples to blackstone. The results show no adverse effects. You can see the tests from the link in my signature.

I'm about to hit 60K.

 

Seriously, just follow the manual. Toyota along with other manufacturers actually have a lot time and money to engineer, test, and confirm what they put into those manuals. It's not a marketing scheme. They actually have labs and testing grounds to prove what they recommend.

Is doing the "break in" oil change a little bit better? Probably.
Will you ever see the impact of it? Doubt it.
If you want to be anal and do it because it makes you feel better, go for it.



I'm not really interested in what a magazine writer says about it unless they have some empirical evidence to show. I mean I just read an article telling me how terrible the G-Wagon was as a offroad vehicle because of it's on road manners.... the writer got that from a third party source at that!

 

Like I mentioned before, I sold my '03 Tundra with close to 300k miles in August...used Mobil One exclusively, changing oil and filter once a year or 10k miles whichever is first; absolutely no oil added between changes since new. Seems like that works, as the new Toyota policy with new vehicles is the same procedure!!! Take it or leave it.

 

Good stuff!!

I would surely bet that if you REALLY wanted to best maintain your engine, a different break-in oil is the right way to go. Engine oil has a different/additional purpose during break-in, and I believe in the "old days" it was much more common to use a specific break-in oil in new cars vs. today. And again, I think BMW M-cars still do. I'll have to check that, but you have described exactly why this would/should be done. Assuming most manufacturers do not (they probably purchase the cheapest stuff they can in huge quantities...), it's another reason for doing a break-in change at 2k.

Ditto for the detergent qualities in engine oil, why super-long replacement intervals are not a great idea if you keep vehicles for a long time.

For most folks, even having that "service required" light start blinking every 15-20k is a big annoyance they neither understand or care enough to consider. It's just a PIA chore, and most people will never incur any repair costs for failing to maintain their vehicle properly because after 50-70k they get bored or whatever and buy another new car. It's the person looking to operate the vehicle past 100k miles that benefits from good maintenance.

 

Yup, thanks for the correction!!

 

Just got back from the Toyota dealer appointment this morning. Mine has the tonneau cover from the factory. I deleted it from the sale, saved $650, ARE bed cap already ordered. So I had to go back and let them have it. Their GM was bored so he came out and we chewed the fat while I waited on them to take it off and put on the correct side rail covers. He told me that Toyota contracts with Mobil to supply Toyota the Mobil 1 that they use. He said that his cost on a gallon of Mobil 1 is $8.52. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but that is way below what you and I pay. What you don't know yet is that during summer breaks in college I worked for Mobil in its Blending and Packing plant in Beaumont Texas where Mobil makes and packages its Mobil 1. Dirtiest assembly line job you could ever imagine! None of us had dry skin though. I know a little about Mobil 1 that the buying public doesn't. For instance, Mobil also blends and packages most of its competitor's synthetic oil for them, right in this plant. They will blend you up any recipe you want for your oil, put your label on it and ship it from there to wherever you want. There are many recipes for synthetic oil, and new ones are added as new additives are invented and brought to market. So the recipe for Mobil 1 surely has changed as the additives have improved, and today's Mobil I is a vast improvement over what it was initially. It is probable that the "old technology" additives put in the Mobil 1 back in the 70's can be purchased much cheaper now than the state of the art additives of today. But put the old additives in it...and it is still "Mobil 1", right? Kinda' like Coke Classic. So my question is, even with its competitive purchasing advantage due to its economies of scale, if Toyota can purchase Mobil 1 so far below the rest of the market at $8.52 a gallon, what iteration of Mobil 1 are they buying, today's Mobil 1, or classic 70's Mobil 1?

 

Mobil 1 offers $12 rebates on the 5 Quart jugs, pick them up at Wal-Mart for about $23, so that works out about the same price they are getting.