Oil Change Recurring theme

I’m definitely “old school” so my thoughts on oil changes go back a few years...but here goes.
In my day oil changes were done every 3K miles! I had a hard time adjusting to 5K when engine designs and oil chemistry improved, but I finally got there. Now, with still further improvements and synthetic oils 10K is recommended... I just can’t quite get there.

The recurring theme in this thread seems to be the term “dealership”! I have a new 2020 4R, and when I needed my first oil change I did NOT go to the dealer. Screw the FREE oil change, my time is worth more than that and I’m not sitting around the dealership forever waiting for a simple service like oil. If you can afford a 4R, the cost of an oil change should not be a big deal. I have a great mechanic who is perfectly capable of changing the oil. Plus, I prefer using Amsoil 0w-20S which can be harder to find. I provide the oil and filter: my mechanic changes it out. He is happy to work with me knowing that when I need something more major he will get my business.

Solution.... decide the interval you wish to change your oil at (I change at 5K-7K) and either do it yourself or use a trusted mechanic of your choice. Just keep good records and receipts and use quality products. If the alerts bother you, simply dismiss them and keep an eye on your odometer.

I guess when you get to be my age, you just get tired of all the BS. It shouldn’t be that hard.

Just saying...

 

Exactly my mentality. I never let the dealer touch my vehicle for an oil change. Not to mention they scratch your cars, door dings or they don't even do it correctly, etc.
5 years ago happened to my with a Lexus dealer, simple oil change, I got a hole in the front bumper. Also, they rotate my tires and come out one of the tires has 20 PSI. Lucky I caught they repair but still time wasted letting fixed.
The last time I went there for a Fuel Pump recall, the Manager said you wasted your free services. I said I got no time sitting 2-3 hrs for an oil change. NO, RESPOND from him. And I use Synthetic every 5-7k.

if you calculate in 2 years. They give you 2 oil changes, 5 tire rotations.

 

I agree, they also are supposed to do simple things like grease the U-joints and slip yokes on the drive shafts. When is the last time you saw or asked the service dept. if they performed this function? Right, not too many people will. I found it's pretty easy to grease 6 zerks on the shafts, I don't have 3,000 miles on our Runner and I've done it twice now. I was raised on the farm and simple maintenance and greasing things will save lots of downtime and headaches in the future because someone was "supposed" do it... but did they? P.S.- Old School also!

 

Which grease do you use? my car too new to grease, are they a pain to grease it? I grease my lawn mover, they a pain to remove the plug.

 

Lucas X-TRA on the U-joints and slip yokes, and on the JBA UCA's I use Mobilgrease XHP 222 special as per JBA's recomendation. The U-Joints are not bad, the front ones are free turning by hand providing you don't have it in 4WD, the back one you might have to move the vehicle to get it the proper position to get to, and the slip yokes are simple.

 

Gonna throw my $.02 in on this thread.

I change my own oil. I've used Mobil1 in the past...currently using Pennzoil Platinum...planning on switching to Castrol Edge for my next one.

Not willing to deal with the dealership for oil changes when I can get it done faster myself and I know it's done correctly.

I use Mobil1 synthetic grease for all the above mentioned grease points. Same as I have on my previous 2 Tacomas.

 

I agree on DIY.

if you're using Amsoil and changing every 5-7K you are throwing money away.

However, if you read the manual, many common scenarios are considered "extreme" and dictate 5K changes. I off-road every chance I get and drive down many dusty roads, so it's 5K for me.

 

I was going to make the same exact point.

 

Same here. I skipped the "free" Toyota Care 1st oil change, and paid a shop I know did it right.

Like was said, if you can afford a 4R, you can afford quality service, or DIY.

@roymm, just curious - did you replace the plastic oem filter cover with the metal version?

 

I myself and probably a lot of you guys and gals, learned about vehicle maintenance, when you were younger and before legal driving age, by your Dad. And not to exclude Moms either.
So when it came time to maintain our first rides, that’s what we did.
A few years ago, I retired from being a heavy equipment operator. So daily, weekly and monthly lubing intervals were the norm too. And when there was a repair to be made by one of our mechanics, it’s always a good thing to hear that they never blamed us for a lack of grease.
Sometimes shit just breaks.

Edit.

When we bought a new Rav in 2010, we got the “free” oil change and stuff. To me, it wasn’t a bad thing for the dealer to take a couple of hours to get it done. It just gave me time to check out the other dealerships cars. And I really liked being approached by the sales ladies and their sweet talk (personal fantasy).

 

You can reset the maintenance alerts easy enough. No need to dismiss them.

 

Had a geek engineer friend who had his Mobil 1 oil analyzed a few times for his Audi TT to have the best sense of durabity and they said the full synthetic did not start to be challenged losing polymer reserve until about 12k miles. I use Mobil 1 extended performance in all vehicles except 4R (use toyota oil) since i have lifetime drivetrain warranty, and change 4 suvs the 4 of us have at 10k. And i used to be the 3k mineral oil change fanatic with all cars before synthetic, but im a 10k believer after 6 cars with that longer synthetic interval. I have an 18 Limited since the auto 4wd is best with my wife driving at times in snow. She doesnt want to have to shift for 4wd any more after a string of suvs. If you use the moly grease for lube, it does leave a bit of residue in the long run, but moly is recommended for high wear parts / applications, and just really good, so i use it on all my farm gear, trailer axles, and all our atvs. I think the 4R manual specs moly for slip joints.

