First oil change

I would wait Toyota puts in a special additive to the oil to help break in .

 

They do not.

$98 Toyota 0w20 Toyota Case of 12 Quarts Full Synthetic 0W-20 Oil

Toyota 0w20 the only thing "special" is extra wear additive molybdenum.

 

It’s an additive correct … it’s not regular oil u get from walimart … Toyota specific blend to help with break in do your research.

 

It's not necessarily for break in. You can buy the same oil at the dealer, it's nothing special. Toyota just specified the additive pack to the company producing their oil.

 

I was under the impression that, besides for custom built and racing engines, break-in oil was a thing of the past. We just have break in procedures now, which are usually "drive gently, avoid high engine speeds, avoid driving at the same speed for long periods for 1000mi or so." Occasionally, usually on sporty cars, you get a lower rev limit until you get out of the break in period. There's videos of C8 Corvette tachometers flipping from 4500 to 6750RPM when passing 500mi, for instance.

All that said, I myself am supportive of changing the early. I'm planning to change the factory fill at 5k and then every 6mo or 5k, whichever comes first. 10k just feels too long, especially for a turbocharged, direct injection motor making more than 100hp/L. Sure, engineering has come a long way since the bad old days when your granddad changed the dinosaur juice in the motor every 3000mi. We don't really need to do it that often. Thing is, you have to remember that change intervals aren't driven by what maximizes engine life. They're a value derived from a complex equation that includes longevity, cost, ecological impact, customers' perception, service appointments representing opportunities for service departments to upsell or sales folks to convert to new sales, etc.

There was an article in (I think) the now dearly departed European Car magazine about this maybe 20yrs ago. The author was addressing the concern he'd heard from owners learning that the oil change interval on their BMW's was at the time 15k*mi, and that transmission and differential oil was considered "lifetime fill." 15000mi seems a number almost comically high for road cars driven with verve, and anybody who puts more than a couple brain cells to work on the problem concludes that "lifetime fill" means "lifetime of the part" and that "lifetime" is probably defined as "something longer than the warranty." The author agreed, though admitted that they couldn't find much in the way of evidence besides anecdotes that shorter intervals increased service life in a meaningful way. They did, however, make an observation. BMW had recently started including "free" maintenance for new cars for 30k or so, very similar to what Toyota calls "ToyotaCare" now. It covered oil changes, brake pads, fluid top offs, and a few other things. It was marketed as "whatever your car needs besides gas, we'll cover." The inception of that plan seemed to coincide with suddenly higher service intervals. Before this, oil changes were recommended every 5000mi. Transmissions, differentials, and transfer cases should have their oil replaced every 30k. Spark plugs should be done every 50k. Coolant should be changed biennially. Suddenly, oil was good for 15k, gear oil lasted forever, spark plugs were good for 90k, and coolant lasted 10yrs or 105k. The cars didn't change.

BMW has backed off on oil change intervals lately, probably due to switching to fairly high-strung, small displacement, turbocharged engines. My dad had a 328 and a 428 in 2013 and 2015. I think they called for 6000mi oil changes. The transmission and differentials were all still "lifetime fill." I figured I'd probably be helping him change the transmission fluid in one of them, so I did some research on the ZF8 transmission they used. I discovered that even ZF, who makes the thing, understands that oil breaks down over time. They state that they don't have an official interval and rely on the companies who include their transmissions in their platforms to decide how often oil should be changed, but they feel that changing the oil every 60k*mi is probably a good idea. Even the guys who make the things, who see no benefit from longer lived transmissions besides good reputation, believe that the oil should be changed.

Changing the oil in your Tacoma probably costs you about $50. It probably takes you an hour. It might cost you twice that much to have somebody do it for you. Never mind that, if you do it every 5k, Toyota will effectively do every other one for free for the first two years. Changing your spark plugs will probably cost you about the same to do yourself every 40k. I haven't priced out gear oil and forget the capacities, but let's say it costs you $200 and a couple of hours every four years or so. I don't feel like the cost and effort to do these things are really outside the envelope of service costs for your average vehicle. They're certainly not hard services to perform that require expensive tools are a particularly high mechanical skill level. I think most people are more than capable of changing their own oil, and the other services aren't really a far cry from doing that as long as you've got a space. Which, frankly, can just be your apartment complex parking lot on a nice day. As long as your landlord won't throw a fit...

If you want a TL;DR, it would be "Stop whining about changing your fluids regularly. It's not that expensive and it isn't that hard. It'll probably make your truck last longer. More importantly, your blood pressure will be lower owing to you worrying less."

 

I'm soooo happy to see how easy it's going to be to change the plugs vs my gen 3.

 

Sorry I started this! After creating the post, I noticed the sticky about oil changes...

