I drive very little, only having just reached 3000 miles after 5 months (including a 500 mile trip at Christmas). My salesman put a 3k oil change sticker on my window when I first drove away. I have the 3 Toyota oil changes as well as another from my dealer. At the rate I am going it will take nearly 2 years to use my free oil changes.

My question is, when is the best time to switch to a synthetic and how does switching to synthetic impact on the vehicle's warranty if you go over 5k between changes?

 

Brand/type of oil don't matter (assuming you're not suing Wesson) it's oil that meets the spec and is of the proper weight - 5w30 as an example.

Time is also the enemy of oil, so don't let it sit in the car just because you don't put miles on it - in fact, driving is better than not, and if you do lots of short trips, that kills oil.
I'd do 3k/3months on dino oil and 4k/4months on synthetic.

You can go to synth safely at 1000 miles. I always do, and on motorcycles, I do it at 500 miles.

Scott

 

How does switching to synthetic affect the warranty when the mileage for synthetic oil changes is routinely quoted as being more than 5k? I understand about changing dino oil and its weights and I know there are numerous opinions as to the type used and it frequency of being changed, as well as that of synthetic. Also, if I changed dino oil every 3 months as opposed to 3k miles I would be changing oil at probably 1500 miles. But what I want to know is about the warranty and switching to synthetic.

 

The book says to change oil at 5,000 not 3,000......

 

If you wanted you could change it every 1000 miles and maintain your warranty. I want to know how switching to synthetic oil for which you can go longer than 5k between oil changes would affect the warranty. The question here is about warranty. WARRANTY. Pardon the shouting, but i want to know about the warranty and going longer than 5k with synthetic oil.

 

Regardless of whether you use dino or synthetic, stick to the oil change interval that the owner's manual suggest.
Regardless of what oil you use, it is not a good idea to go with extended drain intervals, IMO. Oil gets dirty over time and you need to drain the oil to drain the dirt out of your motor.
You can switch to synthetic at any time. Quite a few cars actually come with synthetic oil in them right from the factory.
If you switch to synthetic oil and go longer than 5,000 miles/3 months between changes, have problems with the engine and the dealer knows this, they will most likely deny you warranty coverage if they think that the problem was caused by not changing the oil often enough.

 

The Scheduled Maintenance Log shows oil changes every 5000 miles or 6 months, not 5k/3 months.

 

OK, I will say this ONCE:

Change your oil WITHIN the limits of the MANUAL, and you're fine.
You can change it every 50 miles if you like and be covered.

The advice I gave in my first reply is good for the warranty AND your engine.

Scott

 

In your first post you simply said to do 3k/3 months on dino, 4/4 on synthetic. Nothing about the warranty and that is what I wanted to know.

It is routinely posted by users of synthetic oil that it is good for 7500 or more miles between changes. What I was simply asking is if the 5k/6 months between oil changes (not the 3k/3 months for dino oil or the 4/4 for sythetic that you prefer) need to be maintained to keep the warranty valid no matter what type of oil is used. Opinions very widely on what type of oil to use and how often to change it. A simple, yes you need to maintain 5k/6 months to keep the warranty valid would have been sufficient. I'm sorry if you had to post about it more than once.

 

Well, I don't like to give simple answers to complex issues.
I was trying to be more helpful, but I'm not sure that worked out.

 

The greater mileages between oil changes for synthetic was confusing, but although I only just reached 3k I have forgotten that there must be many who are past their warranty and so are free to change their oil at longer intervals than 5k or 6 months. But then I have all of those free oil changes to burn up.

The Maintenance Log also says to rotate the tires at oil changes. Do the tires really need to be rotated so frequently?

 

I'm a stickler for rotating/balancing tires at 5k/10k.
My stockies have 20k and look new.
Depends if you like buying new tires, I don't.

 

Not to discredit anyone on here (afterall, Im the new guy around here), but are these people basing that opinion off of hard, scientific evidence (oil analysis tests for example) or are they just guessing?
Me personally, I still change my oil at 3,000 miles. For me, its cheap insurance. Id much rathar change oil more often and spend a little more in oil, being pretty sure that my engine will last 200,000+ miles than to run it longer than recommended and maybe end up having an oil-burner in the long run.
To give you a short answer, if you want to be safe with potential warranty issues, yes, you should follow the maintenance intervals that are outlined in the owner's manual.
I aplogize for not quoting the suggested oilchange interval exactly. I own an older vehicle and Im not exactly up to date on today's standards. For that, I aplogize...

 

[quote="Bakemono"]1) You MISQUOTED ME. Credibility?
2) I base my posts not only on UOAs, but lots of research.

Tread carefully before you come in and botch a post.

 

Hmmm, thats weird. I meant to quote Elocs, not you. My apologies... I went back and fixed it now.

 

All good.
I just have to say I get a tad peaved when someone doesn't spend time researching something, and then comes in here posting at BEST, anecdotal "data" of things scientific like oil.

I've spent WAY too much time reading/learning about it, so i try my best to give out good info on the topic.

Scott

 

Nah man, its cool. I feel the same way.

 

Oh, something else to think about. Your free oil changes will not be free if you tell them to put syn. in your car. They only put dino juice in for free. I told them I wanted Mobil 1, they charged me 33 bucks for 5 qts. I was SO f'in ____ed, her next oil change was done by me. I just rotated my tires myself yesterday, and this Friday she has an appointment for her point inspections. So yeah, change it at the intervals in the manual and your warranty will be covered. Like the one person already stated. Short distance trips can be hard on oil as well. It heats up cools down, heats up cools down, over and over, it also gets can get more blow by gasses in it since the motor is constantly being varied in RPMs instead of constant rate as out on the open road. If you let your oil sit pass their recommendations then you run the risk of sludge build up, that can happen even before their recommended points, but if it does then atleast you would then be covered under your warranty for any damage.

Jeremy

 

Problem with short trips is that the car doesn't get to full operating temps and the H2O in the oil doesn't get burned (steamed) out.
Oil retains water and acids if you don't get it to full temps on a regular basis, and changing oil is CHEAP engine insurance.
Don't skimp on oil.