I just bought my tC on saturday. Its a 5-speed for reference. They had it drove from about 180 miles away to my local dealer. My question is since they already cruised on the freeway for a couple hours Im guessing the engine is mostly broke in and the piston rings are definitely seated as good as they are going to get. But they told me to bring it back in 5,000 miles for the first oil change. I wanted to slap someone. Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? I just rebuilt the motor in my other car and after the 40 minutes of idling I changed oil, then drove 500 miles and changed it again. Granted this was a higher performance setup but still I can believe they want me to go 5000 miles on non synthetic for the initial breaking period. I want to take it in after maybe 1500 miles but I dont think they will let me.

So first question, when did you guys do your first oil change. How much cylidner compression do you guys have on your engines and how many miles at the time of hte check? How did everyone elses car feel when it was brand new? Mine feels like the gearbox is very stiff and the chassis doesnt roll or coast very smooth yet. It barely picks up speed when rolling in neutral down a hill. I thought that was shocking but it may be 100% normal for a new car with everything being so tight still(This is my 1st new car). Maybe I need to drive it a little harder in the twisty roads to loosen it up. Im sure this stuff has been addressed in some posts but never hurts to see how everyone elses cars are doing so far. Thanks all.

~Dan

 

5000 miles is what I tell everyone I sell a car to, and thats when I change mine.

 

Im sure whoever drove your car to ur local dealership already drove it HARD enough already. You shoulda demanded that they flatbed it to your local dealer. Anyway that's just my thought.

 

I agree, I would like to have gotten the car with as little miles as possible. I agree that 5,000 miles is probably OK if its driven like a granny and its broke in. Anyone who has changed oil from a motor that just went through a break-in process would understand how much crap metal gets deposited in the oil. The longer you drive with this stuff in the engine the more wear and tear it puts on the bearings. Thats my only real concern.

 

All things being equal you can be wrong one of two ways:
- You can change the oil too early and incur an expense of $29.95
- You can change the oil too late and incur an expense of $2995.00

Your choice; which way do you want to be wrong?

 

I agree with you about the 1st oil change being done much sooner than 5000 miles. I switched to Mobil 1 after 1500 miles and have gone 3-4000 for each change after that. Engine break in is all about wearing metal parts and that means there will be metal particles running through the system and I wanted to leave them in there for the shoretest amount of time I could.

 

It shouldnt be a huge deal to do 5k on the 1st oil change. Since this is what Toyota recommends and they dont want to be fixing cars for free Im sure they are positive its not hurting anything. Cars are built much better now than they used to be so there wont be nearly as much junk floating around in there. Some cars are hooked to a dyno on the assembly line meaning the engine has already been run a little. Most of the people that drive these cars from dealer to dealer are old and just do it for a little money. They dont care about racing the car. Dealers probably also check the mileage before and after to make sure they arent joyriding in your car. Remember if they break the car its their money to fix it not yours. And if the mileage is that big a deal just check it yourself and if it has metal in there take it in to change it because like you said its hard on the engine to have that in there. Either way its hard to wreck a car in 180 miles unless you really drive it hard.

 

I am pretty sure that doing an oil change every 5,000 miles under normal driving conditions is sufficient.

Toyota recommends this interval. They have a reputation for reliability. If changing oil every 5,000 miles is not sufficient to keep the engine running healthy for many years to come, why would they recommend it as such? Even if they simply want maintenance costs to "appear" low, I doubt they would be risking premature engine wear in the long run just to make the car's maintenance schedule appealing to new buyers. Doesn't Toyota have a reputation to uphold when it comes to reliability?

 

5K is what Scion says....that's what I would go with. If you ask me, if Scion says it's 5K and you change your oil at a shorter interval, you're just spending more money. Especially since the car is stock...

As far as the comment about the dealer trade driver driving it HARD, I seriously doubt that. Like stated above, most dealer trade drivers are older and retired and could care less about driving a new tC fast.

If anyone here has been able to convince a dealer to flatbed their car in from another dealer, I would like to here about that! Must have been pretty desperate for a sale considering all of their markup would have been spent transporting the car!

Congrats on the new purchase and enjoy!

