Toyota says: Change tacoma synthetic oil every 5000 miles. Why?

I can tell you this as a Toyota tech u change your oil every 5k your good. If longer than that you will be all sludged up seen it. For what it's worth

 

In my manual it's written to change every 16,000 km. or 10,000 mi..

The first oil change is scheduled at 8,000 km. When I did it, the oil was still clean.

My taco is a 4 cyl 2011.

 

This is copied right out of the scheduled maint guide for a 2011 tacoma:

5,000 miles or 6 months​

Check installation of driver’s floor mat
Inspect and adjust all fluid levels
Replace engine oil and oil filter ​

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Rotate tires
Visually inspect brake linings/drums and​

brake pads/discs

 

I have 4,568 miles on truck and the warning light started flashing on today.

 

Thats normal, it will flash like 400 miles before it's due, then go start going solid i think 50 miles before or something like that.

 

this pretty much goes for any yota. every 5k change the oil and it'll last forever.

 

Yup...5,001 miles and all hell will break loose.

 

I wouldn't have a problem if it's 5000 miles with regular oil. That's a $30 change at the dealership. A synthetic change, which I have to get since my truck came with synthetic, costs $60. Usually the payoff with getting synthetic is that you can get it changed half as much, offsetting the cost, which is about twice as much.

With synthetic you shouldn't have to change it every 5-- which is why toyota recommends 10k for almost every single one of the other vehicles they make, except for the 4 cyl tacoma. Why is the Tacoma 2TR-FE different? wtf..

 

Our BMW goes 15-18k on synthetic based on the computer adjusting for driving conditions. I go 5,000 with synthetic on my Tacoma. The Duramax goes 10k on 12 TBN synthetic. They all vary.

 

These are still combustion engines...CNC machining or not.

 

I would change the filter with more frequency than a full synthetic.

 

I have a friend who owned a gas station that still had a shop built into it. He had one customer who insisted on changing his oil with Mobil 1 every 3K miles. My friend used to save the oil from that customer's car and put in in his personal vehicles. He'd run another 7K on it and then throw it away. I think he changed his oil filter at 3500 miles though. I certainly won't recommend doing it blindly, but I would suspect that with Mobile 1 and a good oil filter, an oil analysis will probably prove that 10K is safe.

However, oil analysis or not, if your engine blows up and Toyota asks for your oil change reciepts and you only did it every 10K, no warranty for you. I'd do as they say until you're out of warranty.

 

You can run dino oil if you want. It won't hurt the motor..

 

If your oil starts looking 'heavier' and has a very burnt smell to it replace it. I would also recommend running the larger capacity oil filter if you plan on following the 10 000+km oil change schedule. I knew a guy with a 2006 4.0l 4x4 taco and it started burping oil out at around 10 000kms ( likely clogged the smaller filter) Just my 2cents.

 

I've got 24 months free maintenance so no biggie. This is our part time vehicle, so we prolly wont have 5000
miles in 6 months. But since it's free may as well do it

After reading all this it is no wonder why these tacos are pure gold at resale time
nothing else can come close
300K with regular oil changes is conservative, anything with less than 100K is considered extremely low mileage
I'll drive this little taco for practically nothing

 

I change my oil every 7k km with Mobil 1 synthetic And a toyota filter. I'm about to do my second diff change as well (the po never ever did it but the truck never left the pavement before I got it) I use my truck hard to i treat it well. Even with 180k km's on the clock still runs like new, won't even hesitate when it comes time to SC this bad boy

 

I did my first change at 1,000 miles and used Mobil 1 0w-20 full synthetic. I do this with every new vehicle I purchase just out of habit. I just recently rolled over 10,000 and changed it again. Oil was still amber in color, barely darker than new and hadn't used a drop.

10k intervals for me.

I'll try to find an article I read awhile back showing that too frequent oil changes cause as much or more wear than not changing enough. According to the article, oil is most abrasive during the first 1,000 miles of use, in fact, even more abrasive than after it begins to break down.

 

This is the proper response. I use Mobil 1 and a Mobil one oil filter and I change mine every 7500 miles which is half the distance Mobil says you can go for both oil and filter. I drive just about all interstate 15 miles each way to work and once or twice a month go crawling around in the mountains. I haven't owned the truck for much over a year and am getting ready to do my 3rd oil change. I'll get an oil analysis done on this third one and take it from there.

If you're going to go past the recommended change interval I would think it's a real good idea to change the filter and add a quart half way through eventhough these filter manufacturers, like Mobil 1 are saying you can go 15,000 miles on a filter. That's what I would do if I was going 10,000. Oil lasts forever. Contamination is why you change it.

It also depends on what you're doing with the truck. Are you hauling heavy loads on dusty roads all the time in 100* weather?, Short tripping in sub zero weather? In other words, severe service?. It comes down to common sense and oil analysis if you're going to go past the factory recommended intervals. If it's still under warranty there is no way you should go outside the bounds of what the manufacturer recommends.

 

Same here. It may be overkill, but a clean motor is a happy motor.

 

^ This sums up my thoughts pretty well.

I'll go out on a limb and say that at least 60% of Tacoma owners drive their trucks like they would drive a car: mostly paved roads, normal speeds, little/no abuse, etc. This means they should be on the "normal service" schedule and can safely go 7500 miles between oil changes on synthetic oil, assuming they are beyond the warranty period. If any of the "severe service" conditions apply, then the oil and filter should be changed more often.