You are wasting your money if you do an oil change every 5k miles or twice a year on a 2008 or newer.
I changed my oil every 3000 miles when I got a new saab in the 80’s.
Now I have a 2013 Avalon Hybrid we bought with 40 K miles in 2016. Gets a new synthetic oil change every 10K miles. Currently at 162K miles.
For the record, Toyota and Lexus HQ employee vehicles and on-site engineers and mechanics only change the synthetic oil every 10k miles except for the high performance engines (RCF, LC500, etc.). Follow the manufacturer instructions as you’ll be fine. If you drive in extreme conditions or operate the vehicle in high stress situations (off-roading, racing, etc.), you’ll need to change it more frequently than the manufacturer recommendation.
Sure, but that is designed to get you through the manufacturer’s warranty, you are shit out of luck once you hit 120k or 60k, not sure what their drivetrain warranty is.
You want to take your car to 300k plus, you need to do your oil changes earlier than 10K.
For what it’s worth, while I agree with you, you should look up Toyotas definition of of extreme conditions. It definitely wasn’t what I thought it was.
I’ll change mine every 5k miles, thanks.
But her in the states we have fake synthetic blend
10k mile oil changes will get your car to 120k-150k miles, but if you’re interested in keeping your car to 200k-300k miles then you must do 5k mile oil change intervals. The 10k mile oil change will make the engine last longer than the warranty period and also “lower” the yearly ownership cost, which is all Toyota cares about.
I’m at 145k with 10k oil changes on my 2017 corolla. I hope it lasts me another 50k!
‘extreme conditions’ also include short trips in the cold… Which is a lot of people in cold climates in the winter.
Is there any harm in changing it early?
For the record, Toyota’s maintenance schedule also assumes that you use OEM oil from the dealer. Most motor oil additives begin breaking down at 5k/6mo. So, while Toyota HQ might have easy access to OEM grade oils, the average American consumer does not. That’s why you change it at 5k/6mo. If you don’t want to be burning oil by 100k, change your oil at 5k, mmkay?
Good point. I’ve only ever serviced my modern cars at the dealer. OEM products should always be used if financially feasible. I only take my non Toy/Lex classic cars to non dealers since GM dealers won’t service a car that’s 15 years old or more. Meanwhile, I took my 1993 Previa to multiple dealers and never batted an eye.
In my country Toyota headquarters actually recommend oil changes every 5k miles, and most dealers offers 200k miles / 10 year engine warranty with the condition that oil changes are done every 5k miles.
Even The Car Care Nut guy Toyota Certified master technician don’t recommend going with 10k miles for longevity purposes.
I change mine when the light comes on… is this not what everyone does?
Going to question this, as Toyota HQ happens to be in N. Texas. Who owns these vehicles in question, and how long are these kept in private hands. A lot of relevant information not offerred in this comment.
We get the occasional dust storm, local ambient temperatures well over 115F, and short trip with condensing conditions in the 30’s and lower.
My car’s never see more than 4500-5500 miles between changes, and live on Mobile 1
Some employees lease them, others buy them, and most of the people who loves cars do a combination of both. It’s hard to know for sure but I would bet that most employees would lease.
Yep, I have the lease program benefit also. Every 10k miles.
These situations you bring up break down the oil in an expedited manner due to the high heat and increased shearing of the oil from high speeds. Changing it more often is very necessary.
Here we count in km so 5k or 10k doesn’t matter, super mega Chad
Every 5K
5k kilometers (~3k miles), we drive 1000 km (a bit over 600 miles) every second weekend.
I change usually between 5-10k every four months or so. I buy the best synthetic high mileage extended duration stuff I can get at autozone with the best filter in case I’m too busy or lazy and want to go 10k miles or even a little beyond that. I think I went a whole 20k miles between changes once on just normal synthetic.
2012 sienna 2.7l 268k miles
For my daily, I do 5k miles. For my project car running VR1, no more than 3k if even that.
10,000km or one year
Every 10k for me. Which ends up being around every 6 months. Brought my car to get oil changed at 5k once and once they checked the oil the guy told me to not even bother with changing it and save my money.
You know Toyota owners don’t change their oil, they just add whatever it burned last week.
I do a full synthetic every 7-8K. I do it myself at home thanks to Toyota design being so simple
5k miles here. I’m just overly cautious and driving a commute with high acceleration and hills. Better safe than sorry. Could be ptsd from blowing an engine on my first car in high school but that was a shit ford that a change every three miles wouldn’t have saved 😂
I’m on the side of facts and reason, doing the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule, and not my grandfather’s OCI.
Name one engine failure caused by the superior 10,000 mile OCI.
What most people don’t realize is that their car use is actually severe conditions. 10k is good if you do a lot of long trips but if you are doing lots of short trips and if you have severe hot or cold weather you’d probably benefit from a shorter oil change. I haven’t researched it at length but I’ve also watched some videos where people send in oil samples for analysis after different oil change intervals that show a substantial difference in oil quality between 7500 and 10000 mile changes