6th Gen First Oil Change, WOW!

After reading some of the comments in various places on this forum, I decided to change my oil earlier than recommended by Toyota. Glad I did.

I've had it about 10 weeks with 1,700 miles on it now. I drained the oil and have to say I was shocked at how dirty it was, nearly black. I expected it to have some color but it was darker than my '16 Wrangler's 3.6 NA oil every 7,500 miles. WOW! I guessing it's due to the turbo but I know that the oil in my wife's '19 Honda CRV 1.5 Turbo has never been that dirty, from the first to the most recent change at 90K, every 7,500. Same with my '03 Tahoe with over 240K miles. Toy's turbo must be very hard on oil.

In any case, I'd strongly suggest that any new 4Runner buyer have their first oil change much sooner than recommended. Others suggest 500 miles, probably a good first change. My next change will be at 3,000 and I'll be interested to see how dirty it is at that point.

Thanks for the info, guys. I would have waited until Toyota's recommendation without the info found here.

 

IMO even on 5th gens it's good to do first oil change at around 1000miles.

Just to double check with the new 6th gen you are waiting a little before hit the road and again waiting to let things cool down before turning off right? Else you will cook that oil prematurely due to insane heat turbos produce. No need to trust me, owners manual say to cool down if I'm not mistaken.

I know 6gen manual say to use fuel additives in island regions. I wonder if it's a good idea to do it even in main land? Oil looks dirty because of more carbon?

I wonder if Honda 1.5T oil doesn't look dirty because gas getting into the oil make it look less dirty? This oil dilution is well known for Honda right?

 

Like you, I have the hybridized 2.4T (Tacoma). I did the initial change at 4000 miles, and would recommend 5k intervals for any turbo. Now over 8k miles, it’s just a low-boost, cool customer, with no noticeable oil color difference from any 4.0 or 3.5 I’ve owned before under similar conditions. And, not a droplet of oil used.

Usage and opinions will no doubt vary, but there’s already a ton of these out on the roads and while they make a lot of noise, nobody can find much to complain about mechanically. Given proper maintenance, the T24-FTS is looking like one of Toyota’s best efforts.

 

Does anyone suspect these super light weight oils are not what was expected of them. Look at GM's fiasco with the 6.2 engine. Spun bearings on a major scale and the common denominator is 'o' weight oils. All of a sudden an engine design they have made for decades has a common problem? Toyota's recent problems are similar in that bearings are being spun as a result of something. And blamed on 'debris' from manufacturing? Or debris from failed bearings?

 

Owner's manual says it's not necessary for normal driving conditions but recommended for 'spirited' driving, pulling loads, etc. It also has an electric water pump that will continue to run a short time after shutdown to cool the turbo, allegedly. But I do try to give it a short cool-down time.

I don't think so, a small amount of gas probably wouldn't clean up the oil. My oil level has never shown an increase; I keep an eye on it since this is a known issue. Also, the oil dilution is from short trips when the engine doesn't warm up. We live out in the sticks; there's almost never a short trip.

 

Toyota engineers might wish it was something as correctable as oil, but the 2GR’s run light weight and no such issues. The more secretive they are with the 3.5TT’s the bigger the problem.

 

Toyota replaced 100000 engines at a cost of at least $10000 each so I wouldn't worry about a lack of commitment to quality when they spend over a billion on one issue. As far as being secretive no manufacturer just opens the door to all the engineering and manufacturing details that they manage every day. Can you think of any example of "full disclosure"? It's an unrealistic expectation. Miatas have been failing manual transmissions since the latest generation arrived in 2016 and you can be sure there are folks that would like to know the real story.

 

True, only mountain roads or highway driving at 62mph is needed to cool down. Here is Denver even non freeway but major roads road people often go around 60-62.

 

If you really believe there's a conspiracy maybe you should just run 80/90W gear oil in your engine.

 

Exactly, Honda's have been specced for 5W-20 have gotten an updated spec for 0W-20 and haven't grenaded in the decade plus since, the 5.7 or 4.0 haven't been grenading from 0W-20, hell, Toyota hybrids that spec 0W-8/0W-16 haven't been dying en masse either. Hyundai/Kia's decade of bad engines seize up whether you have 5W-20 or 10W-30 in 'em, etc.

It can be a factor but it's the engineering first and foremost.

Also that quote about something along the lines of Honda hiring 30 engineers and GM hiring 30 lawyers.

 

If only there was an engine oil expert on this forum who could set us all straight.

 

Oh, everyone is an expert here on everything. For anything else, they follow The Nut!

 

I just got back from a trip into 'town'. As soon as I pull into the garage, the gas engine shuts down. I don't know if the water pump is still running until I hit the button to shut it off or if the water pump continues for a programmed length of time after the on/off button is pressed?

Basically, you can't keep the engine running to continue to circulate coolant thru the turbo. How can you keep the engine idling as mentioned in the manual? I'm betting someone knows the answer.

 

Yet Toyota is still ignoring the hybrid owners since the battery power allows one to move over to the shoulder.

