I bought a new Toyota Highlander last year. Part of the deal is that it came with free scheduled maintenance for the first two years. So I just took it in for the first 5,000 mile/6 month checkup and learned that an oil change was not included. The manager said that Toyota has changed their policy to that oil changes now occur at 10,000 mile intervals. I know they use synthetic oil, but that seems like an awfully long interval especially for a new car. I'm considering changing it on my own, but maybe 10,000 is OK? I know things change. When I first started driving spark plugs weren't expected to last for more than about 30,000 miles. Anyone have thoughts on this?

I push 10000 on the 2006 F150, Mobile 1, and a K&N filter.

Depends on driving conditions. Every manual has normal and severe service tables.

I do all of mine at 5K intervals with OEM oil filters and full synthetic oil of the appropriate wt. Runs about $30-$35 per vehicle except for my diesel.

The correct answer.

Everyone has their pet procedures though.

2019 Tacoma and I did an oil change at 5000 miles but it was pretty dusty in Utah where I was. This time I will go 10000

4000 on my dodge diesels, 3000 on my jeep.

32.774 pages, minumum.

Ahem.

Anyway, Toyota told me the same thing in 2016 with my Camry. I've no doubt the full synthetic oils are better. I've also no doubt that Toyota & the dealers would like to save $. My gut told me they're betting that they can get the cars to the end of the factory warranty with 10K oil changes, and that's the end of what they have to stand behind.

You'll no doubt get lots of advice of what intervals to use. You're smart enough to know that highway miles are way easier on a car than city driving, and that short trips are hard on oil, especially in cold weather. Perhaps your Highlander has a GDI engine, and you're leery that might dilute the oil, so you go more conservatively on the OCI's. You could eyeball it. You could send samples of every batch to Blackstone for analysis. In the end, you'll pick a point on the spectrum where you feel most comfortable. And you'll be exactly right - for you.

After discussing it with my mechanic of 27 years, I settled on 7,500 mile intervals, paying for it myself at the mechanic when Toyota's "free maintenance" coupons wouldn't. I'll never know if I've been throwing $ away, but I figure the extra cost aint breaking me, and the peace of mind feels like a bargain.

Good Luck,

FC

The manufacture of my vehicle say that under no condition shall exceed 8000.0 miles. This is a V8 HD truck using that 0W-40 Full SYN oil. I change the oil at 5000.0 miles because I tow a travel trailer and I operate in cold climate. Oil change cost is >$80.00 materials only. Maintenance cost is $0.0061/Mile

You can preform a simple test that will indicate how clean you oil is. Just put a drop of the hot oil on a clean white paper napkin. The stain on the napkin will show contaminate in the center and a cleaner ring around the outside. Fully contaminated oil will just have a dark spot.

No way Id go over 5k..

Does the Highlander have an oil life indicator program in the computer.

They are generally based on driving habits.

Run the oil 7,500 mi. and get an oil test. That is the true answer. I have run my Amsoil for 46,000 miles with an oil filter change every 15,000. The oil was still good at 46,000 mi. but the numbers were getting a bit high. I went with Amsoil again and went 39,000 mi. and by then the test said it was 80% of the maximum allowed for oxidation so I changed it. You can so easily go 10,000 miles. My GMC diesel computer is like clock work, every 10,000 miles. Now I use Shell Rotella T6 and change every 15,000 or so but use a mobil 1 oil filter. Keep your air filter clean and you wont ever have a problem unless you are in dusty roads.

If I felt the need, which I don't, to go 10,000 on any oil, I would at least change the filter at 5000.

5k or 12 months on my BMWs, 7500 on my Cummins. Motul 5W40 in the newer Bimmers, PennGrade High Zinc 15W40 in the M635Csi, and Rotella in the Cummins.

5,000 for the Nissan Pathfinder. 7,500 for the Ford SD Diesel.

Or at least that's the target. Fixin' to turn 100K on the SD Diesel.....and don't even want to think about a new one.

