So I'm reaching 5000 miles pretty soon and am going to take my car to the dealership for its first oil change!

Some people are saying they changed their oil at 1200 or 1700 miles... or 3000 even, but my question is why?

Also, should I tell the dealer to put in 0w or 5w (and do you just say "zero double-u" or what?) What are the benefits of each?

Thanks!

 

the reason why i changed at like around 1500 was to get out all the oil i used for break in...

then i change regularly at every 3500.

 

the oil you used for break in would still be clean wouldnt it?

what is the benefit of changing so early?

 

First, you don't want to go 5000 miles on conventional oil. 2nd, it is highly recommended by anybody knowledgable about cars that when breaking the car in, you don't go a normal length, instead, about 1500 miles. I believe the point of this, is that as the car is breaking in, there can be such things as metal fragments or any other loose sediment that can be knocked free as the engine starts up for the first several times. It is the same principal as to why you would take it easy on the car for the first 1K or so

Have them use whichever oil that is meant for the car. I suppose you have an '07? I would stick with the factory numbers of 5w-20 unless you live in some extreme temperature zone where the 0w would be beneficial. At my local dealer, they don't even carry the 0w, but that doesn't matter b/c I do my own with synthetic and im in an 06 with 5w-30

 

i think toyota would know when the best time to change the oil for their car is... i just wanted to know what would compell people to change their oil so prematurely!

thanks

 

oh and btw, for you people who changed your oil so early, did you see even any metal fragments?

 

Don't take my word for it, ask around, ask the dealers, ask experts, whomever you want, nobody will recommend going to 5k on conventional oil. It simply gets too dirty and loses its ability to properly protect and lubricate the engine.

It may not be good for business to have cars that last 300K miles, how could they sell more cars if the ones they already sold last forever? lol, thats just one philosophy. My dealer offers free lifetime oil changes at 3500 mile increments. They could save money by doing 5K like the manual says, but thats not the best thing to do. I could go on, but you don't have to believe me, ask around. Good luck, i'm sure you'll love the car!

 

I dont think the mini-metal fragments would show up in the oil but maybe the oil filter. During my break-in period I did a lot of stop and go driving so changing oil early for the 1st time didnt bother me.

 

The metal shavings should and will appear in the oil when you drain it. Before the oil filter there's a mesh filter that keeps metal shavings in your oil pan and out of your engine. If anything is small enough to pass through the mesh, it's gotta go through the pleated sheets of the oil filter. Having the shavings in your oil won't hurt your engine directly so no fear of having metal shavings kill your bearings or anything like that. What the shavings will do is clutter the mesh filter and restrict the amount of oil passing through. That's one reason you don't want to push too hard for too long before your first oil change but really, it's no real cause for fear.

That said, don't wait til after 5k miles to change your oil.

 

The toyota mechanics will not change your oil unless its at 5,000 miles. I remember I went in a year and a half ago and he would not change it at 3,000. I never returned and now I change my oil around every 3k-4k, I use mobil 1 fully synth oil.

 

Thats just your dealership. They changed mine at 1200 and everytime I wanted after that. I started going there every 3k and they started to follow my pattern and write that on the window stickers.

 

If you are going to get your oil changed they cannot deny you service due to lower mileage. They can suggest that you not have it changed that early, but ultimately, it's your discretion as to when it should be changed. I had my oil changed at 1200 miles at the dealership and they didn't even ask why. Maybe you were just dealing with some jerkoff that didn't want to work.

 

That would work if we have not advanced so much in technology. The problem is, most seasoned mechanics and experts are older and worked on cars when they were not as advanced. When a person does it one way for 20+ years, it is learned as the only way.

The fact is shops, dealers, and the car manufacturer have more to gain by you going in early rather than late. The manufacturer would have less to lose by keeping intervals short. (Dealers that do lifetime oil changes are covering their liability by doing shorter increments than recommended.)

I guess the question is, why do you trust expert mechanics who are just told this is how to do it with no studies or surveys over engineering experts at Toyota whose job is to know factual data rather than gut feeling?

(And Toyota WOULD benefit having 300K miles cars because then they would be #1 and probably have much more sales than they do now and capture more of the market to make up for people buying cars less.)

