Oil change

stunt

New Member
#1
How often should I change my oil? I drive a 2015 Toyota Corolla. My maintenance service plan does not change the oil and oil filter free of charge until I hit 10k miles. Is it wise to wait until I hit 10k or change it at 5k miles?
 
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Thomas

New Member
#2
Personally I would do one after the engine has had a little time to "break-in" (my best guess is between 1,000 and 2,000 miles). You'll have to do it yourself or take it to a 3rd party.

If you try taking to a Toyota Dealership, they will probably !@#$ you over like did to me and use your 10,000 service. That means they won't give you a 5,000 when that's due because the computer thinks you skipped it, even though they enter the mileage into the computer. They have idiot programmers and they won't fix it. It's borderline not worth my time, so I'm wondering whether or not to push the issue. I'll probably let The Consumerist (consumerist.com owned by Consumer Reports) know, as they like to share issues like that.
 

stunt

New Member
#3
So what you are saying is if I pay for the oil change at 5k miles, my Toyota dealership won't honor a free oil change at 10k miles?
 

Thomas

New Member
#4
If you pay for it and make sure it's not under their "complimentary" service, then hopefully you should not have a problem.

I had a problem because there were no safegaurds in place for someone to question using a 10k service when there was less than 2,000 miles on the car.
 

stunt

New Member
#5
I see. My situation is I will soon hit 5k in a couple of weeks. Do you recommend I pay and change the oil at 5k or wait for the complimentary oil change at 10k? Does it hurt the car that I wait until 10k or is synthetic oil made to last that long?
 

HanSolo

New Member
#6
You are actually free to use the maintenance plan at any point. I used my 5000 mile service at 4000 miles and the 10k service at 8000miles. Modern engines do not need to be changed as early as engined used to in the old days when engines used special break-in oil. Most new Fords go 10-12k miles and so do GM cars. I simply pay extra for a TRD filter to make sure the filter goes the distance like the oil.
 

Thomas

New Member
#7
Modern engines do not need to be changed as early as engined used to in the old days when engines used special break-in oil.
I worked as a licensed engineer on a ship when it got brand new, computer-controlled, Caterpillar engines about 3 years ago. Yes, you should change the oil, and one thing you should also do is cut open the oil filter to inspect for metallic particles.

As I was living in an apartment at the time and didn't have any tools, I got the oil change done at the dealership. I did not go the extra mile and request to look at the oil filter they took off my car. If I had my own place and tools, I would have done the oil change myself and inspect the oil filter as well.
 
#8
I live in Guatemala City, the contamination levels here are higher than most American cities, and it is dusty as well, all car brands around here, including Toyota, require an oil and filter change every 5,000 kilometers. I have read that keeping your oil clean keeps the engine in better shape.
 

kyoo

New Member
#9
^ in your case I'd also be changing the air filter more frequently than most.

I always change the oil on a new car after the first 500mi to get the wear metals out. If you're that concerned, you can also order a used oil analysis
 
#12
I just had my first oil change done at the dealer with 9,953 miles on the car. Once I am done with the free dealer maintenance, I will switch to Mobile 1. I ran this in my last car...
https://mobiloil.com/en/motor-oils/mobil-1/mobil-1-extended-performance

Supposed to be good for up to 15,000 miles, but I change it at 10,000. Just make sure the oil filter is for extended mileage.
You should check out ENEOS Sustina if you can find some. The Japanese swear by it and the analysis reports on it are really good. It's pricey stuff and I ran it in my FR-S. Almost looked like water going in.
 
#13
If you are worried about the filter, go for the TRD filter from the dealer. Mobil 1 also has a filter for our cars, but they are not what they used to be after Champion Labs got bought out by some equity firm who is now manufacturing them in China. I tried to buy the M1 filter for my Corolla from Autozone and put it right back on the shelf. Amsoil also makes excellent filters if they have one for our cars and they are made by Baldwin Labs. I used to exclusively use Amsoil along with their filters a long time ago before I decided to just run Mobil 1.
 
#14
Thanks for the info, Matthew and HanSolo! I do a lot of driving, about 10,000 miles every 4 months.... so a high quality synthetic that will let me run 10,000 miles between changes is ideal. Definitely will check out the Eneos and the TRD filters.
 
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