10,000 highway miles, no problem.10,000 stop and go short trip miles I would be uncomfortable with. You could always pop for a 5000 mile change yourself and let them do the 10,000 mile one.

It is your investment. If you plan on longterm ownership, act accordingly.

Again depends on driving, I do mine at 6000, but probably too soon. Changed lots of customers and would be good if they did it at 10,000. Saw too many going 20,000 plus on regular oil.

My 19 Duramax diesel has the oil life gage on it. It goes below 20% left when I hit about 3000 miles. Warranty covers my oil changes and the dealer abides by the gage.

Shorter mileage spans between oil changes will never hurt you.Longer ones just might.

I run Mobil 1 and Wix filters, change the filter at 5K, oil and filter at 10K.

Full Synthetic, weight per engine requirements.

5,000 mi.


I'm sure others know as well.

Manufacturers change things such as oil ports etc. and have gone to THINNER oils --> Farther distance on changes.........

IMO, that increases wear.

YMMV

The scientific way to determine this is to leave the oil in until the engine fails. Then replace the engine and always change the oil a few miles short of that point. Sort of like determining the weight limit on a bridge.

aalf -- I've noticed that many filters are smaller than they used to be.
A filter can only absorb so much. Something to think about.

2003 Toyota 4runner, 205,000 miles. Changed oil and filter every 10,000 miles. Does not use oil or leak oil. Used it a bunch for hunting and fishing. Now 100% asphalt driven. Such a great old V8 engine.

2015 Toy Tundra 5.7 liter non-flex fuel, 90,000 miles. Changed oil and filter every 10,000 miles. Does not use or leak oil. Runs great and runs offroad often hunting.

2018 Toy 4runner, 40,000 miles. Changed oil and filter every 10,000 miles so far. Does not use or leak oil. Runs great and probably 98% hwy driven.

So for me and my Toyota collection, it'll be the factory recommended 10,000 mile interval with full synthetic.

Ding ding ding. If it works for multi-million dollar machinery and Jet engines, I bet it will work for an extremely complicated combustion engine.

Look up Blackstone Labs

And it's always very clear what constitutes normal and severe too. If you do a lot of stop and go driving or a lot of highway miles, it's severe. Everything else, which is nothing, is normal.

Chev 1.4 goes 6000, and has the gauge thing. So far it is only slightly darker at change, mostly town short trips. The advantage of synthetic was supposed to be longer life.
I did persuade them to change the first at 1000, even if they dont claim a need of break in any more
A shop wanted the sorento 3000 or 3 months--no way will i go back there that is not even factory severe requirement. The old f150 gets around 5000.
How much oil does it hold and how good is the filter?

I would go by what the manual says while your truck is under warranty. If it says 5k, that is probably what they would use to try and weasel out of doing warranty work on your vehicle if something were to go wrong. So change it at 5k even if you have to pay. If it says 10k let them change it at 10k.

Sounds like they are already trying to weasel out of the service plan you were supposed to get. The "policy change" could be just your dealer trying to save a few bucks and not Toyota.

You stand about as much chance of getting abducted by ET and taken to another planet than an honest to goodness oil related engine failure based on not changing it often enough happening to you at either interval. But to get out of warranty work they may try and blame a "design flaw" that no one knows about now on it.

Unless, of course, you use Fram filters.

My daily driver is a 2013 Toyota Avalon that sees almost exclusively highway miles for long stints.
It sees OE oil, OE filter and gets serviced every 10K at the dealer.

I'm not going to bother fooling with doing an oil change for $50.

16,000 km is ridiculous !



FC, for a bald guy, you're smarter than you look !



Yep, me too !

With synthetic oil 10K oil changes are conservative. You can probably go longer. I've been doing 10K on my 2007 Tacoma since new. I'm at 202,000 miles now with no oil consumption between changes. I do the same with my F150 and Honda. They have well over 200K combined.

