oh, but i just checked the color of my oil, it looks like it's still right out of the bottle... lol

 

Pretty sure that the tC oil is going to be the same very high quality synthetic that my xB came with from the factory. They put some very high quality oil in it . . . the dealer on the other hand may not use such a high quality oil since they don't warrenty the engine the factory does. But anyway you should have been told what the breaking in first oil change should be from the dealer - I was told 3600 miles and have heard more and less depending upon the dealer. The oil will look pretty clean on the dipstick but when you drain it out woooow it will be pretty dark. Don't change it too soon or you will not be breaking in the engine enough. Hot weather is not as bad as winter weather. The engines today in quality cars like these have very good piston seals on the rings so the oil does last a lot longer than in the older cars years ago. Going 5000 on regular is is probably ok if you are not racing it all the time but you are better off in the long run to use a good synthetic for a little better gas mileage.

 

i go with mobil 1, changing 5000....the only time it has looked kinda nasty was after i did some drag racing(it was legal, at the strip, no street racing), and the oil was kinda gritty after 5k(waited to 5 on the first one....never thought otherwise)

i think its ok...i run 10w or 5w 30 in my tc(dont remember,,,know it calls for 5w, dont know which it was!)
and it looks good..just use good synthetic, and a good filter, u should be ok, as long as its nothing serious....i;m gonna look at it hard this time at 5k, if its still real dark, u bet its gonna go down to 4k.....

 

i changed mine for the first time at about 1700 and it still looked fine but i'd rather be safe than sorry later. i switched to full synthetic and will be changing that every 4-5k. i wouldn't go 5000 with regular oil but 5000 should be perfectly fine with a good synthetic.

 

Dark is not as bad as not slippery so if it is still slippery between your fingers it still has some lubrication in it. When your fingers don't slide then you waited too long. I got tired of figuring out what to do with the waste oil so I collected it for my last car - this time I changed to Synlube for the first oil change and now I don't have to change it again for 150k or 15 years. Only a couple of filter changes at 36k and 75k -crazy huh!

 

I agree on that "crazy" bit.

 

i got mine at 11k miles haha

 

Ok, i've decided to have the dealer change the oil when I hit 5000 miles, then I will change the oil 3000 miles after that, and when I hit 10000 i will go synthetic.

If you go synthetic too soon (like earlier than 10k miles... you havent broken in the engine enough and your piston rings arent fully seated...)

 

Hello it comes with synthetic from the FACTORY! Didn't I just say that?

 

Jan06xB - WHAT?! no, you are mis informed! i think you have our cars confused with porsches

 

I purchased my Synlube from an oil expert name Miro and he told me not to get the oil changed at the dealer because the oil from the factory was in fact a very high quality synthetic and it would be better to have trace amounts of that in the engine when I changed over to Synlube than what the dealer would put in the engine. What makes you think that it is regular oil?

 

because it IS regular oil... this isnt some high performance engine, it's a 4 cyl econobox...

 

How are you so sure? Toyota does a lot of things that no one understands. One thing for sure is that they take care of their engines. I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota uses a special break-in oil. I'm not convinced they do but I wouldn't discount it immediately.

 

New tC owners: When you get your first oil change done, send it out to get an oil analysis. I will try as well when the time comes. Maybe we will get an answer to 2 questions. With so many owners, someone must be able to do it.