 

i changed my oil 1000K 3000 and 5000. that's good for a new car. then i recommend switching to Syn and change every 5000 or stick with regular and stick to 3000

 

It is complete overkill to change the oil before you have run the car a couple thousand miles unless you are abusing it. It is also not a good idea to put synthetic oil in the car until it is completely broken in. The engine needs a little friction for everything to seat properly and synthetic is just too slick. Again that takes a couple thousand miles. If you are uncomfortable with the 5000 mile interval for the first change try 3500 or so for the first three and then go to 5000 mile intervals somewhere around the 10,000 mark .

The manufacturer would not set the intervals at 5000 if there was a problem with running under normal conditions like that. Let's face it; These are not Ferreri engines here.

 

Well it seems everyone is missing the point here. I know after the engine is broken in 5,000 miles in between oil changes is fine if its not being driven hard. But the first oil change needs done sooner PERIOD! It will have long lasting affects to the wrist pin smoothness, connecting rod wear and main crank bearing wear. The camshafts and crank can throw a lot of tiny particles of steel and aluminum around in the oil pan. These particles are extremely small and would never cause anything as major as spinning a bearing but it does affect how tarnished they can get even after only 3,000 miles of having nasty rough oil. Common sense, if you put chunks of stuff in your oil its not going to make it function better.

And for the person using synthetic Mobil1 oil, stop using that garbage. I've used this stuff before and it breaks down and cokes before all others, even cheapo Walmart's SuperTech synthetic. Even the detergent amount of Mobil1 is lower than some convential oils like Havoline, Valvoline and Castrol. Bottom line, you're paying twice as much for oil that does half as good a job! For people who change their oil every 2,500-3000 miles it wont matter but for those who like to go 4-5k miles it WILL make a significant difference after 60-80,000 miles.

 

I disagree with you on that. The engine is broken in at the factory (even says so in the manual), and modern manufacturing processes allow for rather precise function. If all the engine parts would produce enough metal shavings to actually noticeably affect the reliability and performance of the engine, Toyota would specifically state to change the oil sooner than at 5,000 miles in order to avoid problems. However, Toyota says to change oil starting at 5,000, and at 5,000 mile intervals thereafter. It's as simple as that.

If what you say is true, why would Toyota simply not say to change the oil at 1,000 miles (or whatever mileage) and then at 5,000? To save the customers $30, especially considering the fact that three oil changes can be done for free at the dealer? I mean seriously, it doesn't make sense.

 

Well, during break in just go easy, i mean very easy until around 1,000 miles. Then, continue to go very easy and bi-weekly take it up to redline once. After about 1,500-2,000 miles continue to go easy but you can shift a little higher. After first oil change you can be good to go, but i personally like to keep rpm's low until around 4,000rpm to be safe. Of course, bi-weekly method of taking it up to redline.

This is what i recommend.

I also recommend changing your first oil change around 2,000-2,500. I'd never wait until 5,000 miles to change it, especially the first time. But to each their own.

 

Please go to the maintenance forum and read the first three stickies - all good info, and frankly, there's too much BS on this topic.
As many answers as people.
Look at the data, and listen to those with a lot of experience.
Check them out - well worth the read, and there's no point in rehashing it all here again.

Scott

 

I agree, forgot about the stickies..then again, i never needed to look at them. With that said, this thread should be locked.

 

Im still a newb here I guess, I will check them out.

I didnt know Toy was doing any kind of break in, I asked the dealer about it and he said they didnt so that shows what they know. And he went to school just to learn about the cars heh. But that changes things a bit, if they even did an idle break in process thats enough reason for me to go 2500-3000 miles before changing the oil. But I will read the stickies, thanks for the info.

 

I will do mine this coming weekend - 1k miles.
Then, every 3k with full-synth.
FWIW
I've been reading/debating/doing my own service on cars and bikes for over 20 years.

Scott

 

i just got my car too about a week i have 190miles on it. when i got my car it had 3miles haha.... anyways i say 800-1k miles dont over 60mph and also dont past more then 4 grand. after that just slowy go up and speed and rpm and oil changes toyota says 3,750