 

I know a guy really well who's been a petroleum engineer since about 1974. He's ALWAYS changed the oil on his vehicles every 10k miles, loooong before it was cool. He used to be happy to tell others to do the same but it was so ingrained in the publics mind that 3k was necessary that hardly anyone listened. All those oil sales got him a super nice house and some pretty kick a$$ vacations though, so it's not a total waste.

 

The "Toyota oil" is the same as Mobil 1 syn., different package, same oil. Mobil 1 extended performance, is this on the bottle, or is this another off shoot of Mobil's endless product list? When it comes down to it, oil formulation has come along way, I'm basically 3k- mineral oil, and now I might go 7k on synthetic oil, it also depends on how hard the vehicle in question is driven. Oil "testing" can predict a lot in an engine.

 

Extended performance Mobil 1 is in the bottle name and supposed to have a bit more viscosity polymers and last more miles than base Mobil 1. I tow moderately often so that is my margin with my 10k change interval. Youre right about M1 product stream, but i do like the extended performance variant as margin since I'm less fanatical right at the mileage limit these days on 3 of 4 suvs than with mineral oil.

 

I took mine to the dealership for the first oil change just to give them a chance. It took way too long for a simple oil change and tire rotation. I may be a bit bias though because I grew up helping my family operate a very successful quick lube in a small town. So I had some pretty high standards... I have a garage with full lift and all so I have done the rest of the oil changes/tire rotation myself. Every 5,000 miles. Its peace of mind for me.

 

I don't mind the extra cost and prefer the convenience of not taking my vehicle to the dealership so I haven't used any of the 'free' oil changes yet and just DIY myself. I know for a fact that I care, torque bolts, examine properly, take my time (usually only takes like 30 min anyway) and it's done correct.

With brand new vehicles, I personally like to use the OEM branded/spec oil and filter for the first few oil changes. That way everything is per spec and if I have any warranty claims it's just one more thing I can say I did in accordance with Toyota's maintenance program.

After a few oil changes I may migrate to a different brand of oil, mostly for convenience since Toyota oil can be pricy and also trickier to order than picking up something last minute from a local shop.

I personally have never noticed any sort of difference between oil brands in the last 10+ years while living in AK, ID, AL, and WA in various vehicles. My last few vehicles I've sent off about 10 samples to Blackstone labs for oil analysis at each oil change and they've always come back within spec with no issues. Usually recommending ~7-10k between oil changes (they can analyze based on your use case as well) corresponding with the synthetic that I typically use.

Most likely I'll continue to change my oil around the 5-7k mark, but that is mostly due to putting the vehicle through off road conditions (sand, mud, snow) on a regular basis. If I wasn't I'd just stick to the 10k as recommended. I try not to over think it.

 

It doesn't matter what brand oil, filter, etc you using.

If you don't get your oil analyzed you are just guessing on when its time to change.

 

Agree with you both. I migrated to mobil 1 after warranty periods in past for same reason, and mobil 1 filters. Ive tried to not overkill with sampling after a few times early in 1 vehicle and have run a handful of recent vehicles to 200k and more with mobil 1 at 10k changes.

 

If you’re in a big city where turnover is probably significant among service techs, I can understand not wanting to let them change your oil.

But there are a lot of small town Toyota dealers around the country. Many of them have both service managers and techs that have been with the dealer for 20-30 years. And sometimes there’s one manager and 3 techs with a combined 75 years of experience.

You guys in the cities don’t know how reliable (and good) some of the small town dealers are. They’re still the same local small town service station of 30 years ago.

 

Toyota's oil is Mobil 1 syn., it costs less because it does not say "Toyota" on it, we are going to do our own oil changes at home, like always, not really sure what oil filter we're going to use yet.

 

There was a link posted not too long ago showing the different oil formulations, and the

$53 Toyota 0W-20 oil Toyota/ exxon mobil Case of 6 Quarts Full Synthetic TGMO SN 0W-20 Oil

Toyota 0W-20 oil had much more molybdenum than Mobil 1. I don’t know how much difference that makes in the long run but there is a difference. I have a 2020 4Runner and I’m doing my own maintenance too. I’m using Toyota oil with the TRD filter.

 

When i change oil...i use Mobil1 n add a 300ml bottle of Liqui Moly.....

 

Which Mobil oil? There are about 8 varieties of their 0W-20.

Here’s what I pulled off their website.

 

I always use synthetic extended performance since the regular synthetic analyses reported several years ago that it was limiting at about 10,500 miles. So i expect the extended performance to last maybe to 20k. There was an annual version that said sonething like 15k miles but i stuck with extended performance FULL synthetic since it came out and about same price as newer annual version.

The picture shows what i use for an 08 escape and 15 grand cherokee of my kids, but my wifes X5 uses bmw oil. I change 3 suvs at 10k miles and the bmw at 7500 since under warranty.

 

Same here, the 4Runner sees 90% dirt and 10% pavement it's not my daily so I change it at 5k because of severe conditions I put it through. Amsoil if I had the money but Mobil 1 or Valvoline synthetic works fine for me.

 

The truth is brand of oil doesn't matter and yes 10k with synthetic oil is just fine.

 

This is... comical??

 

Mobil is great for that, they have several kinds of grease too, with nearly the same additives. Mobil full synthetic for the oil. Mobil manufactures and bottles oil for Toyota. Oil...synthetic or not is cheap, at least compared to an engine rebuild!

 

You will never hear of a motor failing due to the wrong brand of oil.