There are lots of guys over at the Tacoma forum with over 400K on their trucks that used 10k intervals. There is a guy in NC who got 880,000 out of his 1st engine with 10K oil changes. It was still fine internally, but needed a new head gasket. Rather than repair the old engine he bought one from a scrapyard with 100K on it. He is over 1.3 million miles now and still changing oil at 10K. Actually, he doesn't change at a certain mileage, just once/month. But he averages driving 10,000 miles each month.

+1

That's fine, but I just changed my 2004 Taco oil after 7,000 miles (230,000 on the truck now) and that chit was old and smelled bad (mobil1 full synthetic). I generally change it every 5,000, but got lazy and let it go. The engine was not running or sounding as smooth as normal, so I wanted to change it. After the fresh oil, it's smooth and quiet like it should be. I don't trust mine running more than about 6,000 miles, but that's just me. No need to wreck an engine and changing it every 5,000 isn't going to hurt it... I also agree that it depends on your driving habbits. I drive mine like I stole it, not like I'm driving miss daisy....

What really sucks is that some motors suck in humid air during the heat up cool down cycle... so even if you haven’t driven a lot the oil can get impurities in it.

We bought a new Camry in 2016 and they included the maintenance plan till 75k. 10k intervals for oil change, it now has 100k on it and uses zero oil and mileage has actually improved. I now do my own oil changes using Mobil 1

2008 Duramax has 350k on it, 10k interval using Wix and rotella T6. It will be a quart low at each change. Mileage has slipped about 2 mpg in the last year but still hanging around 17-18 mpg

..........Yep, I had the same dealer oil change program with my bought new 2015 Ram....However for the first two years of freebie dealer oil changes, my oil change intervals were every 6K miles because the Ram dealer used Mopar regular non synthetic oil. For the last nearly 3 years since my free oil changes ceased, I have been using Amsoil Signature Series changing oil every 15K miles.....Changing oil every 10K miles is no problem IF using a FULL SYNTHETIC OIL of high quality.....Factory spark plugs of today are designed for extremely long life 75K and beyond...Cars and trucks are not the same now as many years ago. They run much cleaner using todays cleaner gas...If u check your owners manual I'll wager that your first plug change is due at around the 100K mark like my Ram Hemi.....As a tip I pour a combustion chamber/fuel system cleaner made by Amsoil into the tank every 5K miles....NOPE...No need to change plugs every 15K to 30k like the old days.....

Yep, new fuggin Toyota's are now running 0W 16, like I can buy that in my remote location.

Of course, this is after me installing a bulk tank & automated pump for 0w 20 !

Phouc !

That’s the same for our 2013 Toyota. My Dodge Cummins (running synthetic) with all of the emissions stuff lost, goes around 25,000 mile between oil changes.....filters about every 6,000! memtb

2015 Chevy Silverado. Takes 8.5 qts Dexos1 0-20 full synthetic. I have it changed @ about 7000 miles, 5% on the oil life remaining monitor.

Chevy dealer........Change oil and filter, rotate tires, check and top off fluids, multi point inspection. $60 while I wait, about 45 minutes. Best deal since sliced bread.

Some of the newer Dodges are still running copper plugs and recommended change is 30,000

Enough of this, who has a good barrel break in recipe for me?

I have 2010 Toyota that recommends 10k...

I do 7,500 instead with Mobile One and K&N

That is a "EXTRA COST" of three extra oil changes every 100.000 miles.

At $33 an oil change... that is $99 "wasted" every 100,000 miles.

I am at 173k miles and ZERO drama.

IMHO it has been worth the extra $172 I have "wasted". (FWIW, I caught a loose muffler bracket while I was under the car that I was able to fix before the muffler/Cat got torn off (I figure that alone covers the $173)).

I change oil & filter every 5,000 miles. Mobil 1 & WIX filters.

What's the best kind of spark plugs to run in my Dodge Cummins?

Motorcraft.

I also use Amzoil in my 2015 F150 and the wife's 2015 Caddy.

