Best oil to use in Tundra w/ 150k miles on it

Mobil has a mail in rebate until September of this year. IIRC, its either $10 or $15 off a 5 Quart Jug.

Do your homework before believing me.

 

Ooo... an oil thread!

 

I use the same, never had any issues with it.

 

I like the general change it more for extreme conditions talk, but conventional oil does not compare well to synthetic oil. Synthetic oil is worth the money. Synthetic oil only costs me 4.40 a qt.

 

Kirkland brand synthetic. Seems alright and it's not too spendy. I was into mobil before that, but kirkland beats the price and seems like decent stuff. Like most kirkland products I've tried.

 

Rotella 5w-30 gas oil for me:

https://youtu.be/hTyrc1zjKEA

 

I haven't changed my oil since Nov.

Of 2019.

 

6.5 quarts!

 

It's hell cutting that last quart in half. Oil everywhere....

 

I believed you, but turns out doing your homework pays off – just got the $30 rebate. Thanks for the tip! And apparently you can do it twice before September.

 

Some reason I’m always good with an even 7 quarts when changing the filter.

Where can I buy a 50 gallon drum of Mobil 1 to save some cash?

 

https://buyoil.com/mobil-mob1-10w-30d.html

 

That made me chuckle, but unless my math is bad, Walmart is cheaper by a lot?

 

likely. it was just the first 55 gallon drum i could find. lol

 

NAPA also appears to have a separate promotion going on through May but the same idea - $10 off 5 quarts of Mobil 1. Can only be used once but still good for hitting this up 3 times if you want to stock up on oil.

 

Use any quality synthetic motor oil that is on sale. Use a factory Toyota filter and change it per owner’s manual.

Don’t overthink it.

 

How many miles should we let it go?

 

I go 7500 miles between changes without issue.

 

I'm honestly not being snarky: are there things we can observe that are "issues" on a day-to-day or oil change to oil change basis that would indicate 7500 is too long, or 10,000 would be fine, etc? How do you know you don't have issues with 7500 miles between changes? (To show I'm not being a smart-ass, I'm currently using "extended performance" that promises 20,000 miles.... and I also change mine around 7500.)

It always frustrates me because I kinda figured there wasn't really any way to know. It's not like you're going to have a "control" car that you change at 5000 and an identical "experiment" car you change at 10,000, then at 300,000 see which engine is in worse shape. Life's too short for that.

So I feel like it's a balancing act between actual oil performance and oil company marketing hype – in both directions ("ours is good for 20K miles" vs "change your oil often so you buy more of our product") – and manufacturer's recommendations, mixed with (probably outdated) advice our dads taught us, balanced with input from places like this forum and what you feel is financially reasonable, and hope you aren't slowly destroying your engine or wasting money on too-frequent changes.

But I'd love to know what, if anything, I could observe, that indicates "you could have waited another few thousand miles", or "hey dummy, change the oil sooner next time".

(I do seem to notice that the engine sounds better after my apx 7500 mile oil change, but not sure if that is real or just imagined, and if real, if that indicates I should do it sooner, or if that's just normal.)

I know to look for bits of metal in the oil, or foam, white goo, etc., that could indicate acute problems, but I don't think I can remember anything that could tell me if the oil should or shouldn't be changed. We just do it at some hopefully-reasonable interval and hope we get to 500K miles on the truck (by which point there are probably way too many other variables to tell whether our oil change regimen was correct).

Anyhow, that's me overthinking it. Buy good full-synth oil and Toyota filters and change regularly and spend your time worrying about real problems.

 

I've never used their services, but folks across car forums report sending oil samples to Blackstone Labs for analysis to see what's going on.

If we didn't overthink some things our brains would go soft. Overthink away.

https://www.blackstone-labs.com/

 

Now that I've provided a serious answer I'm good for this...

I figure my FGT is a gem so I run mineral oil whenever oil is called for.

 

I only use olive oil. Costco is usually cheapest. I've heard that using extra virgin is a waste of money, but only the best for my Tundra.

 

Personally I never plan to go beyond 5k miles before an oil change. There was an oil change many years ago where the OEM oil filter was sludged for 3/4 of its volume. Had I gone beyond 5k my oil filter would have been completely blocked. I don’t want to take the chance of getting a bad filter again and paying the price of replacing the engine.