 

Because no matter how you look at, however good the filters have become, etc...conventional oil is still the same thing. They can say "anti-sludge", etc, its all the same crap that they've used forever. The synthetic oil is where the thought process goes into. Just because cars are becoming more advanced does not mean that they can handle old dirty nasty oil. If one cares about their car and its longevity, they would not care about the $1.49 a quart for crap conventional oil that it costs to replace earlier. Synthetic oil is more expensive, but it does a better job and lasts even longer, so it does even itself out.

 

the break in oil i used to break in the engine. you are suppose to leave it in there. its specially formulated for that. 1200 is way to short for normal driving. you must be in some really hot dry climate area and do a lot of stop and go. I used fully Synthetic Mobil1 oil and Synthetic Mobil1 filter. I change mine every 3000 if not a lil sooner.
5k in the manual is to sell cars, changing every 1000 must be just to sell more oil. 2k-3k should b fine. it doesnt really hurt the car to go 4k, but yes the shorter the interval the better on the engine. but too short its just waste of money

 

NOTICE:
The following is 100% my opinion.
We *do* have very advanced engines. Consider the important role that the engine oil plays in the VVT-i system. That's why a.) our cars are spec'd for such thin oil and b.) you should keep the engine out of the upper octaves until the temp comes up. As dino oil ages, it looses its ability to carry dirt and gunk. That's the biggest advantage to synthetic. Its ability to stay "clean" is much greater. Now, one could argue that our engines are so well designed that they don't generate much foulness and thus old dino oil is probably still up to the job. It's up to you whether you believe that. One thing is certain: hard driving and/or short city trip driving is harder on an engine and fouls the oil sooner (have you read what our manual has to say about engine breaking?). If you autocross, if you make lots of short trips (especially in the winter), it may behoove you to change more often.

As to metal fragments, again, consider what the manual has to say about oil consumption during break-in. The pistons, rings, lands, etc, are bedding themselves in. Over time, these components will all subtley change their shape to match up and mesh with each other cleanly. How graceful is this process? Why does a car with 50k mi get better gas mileage than a new car (generally speaking)? It's not all due to ECU learning. A middle-aged engine has lower friction. If the friction is reduced, that means at some point, a certain polishing of compoents has taken place. Where has the polished-off material gone? And when did the majority of this theoretical polishing happen?
Personally, I find all of the above VERY plausible and I agree with the others that changing the oil early is a small price to pay. Will I have some 5k mi oil changes over the life of my tC? I have no doubt, but it won't be during winter and it won't be when I've been autocrossing.

 

We are not talking about just dino oil being advanced but engines as well like g3kko said. Doesn't it stand to reason that a cleaner burning engine is...cleaner? Of course, the style of driving and how hard you drive it are factors to consider. Why would an oil break down at the same speed if the dirt and deposits are much less? Heat contributes but within safe operating temperatures is not the only factor.

Like I asked before, do you trust mechanics who have the mentality that once you find a way to do something that is how it is always done or the Toyota engineers who have constructed the car from the ground up? I mean, you trust the engineers enough to buy the car.

And g3kko, regarding metal shavings, wouldn't this be easy to prove? We are on a forum of over 25,000 people. This means there have been roughly 25,000 first oil changes. Factor in the people who do it themselves, lets figure at least 1,000 people change their own oil for the first oil change. Just ONE was needed to post saying, "Look at the metal shavings in the oil" to prove it should be changed early. The filter is a very good design by Toyota and if it catches all the shavings (this discounts the parts just expanding and forming to the other parts) then there is still no point to an early oil change.

I am at 3,000 miles. When 5,000 rolls around, I will run the oil through a strainer for paint and take pictures. Then we will have a more certain answer. Of course I will go to synthetic when I change it.

 

I think any "shavings" would be almost impossible to see with the naked eye. We're talking fragments a few microns in size. IF they're there. ;)

I'd be mighty worried if I could actually SEE chunks of ANYTHING in my oil. :D

But you hit on something important...and that this is nigh-impossible to prove. You'd need at least 3 tCs driven identically to 100k mi to be able to pull this off with any scientific proof. However, I happen to work for a large corporation with lots of neat toys (not the least of which being a scanning microscope). When I take my baby in, I'm going to have them nab a sample from the bottom of the oil pan. Now I just need to figure out what **** to kiss to get at a chromospectragraph...

 

Oh, and I have just a tick under 1,000 miles on mine thus far, and I was planning on changing the first one out at 1500. We'll see if I feel foolish at all.

 

should I have changed at 2000 then? I did ALOT of stop and go driving (100% almost) in hot weather...