It gets changed at 10,000 along with the filter.

It's dusty here sometimes and they get it earlier then.

In my 1963 C10 it gets changed when ever i feel like it because it does not get driven much these days.

2 days ago i changed it and it looks just like it had just been changed,my bud runs the parts store and he said the last time i bought that oil filter was 5 years ago.

He has always given me grief about the oil that gets used in it,i use DELLO 15-40 the same that goes in my Massy tractor.

Now i have put in Casterol high mileage oil so i will see how good it is.

Our Lennox uses two Champions.

I live on gravel roads on a farm. Oil and filters changed in my f150 and her Tahoe at 5k to 6k intervals.

Only if they are the rainbow glow ones !

Split-Fires

Many years ago when I was a 18 year old and working at a parts store a young lady came in looking for spark plugs for a 4020 john deere diesel. Husband sent her to town, next stop was to change winter air to summer air in her tires. Nice husband. Told her what was happening, she went home with 6 cheap plugs and a phony bill for $200.00. Sheepish husband returned the plugs the next day

Muffler belt, a can of compression.

Some of the early Diesel's did start on gas.

You should have given her a free lube job. 😁😁😁

1) cut 4.552 slices of applewood smoked bacon into patch-sized pieces
2) push each through the bore in only 1 direction
3) leave the 13th piece in the barrel for 9.78153 hours, while classical music plays in the background
4) push it out of the barrel, then shoot 1.5 rounds downrange
5) clean to bare steel, then repeat the entire sequence 112.7 times

You’re welcome. 😉

FC

Never kiss and tell

This well oiled thread has gone off the rails. Not a bad topic.

Well, that's OK if you want to go the easy route and risk doing irreparable damage to the barrel.

Fake news. Hickory smoked gets it done way quicker.

I'm calling BS on that... Champion!

Enough for several break in's

I run full synthetic Mobil 1 that says it's good for 15,000 miles and a premium Wix XP filter. Change both at 7500 mile intervals.

'After discussing it with my mechanic of 27 years, I settled on 7,500 mile intervals"

After being my own mechanic for 60 years I want my vehicles to last a long time and be as trouble free as possible. So far so good. I drove my '78 Chevy pickup 21 years and plan on driving my 2005 Dodge diesel until I can't drive. I've always done all my oil/filter changes and all the maintenance I can do with the tools I have. I can't rebuild an automatic trans. I've been using Amsoil synthetic since the rings seated at around 30k. I also installed an Amsoil bypass filter and put a FILTERMAG on the oil filter. I wish I known about FILTERMAGS when my truck was new because it traps the ferrous metal in the oil from the piston ring/cylinder break-in. From now on I'll install a FILTERMAG any new engine I get. The bypass filter traps almost 98% of the particle as small as 2 microns (there are 23 microns in .001" so that's REAL small). You're supposed to the change the bypass filter by 70k or 800 hours. I've been changing motor oil, both oil filters, fuel filter and air filter @ 10,000 miles since 30k just because it's easy to remember.

for example.....my '05 Taco..bought in '05 w/7K miles..4.0L V 6.....

so easy to change oil/filter on this motor....Wix XP or Toyota OEM filter

Walmart Super Tech 5w30 full synthetic....my most recent change last week....183Kish miles

this was the 31st oil change since I've bought it...doesn't use a drop of oil between changes...

Changes on this these trucks are between 5-6K miles..

Newer '14 Tacoma & older '02 Chevy 6.0L 2500 HD are annual changes at 6K miles

I typically change oil every 5 to 6K miles but did forget for a while and went 30K once. Frontier is 10 years old with 195K mostly highway miles on it and runs smooth and strong.

10k oil changes for me with Mobil 1. It’s in that manual for my 2019 tundra. On my 2007 tacoma I did 10k oil changes as well, I knew Toyota would catch on eventually.

My 2007 was murdered with only 211k on the odo. At 210k miles, at the end of my 10k oil change interval, the oil level was still in the middle, didn’t burn any perceptible measure of oil in 10k.