 

I changed mine last week at 433 miles and it was shockingly poor looking. I'm following the oil guys advice. 500, 1500, 3000, 5000. Then 5000 (or less) after that. Also not changing filter for the first 2 changes. Ill have 4 changes done before the dealer gives me my first free change.

 

They have to recall the engines because it’s unsafe when they stop running on a random busy intersection or highway. Meantime, 3.4TT owners get replacement engines installed by local dealer techs, and hybrid owners are left completely in the dark.

I would define secretive as Toyota originally said it was debris despite significant evidence to the contrary. Tundra owners don’t want full disclosure, just an honest answer as to why their truck may stop running at any moment. Would help Toyota too btw, because as we see, many people around here would be happy to point to the new 2.4T in the 4Runner as guilty by association.

 

Why would one oil from a oil change at 5K look any different from another one at 5K other than abuse? I'm seeing mixed reports, mostly no to very mild discoloration or flakes (like mine) to dark burntish oil with flakes.

I ran every drop through a shop towel in a funnel and really didn't see anything worrisome. Now trying to see the new oil on the dipstick is a whole 'nother matter.

Honestly, if mine came out as bad as some are reporting I'd be concerned and visiting the dealership.


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That seems completely unnecessary to change your oil that many times. A new engine is always going to have some metal in the oil from parts wearing in. Your oil filter will do its job and pick up any big particles. There are billions of engines that have survived without these crazy oil change intervals suggested by some guy on the internet.

 

Neither one of us really know. Im trying this method on this go-around. Lots of people speak highly of Lake Speed Jr.

 

Edit: Color is helpful but isn't a definitive indicator of condition, if you really want to get numbers send a sample off for analysis.

If you shift into park, it'll likely restart the engine - but that is my guess from previous Toyota gas-only model experience.

Toyota put a lot of thought into the engine stop/start system in gas-only models, it's just as comprehensive for the hybrids.

I want to say the hybrid has an electric water pump, but generally it seems you do not need to worry about idling cooldowns unless you just pulled off the interstate from an uphill climb (or towing, racing, etc.) as coasting and lower speed driving qualifies.

 

How many people do you know that have had their engine fail from not changing the oil every 500 miles? I’m talking about street vehicles not high performance race engines like his father drove.

 

I've never heard of anyone changing their oil every 500 miles. I have always changed my new vehicle oil the first time under 1000 though. Many vehicles.

 

I never heard one example of this concern even when I worked in powertrain engineering for an OEM. Folks seem to assume that finding a metal flake or dab of RTV in your drained oil means it goes through the engine. The oil pump sucks oil from the sump and first filters it with a screen in the pick-up tube (to filter out big chunks like dead mice) and then pushes it through the filter before it is delivered to the engine.

If you buy a new 80hp single cylinder Ducati with 10,250 rpm redline the first recommended oil change is at 15000 km (over 9000 miles).

 

Its prob got molly lube in it thats why you run it for 10,000 before the first oil change to break in the bearings properly.

 

I don’t get all of this internet fear mongering over oil changes. I’ve never done a first oil change before 5K and never had any engine issues. Most of the population has no clue about oil or vehicle maintenance and waits longer than that.

 

I saw a funny video a while back about Nissan, pointing fingers at their structure and how they have remained profitable and how that business model is slowly running them into the ground.
Their main source of revenue on cars was lending to sub prime borrowers (on purpose) to drive revenue with higher interest rates. The video went on to explain how most smart shoppers are looking for the best price, and / or the best interest rates. It went directly into a graph that highlighted how sub prime borrowers typically go wherever they can get approved. This is one of the reasons the Nissan Altima has slowly become the symbol of the sub prime rate borrowers. I assume they had internal documents and it showed how Nissan was starting at 12% interest and at lower credit scores going as high as 20% interest rates on the Altimas. This interest allowed Nissan to not only capitalize in higher interest, but also be able to sell those loans to other lenders in large "packets" with a lot of loans bundled for even more money. On the down side they showed that because of this business model and these sub prime borrowers getting these cars, the delinquency rates were astronomical. Not only were the repos high but many of these cars were coming back at 20,000+ miles after a repo and they had never had the oil changed and the oil pan was sludge. This level of care to the vast majority of the cars has slowly haunted Nissans name as if they are producing sub-par cars. I thought it was quite comical, the video had multiple short clips of mechanics pulling drain plugs and nothing coming out but a glob or two of some black snot. I thought it was silly that Nissan is getting their name tarnished by cars not lasting under the worst circumstances and they are the ones that put themselves there. The cars are actually doing pretty good to go 30,000 miles without a single oil change, no oil just black gorilla snot in the oil pan and somehow the cars still run.

 

Interesting. That does explain why you see so many Altimas in certain neighborhoods.

 

Heck, I’ve done 10k intervals for the last 90k at least on my 4Runner - hasn’t blown up yet, 166k and counting.

 

You can find plenty on YouTube. First decide what you believe, then look for a matching video.