 

Since when did we start changing oil?

 

Fair question. I turned over 125k and after 5k my oil looks totally fine. Grandpa has used synthetic every 5k. Ive always been a cheap oil every 3k kinda person, but those were mostly carburated. Im due, and wondering which formula to get? Soupertek? High milage?
Grandpas always used mobile 1, so prolly what ill get, but my lawnmower is gonna run forever on what comes out of this truck.

 

Not scientific, but anecdotal - I've done 10k miles synthetic changes in all the vehicles I own for the last 20 years. Had a 525i with the straight six go 455k miles before I sold it to a friend. Still ran great, didn't burn oil or smoke. My truck has 260k plus on that regimen. When I pulled my valve covers at 220k or so the valve train was pristine. Like brand new condition with no sludging or scoring to be seen anywhere. Every vehicle in my fleet has over 120k miles and none have had any issues with this changing schedule. We do not live in a severe duty area or drive our vehicles in a severe duty way. Just commuting mostly.

 

A lot of people have chimed in, but I'll through in my quick 2 cents...

I work at a mechanic shop in Louisiana, my Tundra has over 220K miles, currently I've been running a synthetic blend (mixture between synthetic and conventional which helps keep it thicker for higher mileage engines). It seems like a lot of people run Mobile 1, which is good oil, but currently I've been using Valvoline Max Life (high mileage blend) and have had no complaints or 0 issues. No matter what you go with do a max life because it helps keep leaks from happening with the continued wear of your engine.

 

Granted, if you crawl underneath and see no oil leaks or any sort of wet conditions, you can keep using what you've been using, but I would recommend switching if you notice any leaks or at least once you hit 200k

 

I'm not an engineer or oil expert, but I've read up on oils and looked at various virgin oil analysis, watched some videos testing various oils, etc. The major oil companies produce very similar products with additive packages of common lubricating chemicals and elements. Even the big box distributors in-house brands (Costco, Walmart come to mind) appear to be manufactured in the same Warren oil facility as other major brands, suggesting they essentially share the same brew.

Note there are huge strides in synthetics and that's all I run in my fleet, unless I'm just using up some conventional I have on hand rather than wasting it. I don't buy conventional or blends any more. The synthetic is just far too good. If you shop for deals and stock up on oil, you can get your typical full synthetic oil at around $2-3 per qt., or less if you get lucky with sales, clearances, and/or rebates. (Right now that Mobile 1 rebate is excellent, and I scored 10 qts of high mileage full synthetic; Castrol and Pennzoil have similar rebates; Costco brand full synthetic is about $2.50 qt. on sale, etc. I got a lot of oil really inexpensively in 2020 when prices really plummeted, a lot of oil in the $1.50 qt. range... ) I have ~200 qts of oil and ~90 oil filters on hand for my many vehicles right now. Bulk and sale purchases defray maintenance costs, getting premium filters down to between $3-7 each. An oil change costs me generally about $20-25. So in a year, I spend between $20-50 changing oil in any given vehicle, depending on if I do it once or twice.

I think the key to keeping an engine happy is to follow the manufacturer recommendations, and buy a quality oil filter (Mobile 1, Wix, Denso, Mopar, Motorcraft come to mind). Monitor the oil levels, change it often, and change the filter each time. I believe all Gen 1 Tundras are 5w30. I have so many vehicles I cannot put close to 5k miles on any individual vehicle in a year, so all of mine are on the 6-12 month change intervals. I literally change some oils in a year with less than 1000 miles on the oil, often rotating and driving vehicles just to literally keep it maintained at least once per month...

 

Just to follow up with some links, and these are active promotions so you can get high quality full synthetics for about $2.50 per qt, which is an incredible value. Between these 40 quarts for about $100, and Costco's monthly sales getting oil down to $2.50 qt, you could stock up on the next several years' of oil changes for very little money.

Pennzoil, $10 rebate on 5 qt. jugs, limit 4 per person. https://www.pennzoil.com/en_us/promotions.html#iframe=L3NvcHVzL3Blbm56b2lsL25ld3NsZXR0ZXI

Mobile 1 rebate, 2 per household, rebate varies but is very good: https://acbincentives.com/mobil1/default.asp

Castrol, $10 rebate, 2 per household: https://apfco.com/Secured/R11076W/