I think Seafire must have a million miles with 10k plus oil changes on his 22r by now.

As a bonus it’s real easy to remember every time the odo passes an even 10k mark to change the oil.

I always use Toyota filters and do my first change at 1k. Internet opinions are worth what they cost you....

You should do like my Papaw used to do, buy a new truck every 5 or 6 years and NEVER change the oil, just add when needed. He said oil changes were a waste of money. Tightest sumbitch that ever lived, he made Jews nervous.

.....................Thanks! I did not know that.....IIRC and without going out to my truck to get my owners manual, a plug swap for a 5.7 Hemi is done every 100K miles.....16 of 'em.....

Seems silly to me to pay the premium for syn oil, only to drain it after 5000 miles.

Mobil One.. 20K...analysis still says its good and has usable TBN of 2.5 to 3...


Filters changed every 5K until last 2 year when converted to Mobil One filters... which I run for the 20K they are claimed to be good for... analysis shows they are doing their job for that period of time according to Blackstone Labs...

current vehicles.. 283 K on Pilot, 570K on 4 Runner,

Camry I gave away 1994 model..., 350K on it, ran to 375K when it was stolen and totaled by some methheads..

Valve cover gaskets changed every 50K and the heads are always clean and free of sludge...and varnish...

air filters changed every 50K, yet blown out with compressed air every 10K...

Camry replaced with 08 Camry 4 cylinder, but so far have only put 7K on that car...currently running 0W30 Mobil One with Mobil One filter...

Trusting Blackstone's analysis....and what I am not seeing having to do with sludge and varnish, when replacing valve cover gaskets or oil pan gaskets...

When I lived in MN, the engines always outlasted the car bodies...but several engines were ran to 350K plus....when car had to be junked due to body being shot...

The Maint Manual on my 4Runner says 10,000 miles. Been doing that since new and no problems.

I do 5,000 on both cars.... "But sir, your vehicles are high mileage, and you need to use the oil that costs 3X as much"
'Uh, no son, I know what I need and a $75 oil change is not it.'

At least once a year. Usually between 5-10k miles.

Long ago the Air Force did a study between synthetic and crude based motor oil. The idea, of course, would the AF save money if the fleet ran synthetic. One finding was that synthetic acted as a super detergent oil and there was a significant risk that sludge developed over many miles of non-synthetic would break loose, clog a passage, and fry a motor. What's the current thinking?

As part of that study or maybe separately, they found no difference in performance of oil based on virgin feedstock vs. from reclaimed feedstock.

I started a motor off a little early on Mobil 1 and that sucker always used oil.Given the AF super deterfent theory I think I should've left more miles for break-in.

(At the time synthetic was expensive and I think it came down to a coin flip between that and reclaimed motor oil on the more frequent change schedule.)

6 to 7 thousand miles on full synthetic. '14 Silverado 5.3L. Do notice some loss of fuel mileage after about 6K, perks up again with an oil change.

Did my own oil changes until maybe 8 years ago. Havoline 10w30 mostly and then 5w30 with newer trucks. Seldom pushed a truck over 4 thousand miles between oil/filter changes back then, before synthetic oil. Had several friends here in town, that operated auto repair garages. Each had their own opinion on oil life and only one was into synthetics when they came on the scene and he was the least opinionated/bull headed one in the bunch.

Customer brought a full sized MOPAR in for engine replacement back in the mid 90s, think it had a 318 in it? Had already put one new Jasper replacement engine in it and was going for a warranty replacement. We pulled the oil pan. Sludge was so thick, garage buddy stuck an 18" screwdriver in the gook. JASPER dealer showed up, looked at the still vertical screwdriver and laughed.

Car owner claimed he'd had the oil changed every 3K. Um, nope. Warranty test failure.

Oh, but what is the cost of that compared to the cost of new engine?

My last Toyota truck I didn't Mobil 1 every 10-12,000 miles. Traded it with 196,000 miles, nor problems.

