Oil Change Interval

I’m really confused on the oil change internal and why everyone outside of Toyota seems to recommend 5K intervals vs. 10K.

Why would Toyota recommend 10K if it is truly not healthy for a TTV6??
Does everyone else here change their oil every 5K? And if so, do you take it to your local dealership?

 

Toyota recommends 10k, but let's be honest, they are most interested in selling you a new Toyota, not the longevity of your existing one. Most folks will say 5k is a good alternative.

 

Oil is cheap. A blown engine is not.

 

I change at 5K but if you look at the many Blackstone reports that have been posted, I haven't seen any of them showing the oil needing to be changed at 5K.

 

Oil Change Interval Thread!

You can follow the manufacturer recommend maintenance.

Or you can change the oil at 5k, 3k, 1k, whatever.

I have yet to see anyone attribute engine failure because of following recommend maintenance.

Anecdotal evidence, but I've owned a 2011 Tacoma, 2016 4Runner, and 2023 Tundra. I have followed recommend maintenance without issue.

But, your truck, your choice as they say.

 

5K. Full synthetic. Or 12 months if you only drove it 1,900 miles last year.
Tundra is not my Daily Driver.

 

Why not post your proof that 10k interval harms the engine?

Or are you just posting how you feel?

 

I'm applying a little common sense here....the longer you run your oil the more contaminated it becomes....I'm not rolling the dice...I'll just spend the little extra money and time and change it at 5k.

 

Yep, exactly. Toyota doesn't give a damn how long your vehicle lasts....they want to sell new ones. Notice he said "minimum interval"? I'll stick to my usual 5k interval and sleep well at night.

 

So the little ring thing got gummy due to 10k intervals?

 

Yes, the "little ring thing" is kind of important.

 

Post proof it doesn’t (see how dumb this is).

10k is fine if you drive on the freeway all day.

If you tow, sit in traffic a lot, idle a lot, drive in wild temps etc…go with 5k.

There is copious amounts of info out there to support either style.

The end.

 

I didn't mean to offend by calling it small or not knowing it's technical name.

So the very important and handsome oil ring wouldn't have gummed up had 5k oil changes been performed?

 

Basically, this ^.

If you read through the manual, there will be some notes about oil and service schedules. I forget the exact verbiage, but basically Toyota says that 10k OCI's are fine for light duty pickup truck service, which doesn't include towing and hauling, dusty roads, stop and go traffic, cold weather, and short trips. If you do any of those for any appreciable amount of miles, then you should switch to the Severe Duty OCI, which is half of the light duty OCI, or 5k miles.

Toyota Group Motor Oil has a fairly robust add-pack and is produced by Mobil 1 (but not identical to the on-the-shelf Mobil 1 products). It is robust enough to run 10k miles; not all synthetics are (in my opinion, looking at various Used Oil Analysis). Judging by my own truck use and UOA's I've collected, 10k is too long for most off the shelf oils I've tried, but I can usually push past 5k miles if I want. 7k average has been working well for me.

Some will bring up the likes of Vic Shepard and his Million Mile Tundra, who changed his oil once a month which is around 10k mile OCI's. The way his vehicle was used should qualify for the Severe Duty, but he barely every shut the truck down and let the motor cool off. This is actually a good thing for motor oil as it keeps the contaminant level low. He averages some 120k miles a year. So for him, it worked well. But most of us don't use our vehicles the same way he uses his tundras.

 

There is a direct correlation between extended oil change intervals and engine caking/deposits. Now we’ve spoiled the video.

 

2011 Tundra Crew Cab 5.7L traded in on 2016 at 382,000 miles change oil and filter at 15,000 mile intervals
2016 Tundra Crew Cab 5.7L traded in at 528,000 (+) miles changed oil and filter at 15,000 mile intervals (As per value of the truck when traded in? $12K with 528,000 miles, I would say not bad)

Mobil 1 each time......

As a company owner that has brought over 60 plus Toyota Tacoma's and Tundra I have not had one engine blow up, and I run the company trucks an average of 250,000 miles and trade in, please note that these are employee's that are not making payments on these trucks, so more think less and don't give a crap about them like a personal owner does.

As per the 3.4L I have no record of its durability as the 5.7L so to be some what safe I am going with 10,000 mile intervals, dang sure not going to shell out an additional $100 bucks more for twice as many oil changes.

But as mentioned its your truck and your money, I personally am going with past personal experience.