BTW, if I ever see debris like that in my filter, I will be pulling the new filter off and checking again after another 500 or so miles. If there is more junk, then the dealer is getting a call. Either the engine is self-destructing, or there is a ton of junk in the pan getting sucked up and circulated. Both are bad.

 

I thought ToyotaCare was every 5K (up to 25K)?

 

"Replace engine oil and filter" is listed every 10k in the warranty and maintenance pamphlet I just pulled off the Toyota website. It lists it every 5k for "special operating conditions." I suspect that's what I typically expect to be called "severe service." I didn't actually look, but it didn't occur to me that Toyota would pay for oil changes on anything other than the "standard service" schedule. Maybe they do? That'd be fine with me but for the inconvenience of having to haul my butt all the way over there.

 

It’s certainly a little hard to get a clear statement on ToyotaCare intervals. The ‘Warranty & Maintenance Guide’ that came with my truck states oil should be changed every 5K or 6 months (as well as rotations, fluids and inspections).

In the small (really small)print at the bottom of this page…

https://www.toyota.com/content/dam/toyotaowners/pdfs/toyotacare/ToyotaCare-Brochure-English.pdf

…it suggests 5K/6 months as well.

 

The fine print says "Toyota recommends service every 6 months or 5,000 miles..." It doesn't say what service. The little graph with the icons has the icon for engine oil change and filter on 12mo/10000mi and 24mo/20000mi. That would indicate to me that they are willing to do it only every 10k. I think what they mean is "you should bring it by every 6mo or 5k so we can look at it and make sure everything is copacetic."

I'd be fine if they would do it for free every 5k, but I'm not holding my breath. I was planning to do it myself every other 5k until the ToyotaCare ran out once I get my Taco.

 

Yep…it’s hard not to conclude that there’s some intentional obfuscation by Toyota.

 

I don't know about that. I admit that there's a bit of ambiguity, but I don't think it's too unclear, nor is it malicious. It jibes with the other warranty documentation and is consistent with what your typical maintenance plan does.

 

Oh agreed - I certainly don’t think it’s malicious. It’s more consistent with a large multinational corp and whole teams of PR folks, engineers, sales people, etc. that can lead to muddy messaging.

I for one am pleased with the arrangement and think it’s a good reason to get a Toyota

…and yes ‘intentional’ was the wrong word.

 

My first oil change was at 1200 mi. Then 2nd @3500, and 3rd @5500. Next will be at 9500 to 10k. Im tryin to treat her right so she will treat me right now, then and later...

 

Beautiful.

 

I think that's too many oil changes, but if you don't mind spending the money and it makes you happy, you do you.

 

LMAO!

 

1. First oil change at 1,000 miles. Second oil change at 4,000. Every 5,000 after that.

2. Filter: FRAM Synthetic Endurace (available only at Wal-Mart). This is NOT the FRAM "Ultra Synthetic" filter, which is now crap. If you look through my old posts, I linked to some Youtube videos where filters are compared. Toyota's OEM filter....did not do well.

3. Oil: I use Valvoline Full Synthetic. 0W-20. Mobil 1 is just fine, too. Bobistheoilguy.com has EXTENSIVE test results from ISO labs on these oils and the bottom line is: as long as you're using a name brand oil, there's not too much difference.

4. As for Toyota's 10,000 mile guidance and cheap filters: remember that Toyota just needs to get you through 60,000 miles or 5 years. They're actually *disincentivized* from helping you get 300,000 miles out of your engine because that just postpones the date you'll buy a new one. And if you read their manual carefully, you'll see that as soon as you do any "non-normal" driving (towing, off-roading, weather, etc.) then 10,000 mile intervals are no longer recommended. Plus, they get a better "environmental" rating by saying fewer oil changes are required, even if that means the engines don't last as long.

5. Synthetic oils aren't great at trapping dirt and all the combustion byproducts from burning gasoline. The synthetic molecules don't hold particles as well as conventional oil. That's okay, because modern engines run MUCH cleaner than older ones and unleaded gas leaves far fewer byproducts. But some still exist. A large part of why we change the oil isn't because it "wears out" or "breaks down" but because it's dirty—its carrying capacity for holding combustion byproducts in suspension has been reached and if we don't change it, those byproducts scrape all the metal surfaces in the engine. Which is wear. And since that oil is flowing through a turbocharger that spins at mach Jesus, you really want oil that performs.

 

I am a firm believer in 5 k oil changes myself if you plan on keeping the truck long haul . Especially now even more with a turbo . The cleaner the internals on an engine the better . Vehicles are way too expensive to mess around with . If you can afford a 50-60:k truck , you can handle some more oil changes then recommended