Had the same experience with a 92 Chevy I had for 9 years before that.


These days, since I drive so little, I've be using standard oil and changing once a year. It's all I can do to put 5,000 miles a year on a vehicle.

I change the oil in my ‘95 Taco and the wife’s ‘01 Sienna @ 5000 miles, but use Dino oil.

Powerstroke gets syn blend and changed by the IOL monitor, about 7000 miles.

...............................Agreed................Premium synthetics are designed to go 10K miles and more between changes. But! If anyone wants to use 100% premium synthetic oil and drain it every 5K then that's ok too. They are just not utilizing the full potential of synthetic oil.

Still going to get the same amount of engine life whether premium 100% synthetic oils are drained every 5K or at every 10K and in some cases longer.......

I spend about the same amount of money using Amsoil Signature Series draining @ every 15K miles vs one who uses conventional oil and draining every 5K miles...

Amsoil Signature Series is $12.30 per quart x 7 (Ram Hemi) = $86.10,,,,,,plus Amsoil extended life oil filter @ $19.95,,,,,plus $20.00 labor to do the change. A total of $126.05 + tax on the oil and filter every 15K miles...........Well worth it even if a little more money is spent than using conventional oils with changes at every 5 or 6K. Also more convenient with less visits to the Oil Stop Shop to do the oil changes.

I have always done 5 to 7000 miles. Never had an oil related engine failure. Going to change oil in my truck today. Oil life shows18% . I usually do it a little sooner.

5,000 miles on mine, although I sometimes run a bit over. I've been letting the dealership do it, as they really don't charge a lot more than I can do it myself, and I don't have crawl around under the vehicle. I have a 2017 F-150 and a 2017 Explorer. Both just went over 36,000 miles, so the warranty is out. I use Motorcraft oil and filters.

Change oil and oil filter every 5,000 miles, or at least 1x per year. Air filter every 15,000 miles. Gas or diesel. Toyota or domestic. New or old. Easy to remember.

Currently over 200K miles on three vehicles (255K, 245K, 205K) with no obvious oil consumption, and no internal engine failures. Using whatever oil and filters my mechanic normally stocks. Nothing premium.

Watch the videos of oil change businesses cheating customers and you might start doing your own. I know they sell people extras that they don't need such as a brake fluid flush that is not actually performed. I would imagine that the premium synthetic oil change could easy be straight 30 wt. conventional. The filters are the cheapest off brand that can be had. At the dealer I suspect it's not much if any better. I don't like changing oil myself but it is too important to allow someone to use inferior products or even maybe wipe off the filter with a rag and call it new. When I drove a state truck I caught the Jiffy Lube missing grease fittings and only getting me a little over the add mark on the dip stick more than once.

I like doing my own. It doesn’t take long at all.

James? How do you figure warranty is out. Drive train is covered to 60000 if I remember right. Ed k

had a guy at a quicky lube tell me that my power steering fluid smelled burnt . I should flush it before my rack and pinion gets ruined costing me $1000 or more. I told him weird cause this truck has draglink steering how does the rack wear out? he just turned around and put the cap back on and never said a word to me till it was time to pay the bill.

You get what you pay for. If you’re going to use an oil change franchise because they advertise $25.00 oil changes and employ B grade techs or college kids, you can expect them to try and up sell you on other stuff, or shortcut your oil change. The numbers just don’t work otherwise.

Every 15000 in my Ram/Cummins with Rotella 5/40 and every 7500 in my Jeep Rubicon. Truck has 182,000 on it and the Jeep is at 54,000. Not an issue with either, ran the same in the older Ram Cummins as well for nearly 225,000.. Both of the vehicles have oil countdown deals and I stick with that.. Just makes life easier and todays oil and filters are really darned good!

I think I overkill mine after readin through all of this

Ditto... Then I know it's done right..

Every 5000 miles with a good quality synthetic oil brand, and more importantly, a good quality oil filter.

-Ken