north32rowan

My significant other of 37 years has no interest in technology and its many wonders. i've tried to explain to her the MAINT REQD light on her xD activates at 4500/5000 miles and the car only requires an oil change every 10,000 miles/one year with 0/20 synthetic oil so she can ignore it. No dice . . . she suspects I'm trying to save a nickel; kill her in a fiery explosions; or don't know what I'm talking about . . . heck, maybe even all three. So in an almost desperate plea for martial harmony, can anyone tell me how to either (a) disconnect the Godawful light or (b) increase its activation interval to say 8500/9000 miles? And, yes, I know how to reset it . . . that's just postpones the problem till it goes off again . . . way too early.

Barfalamu

you can actually take a soldering iron and just remove the LED from the board. There might be a right up somewhere on here about the full gauge cluster LED replacement. pretty quick and easy thing to do if you've soldered before. the timer is set by factory default for 5k, so there is no upping it, only removing the LED.

NOW, that being said, i use full synthetic myself for oil changes, but I do mine every 5k. I also live in texas and its very dirty in my area and I don't want my engine to gunk up. I'm hoping to get close to 200k out of my baby and I need the help I can get with my aggressive driving style. Your situation is different, and i'm sure driving style is very mild.

north32rowan

Thank you, Barfalamu! My soldering skills are mediocre at best, so the risk/reward of working on the instrument cluster is too high. To be clear, your advice is spot on . . . it's my lack of ability that's the problem. The marital disharmony that would result from a mishap . . . well, I just ain't gonna take that chance.

That being said, I change the 0/20W oil on her car every six months. So 4500/5000 miles is actually in the ballpark. But she can't shake the idea that WHEN THAT MAINT REQD INDICATOR LIGHTS UP, TOYOTA ENGINEERS ARE YELLING AT HER TO GET TO AN OIL CHANGE STATION ASAP. Actually, it's kinda cheesy for Toyota to put out an owner's advisory saying to use only 0/20W synthetic oil with a regular change interval of 10K miles/12 months, and then not make a firmware (or something similar) available to lengthen the MAINT REQD indicator interval. But I guess it could be worse . . . like a GM ignition switch.

Barfalamu

There's another option if you don't feel too comfortable doing it yourself. You might be able to go to a computer repair shop and find a technician who has plenty of experience soldering, and they may charge you a small fee for removing the LED, or you might be able to just put some paint or tape over where the light shines through.

It is pretty silly of them to have it set at 5k, but recommend full synth. But look at it this way, most people who buy the car are usually in the younger crowd that don't know diddly about cars and take it to a shop that uses regular oil because they don't want to spend $50+ for synth. And the other crowd of people, whom I have the up most respect for, is the older crows, and their situation is going to be similar. They piddled with cars growing up, tried to do most of the repairs, and just don't want to do it anymore, and again don't feel like paying the $50+ price tag for full synth.

Hope you get a solution to help out so you're other doesn't freak out on you every 5k

north32rowan

Barfalamu,

Thanks for sharing your computer repair shop idea.

I see what you see re young people who want to save out-of-pocket $ or don't have much car knowledge, but most of the fellow geezers I know will spend the extra dough for full synthetic. After all, we've got a lot of incentive to think about "longevity."

As luck would have it, i got the "make your appointment now" recall letter for the xD's driver seat rails yesterday. I'll be taking it in to the Toyota dealer next week and, trust me, they are going to get some feedback about that (almost) useless indicator.

Peace.

gjpjr84

is it really that big of a deal to just reset it? you would only need to do it the one time between oil changes, why is your wife so distrustful of the explanation? LOL
I would be more worried about disabling the light all together. it's set for 5k because it wasn't until a few years after the xD was released that they changed it to 10k/1yr

boober

Interesting topic, thanks guys for the info.

So it seems as though the general consensus here is to use synthetic.

Also what do you guys think about my scenario, I have a 2009 xD, I only drive it about 3000 miles a year. After owning it for 5 years I only have 15,000 miles on it. I've been getting the oil changed once a year. Seem about right?

Thanks