AS per take to dealership, Hell NO. No reason to drive 60 miles to dealer, sit for 1 hour, drive back 60 miles, total lost revenue of 3 hours, that 2.5 hours could be used towards making money for the company and not wasting an employee time on useless services at a dealership that is highly capable of being done else where at faction of time and still as good of service or better.

 

Read the maintenance schedule. They advertise and offer a couple free ones at 10K, but any truck that is actually used as a truck, drives down dirty dusty roads, idles, or is used for any kind of short trips will be in their special use category where even Toyota recommends 5K intervals.

There's a lot of people who have just done the 10K on previous gens and not had problems, but that's a different engine and they may have a different use case than you. Read the book that came with the truck and see where your use falls. Follow it accordingly.... or just opt for 5K because it definitely won't ever hurt the engine.

 

Changing the oil is the single most effective thing that you can do to extend the life of your engine. Your Toyota will not likely suffer an engine failure by following the manufacturer's oil change interval recommendations. Certainly not within the warranty period anyway. If you browse around the interweb, you may find many folks that say Toyota and other companies push these long intervals as a marketing ploy. Is it true? Who really knows? People who work on cars, and see engine failures recommend changing the oil more frequently than 10,000 miles. Time between changes becomes a factor as well, as fuel, and other contaminants can get into the oil, If you believe what youtube mechanics say... For me, it amounts to one additional oil change annually on my Tundra. I can afford to have the dealer change the oil, so that it is documented both electronically, and on paper. I personally feel it's worth it to protect my expensive vehicle. If I feel I need to save the cost of an oil change, I will skip going out to eat once a year. It's your truck, and your money. You, and everyone should do what they feel is best.. In my opinion, it may depend on how long you intend to keep the vehicle. Changing the oil beyond what the manufacturer recommends may only be benefiting future owners of the vehicle. I am 61 years old, I grew up changing oil at 3000 miles. I guess I don't care how good the synthetic can be, or how good technology is in the engines. For me, it's 5000 miles at the dealer where I bought it. Good luck with your truck.

 

Right. Let's ban it for everyone because you have no self control and can't stay out of them. Punish the many for the one. Great plan.

 

My point is that what you asked for goes against the spirit of the forum. Read the PM you got from @Bob when you joined. It's meant to be a place for everyone, as much as possible. If that means answering the simple stuff a few extra times to make new members feel like they are welcome to engage, interact, and ask questions, then I don't think that's too high a price to have the good people here that we do. If you don't want to answer it, snag some links from the other threads that already discuss or answer it and drop them in the thread. It's not hard to deal with the tedious stuff that "everyone knows" but everyone has to start somewhere. This is far from the worst questions that get asked on here.

 

Let’s say you take it to your dealership for your oil changes. What are they, $90? $100?
You are spending an extra $1000 over the course of 10 years if you drive 10k a year and choose to change oil at 5k vs 10k.

do it yourself?
Now you’re staring at about $500 extra over the course of 10 years. Doesn’t seem too bad for maintaining a $60k piece of an equipment. Not to mention the additional times you get under your truck and look at other things to see if they could use a little bit of TLC. Preventative is always less expensive than reactive.

 

According to my manual, even driving on dirt roads = severe duty = 5k intervals.

I’d suspect the 3rd gen manual is similar.

Unless all you do is cruise on the highway, you probably fit the manual’s definition of severe use.

 

Recommended light duty is 10k. Synthetic oils can handle that duration no problem. Use the heavy duty cycle if you tow, etc.

 

But we haven't even gotten into which oil brand is "better" yet!!

Maybe I should start a new thread for that? hahaha

 

You are not required to debate, or even look at anything. keep scrolling. Have a good day.

 

I didn’t make the claim.

It also looks like you agree 10k is fine. Not sure why you’re upset. Hopefully your day gets better.

 

Personally I change oil every 5k/or 6 months, if for no other reason than it’s easy to remember/keep track of.

Toyota recommends “x” miles for oil change. They also recommend the tires, wheels, etc that came with the truck yet we all mod and change it up.

you do you, I do me.

oil gets “bad” after a certain time/mileage.

can you ruin an engine waiting too long? Yup
Can you ruin an engine changing too soon? Nope.

no harm no foul if you feel good changing earlier than recommended.

 

How long are you going to keep it? If you get rid of them before 100,000 miles save a few bucks

Start at 2:41

https://youtu.be/Gn5hrhTEERQ?si=VK7o-qGvSEkU4fKS&t=161