Oil change 5k or 10k on flex fuel

Does anybody know how often I should be changing my oil on 2018 tundra flex fuel? Toyota service guy says to change it every 5k miles because it's a flex fuel!

 

I do mine at 5k

 

Dealer just did mine. 5k

 

Flex fuel every 5K miles.
Non flex fuel every 10K miles.

 

It is my understanding from reading other threads on this site if you have a flex fuel truck, but you don't use flex fuel, then 10K is fine.

 

5K all Flex fuel is five K. I suppose if you run the E 85 it is more hard on the oil. Just had a chain gas station mini store open more pumps and half of the pumps are ethanol free!! PURE GAS!!! YAY!! If I still had our boat I would be more happy!!

 

I be doing mine at five and I don’t run the alcohol crap!! I’ll get my four out of them in two years!! Ya big deal!!!

 

I don't have a flexifuel, but my understanding is that even if you don't use FF, it's still 5k.

 

If you don’t have a FFV it is 10k miles. Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFV) are 5 K mile oil changes. That is from my service dept friend I have been dealing with for 12 plus years.

 

I do every 5K on my Flex Fuel even though I never run that in it.

 

5K if you want to keep warranty intact.

 

Correct.

 

5k is right. I will add that if you do use E85 it becomes 2500mi intervals. Dont use E85 and stick to 5k intervals ethanol free or not

 

Wow, I stand corrected.

Sorry for the misinformation.

I would’ve sworn I read that on here somewhere.

 

I do mine at 10,000. At 6,000 miles the Mobil 1, 0W20 is still gold in color. I've had the first four 10K changes tested and reported by Blackstone Labs with great reports. I have a flex 5.7.

 

Same here. My oil looks good in FFV at 10k. No difference I lubed parts of the motor.

 

He is right...according to the Toyota owners manual. Now, if you never run E85, you could probably get away with the 10,000 mile OCI that the non-Flex Tundra schedule utilizes.

 

You are right....10k is fine...but do the scheduled 5k with Toyota care. After that Toyota says 10k is fine if you don’t use 85

 

not to hijack this but what about synthetic oil on a 5.7L , if you have over 100k should you revert back to 5,000 or is 10k cool?

 

I would say on these motors if 10k is fine before 100k it will be fine after. Definitely use synthetic. Might consider the higher end syns.

 

^ words from above!!

 

Asked the rep at Toyota today when I was checking my 1794 FFV in for oil change about 7500mi oil change and she said I could do 10K 7.5k if I wasn't using E85. I am out of warranty; which didn't come up but I saw where that could be an issue in other threads

 

Asked the rep at Toyota today when I was checking my 1794 FFV in for oil change about 7500mi oil change and she said I could do 10K 7.5k if I wasn't using E85. I am out of warranty; which didn't come up but I saw where that could be an issue in other threads

 

So, what is the reasoning behind the FFV/E85 5k/2.5k oil changes ??? Does E85 contaminate the oil ?

 

It contaminates everything. The dirty little "secret" they won't tell you about ethanol.

To the content of this old thread but still relevent. One MUST understand that when Toyota writes their manuals and recommendations it must cover THE LEAST COMMON DENOMINATOR. In the case of a Toyota Flex Fuel engine (FFV) that is designed to run all-the-time on E85.......Toyota MUST assume that the FFV engine owner WILL run E85 all of the time (there's no way for them to determine otherwise). Therefore their recommendations on OCI for a FFV engine is based on you running E85 ALL THE TIME. So now draw your own conclusions on "how good/bad is E85?" When you look at in the context of Mama Toyotas recommendations compared to their engines that are not designed to run E85 all the time.

And finally, in the words of a wise old man, ------- YMMV.

 

Yeah, just had this argument with the dealership. I don’t run e85 at all. But they still recommend 5k oil changes because I’m FFV. Like ole boy said above me, Toyota will not recommend anything that doesn’t cover the worst case. Run 10k between changes on FFV but risk not being warrantied if you engine fails due to lubrication.

5.7 nonFFV - 10k oil changes with synthetic
5.7 FFV - 5k oil changes with synthetic and less than 50% e85 usage
- 2.5k oil changes with synthetic and greater than 50% e85 usage

 

Never been a fan of a "static number" oil change. Golden Hands throws in Heavy Service and Normal Service. Great place to start. You're here in the forum, care enough about your truck to dig into it and value some input. Adding information and circumstances only adds to achieving the true desired outcome. Short runs, cold winters, idling time, dusty conditions etc. change the contaminant level in your oil. Consider these and more then check your oil fairly often to see what it looks like, smells like and keep adjusting your change interval to match. Sometimes it's just convenient to change oil early and with that, what's the worst thing that can happen? If still concerned and have a few extra coins in the pocket have an oil sample tested.
And like others have mentioned, ethanol is garbage. Anything worth while in the US will stand on its own. Ethanol has to be subsidized to exist.

 

Mine has been out of warranty since I bought it. I used to do the 5K services, I now do 7.5K and do not EVER use E85!! I do use OEM filters with no problems at 157000 on the clock. Knock on the proverbial wood!