First dealership oil change? No, not yet.

Purchased 22 Sport in December. I now have 5500 miles and scheduled first oil change at local dealership. Upon arrival this morning, service tech no oil change at 5000 miles, Toyota suggests first one at 10K. The 5000 mile service appt is for tire rotation, general inspection, etc. So, they said come back in 5000 miles (which will be 10,500 since new). Does that sound right? First oil change at 10K?

 

I would just do a 5K oil change myself.

 

Yes, their response sounds right, but many of us have adopted the 5000 mile oil change interval.

The owners manual recommends 5k oil change interval for severe driving such as off road and/or stop and go driving (city).

 

I never had them do one. Included is very 10k. Do it yourself. Switch to fumoto valve.

 

As others have / will note, the free maintenance benefit is limited to 5k intervals for rotations and 10k for oil changes. This is specd in the owners manual. However, there’s a long list of driving conditions for which 5k oil changes are recommended instead. Towing, heavy loads, off road and extended high speed driving are among them.

I think it’s lame that Toyota won’t provide ‘free’ maintenance for oil changes that are actually recommended by Toyota itself, but there you have it.

When I asked for an oil change at 5k for this reason (I’d done days of high speed driving, much with a bunch of cargo) the dealer offered to do my 10k service at 5k. So I did. What would have been smarter would have been to just pay for the change at 5k. Then take the complete free service at 10k.

Regardless, don’t wait for 10k. Pay for it if you don’t want to do it yourself. Preferably at a trusted local shop, but better at the dealer than not at all. It’s cheap insurance. These 10k intervals aren’t insane, given oil technology and the precision of engines these days, but I think everyone realizes that it’s specified for cost and environmental reasons as well. I’d never go much more than 5k myself.

 

There is no such thing as too many oil changes, if one can afford it.

 

I do every 10k on my Corolla. 175k runs like brand new.


But, I don’t let the dealership change oil because they overfill it.

 

I believe in 5,000 mile changes as well, between cold weather, towing, stop and go days on highway, and very fast days on highway. I did my first oil change at 1,000 miles. 10k no thanks

 

Tell them you drive short trips which fall under Severe Driving Conditions and they will do 5K mile oil change. It is in OEM Toyota guidelines.

 

I personally go to dealership around 1500 miles for my first oil change. I say this is per my request and out of my pocket. Dealership have no problem with it.

Also at 5000miles I ask they to use Toyota free service and I pay out of pocket just for oil change.

At 10000miles everything is covered by Toyota free service including oil change.

15000miles same story as 5000miles. Toyota free service + oil change out of pocket.


Those who want to buy plans my dealership already have a 5K miles oil change plan $409.75 for 2 years (vs $279.85 for 10K miles oil change plan).

 

Do you usually take off your skid plate before going to the dealer oil change?

 

I did that for my TRD ORP with RCI. With Limited and Pro I just give them as is and make sure I check the skids and check in highlevel before I leave the parking lot. Here's one catch on my limited where they fogot to close the skids.

 

Not a bad idea. My dealership stripped several of the skid plate bolts and forgot to reinstall the small drain plug access cover during my second and LAST “free” oil change.

 

Pretty normal. The free changes are the minimum requirements set by the manufacturer so they're not going to give you more than that.

 

Good catch! So one problem out of how many visits? Hopefully the techs that do actual work on cars do a better job on average than the lube techs. I have an appointment to have the preassembled 6112s installed by the dealer next month. I could do it myself but figured that if there's a problem with the TSS after that, they will take care of it. Probably only a tiny chance of a TSS problem since the lift is only 1" like on the Pro model. This dealer sells new 4Rs that they lift (probably spacer lifts) so hopefully they shouldn't have much problem with a simple front coilover swap. Still a bit worried though.

 

I think this was the 3rd visit. So far I had issues with all Toyota dealerships. I really wish there is a place who genuinely want to do service around here in Centennial / Parker CO. Sadly all places (dealerships & independent shops) around here have bad reviews with some mistakes.

 

Back when I had a third generation, I’ve had dealerships spill oil all over the skid plate because they were too lazy to remove it, put the skid plate on wrong, not properly tighten the skid plate, forget to put some of the skid plate bolts back on, charge me to rotate the tires but didn’t actually rotate the tires, overfill the oil.

With my fifth generation I mostly had issues with the oil being overfilled and forgetting to rotate the tires, and when they do rotate the tires, overtighten them and damage the wheel studs.

 

The same thing happened in my Tundra OP. Tell them you tow a lot and that you do short trips hauling a heavy trailer. They usually have no problem doing the 10K OC at 5K, and then the next one at 10K. after that it was on me. But, with modern engines with tight tolerances and quality oil, 10K intervals is fine. If you have an issue you can always send a sample to Blackstone and see what they say.

 

You read my mind. I was just about to ask if anyone has done this. I think I'm going to go with the suggested 10k and get the blackstone test.

Btw, for those who mentioned it, the severe schedule is if you *primarily* drive in those conditions, not if you ever drive in those conditions.

 

on tacoma World, I believe there are a few that have sent samples out to be tested.

 

Similar to Kmeeg, I paid to change the oil around 2000, again at 5000 and accepted their included oil change at 10000. On a somewhat related note, can someone help with with links the the proper Fumoto valve and the metal oil filter cover from Amazon?

 

https://www.4runners.com/threads/metal-oil-filter-housing.25404/

 

Thank you!

 

I’m going to do one every 5k-6k. My Mazda 3 has 235k miles on it with conventional oil changes every 7-8k with no issues.

 

Off topic, but what wheels, tire size & lift do you have on that Limited?

About to do those 3 with my Limited.

 

Here is my video-
https://youtu.be/BvV0GGCaVM4

Edit - I'm not too happy with on road comfort. Planning to change for a more comfy setup. Haven't talked with the 4x4shop yet.

 

Nice, I have seen this video before. I just didn't realize it was you!

 

I don’t have a lift, but in case it’s of interest to you I switched my Limited to 17” TRD wheels and Pirelli Scorpion AT in stock size. Happy with it so far, but for the occasional and unpredictable steering wheel shimmy at highway speeds (happens sometimes but not others even on the same stretch of road and under similar conditions).

 

That looks good! Unfortunately my wife isn't a fan of the Pro wheels . I'm thinking of putting a small lift, 2" or so & a bit larger tires.

 

Every time I merge into the highway I go up to 70 just to see if that damn shimmy wants to shimmy that day...sad that’s what I now think about every time hitting the highway. Can go a week + without it, can do it 3 days in a row. So weird how it just slowly goes away if you cruise at the same speed for some miles.