Oil Change Interval: 5,000 miles or 10,000 miles?

Ok, I've got a question on this topic! (sort of)

I do all my own oil changes, personal preferences as I've been burned by dealership knuckleheads before. Anyway, I do it every 5k and was wondering at what intervals should I be doing any other service items? Tire rotations is the obvious one, but is there anything else I should be doing at certain mileage points? I'm guessing there's a big one at 30k? I could probably look at the manual but yes I'm being lazy and asking the experts.

 

Not really sure you’re going to find many real “experts” here. Just look at the manual and it list everything for the 30k. Remember it won’t hurt anything if you do it more often /early. The maintenance section is only a few pages and easy to follow.

 

The experts will say stop being lazy and look at the manual.

 

RTFM! Best thing you can do with any vehicle, tool, what have you.

 

Well, half of it is me being lazy and the other half is that everyone on this forum has opinions on things that aren't in the manual. What should be done when, what doesn't need to be... etc. etc. etc.

 

What if the manual guidance is not in the owner's best interest? Take "lifetime" transmission fluid. To them, "lifetime" is the period during which they're responsible for it - usually 100K. Is that "lifetime" for the average 4R? Your truck, your call, but at least see what a Toyota Master Tech has to say about 10k changes in this video where he's tearing down a damaged Toyota engine at 150K. The whole thing is interesting but you can skip to 10:49 where he explains what happened to the cylinders and why (that being 10K OCI). At 13:13 or so he shows the pistons and explains how they got how they are.



I'll stick to 5K. I'll also highly recommend the Car Care Nut channel as he has many, many videos about Toyotas and 4Runners on everything from how the 4WD works to frame rust to you name it.

 

Since I keep seeing this bumped. 5k oil change. But. I can hear the difference in the engine pitch after it reaches about 4,000 to 4,400 miles. This makes me want to change the oil around then but I typically do high 4,000's.

 

Engine oil, Diff and Transfer oil, grease the driveline zerks…those are the frequent biggies

 

I just listed the Blackstone report on my 2nd gen tacoma. 17k oci.

https://www.4runners.com/threads/17-000-mile-oil-change-interval-blackstone-report.33950/

 

How many miles on it?

 

220k

 

Just wondering Have you ordered the oil drain plug gaskets from this seller. I just did a search and they don't have a good rating. The people that left the feedback state that they never get the item or get a wrong item from this seller and they won't remedy the situation. I just want to make sure before I order. They also said that the gaskets are not oem but fakes which is why I would like to know if you ordered from them.

 

I have ordered and used the oil drain gaskets, and they have come in the Toyota bag like in the picture. No issues in use.

However, the last time I got them was in 2021, and Amazon is known to substitute shifty goods under the same listing, so if you see something off then maybe it's worth shopping elsewhere.

For the variety pack of gaskets: I have ordered those but haven't used them yet. Looks like they are upfront about being an aftermarket brand.

 

Schlappesepple thanks for the quick reply. Really appreciate it. Have a good day.

 

Okay, I looked at your Blackstone post and I misunderstood. I thought you were saying you routinely ran a 17K OCI. I'm still sticking with 5K, especially considering 1) the piston damage discussed in the YT video I posted, and 2) I'm going to drive my 4R until one of us, it or me, can't get out of the driveway anymore (I'm at 245K now).

Highly recommend ending these kinds of worries forever with a Fumoto valve or something similar by another manufacturer. No more finding gaskets, no more oil all over your hands, no more fishing the plug out of the drain pan, etc. and so on.

 

Added bonus of a Fumoto, ValvoMax and other drain plugs is the simplicity for getting oil samples for the Blackstone reports.
Fleet operators highly value this ability.

 

No thanks on the fumoto and I'll keep my Tacoma for at least 300k miles probably 400k.

I do 10k intervals, some have been more and a few have been less.

 

The Fumoto suggestion was for who made the other quoted post.

I'm sure 10K works for many people. Not worth the gamble IMO when oil changes are so easy and inexpensive as a DIY. I get maybe going longer for people who have no choice but to take it somewhere and pay for the work.

 

I just like to keep it simple and follow the 10k guidelines. My motor will be just fine for 500k with 10k synthetic oci.

 

This statement makes literally no sense. A guy who's a mechanic, says that sales/marketing came up with 10k oil changes, but the engineer said 5k?

I'm pretty sure the marketing department doesn't make the manual that is in the glove box. I'm pretty sure the manual is made by the engineers. They're telling you in the book how to maintain the vehicle.

I'm mad at myself for posting in an oil change interval thread now.

 

Do what you can afford to do. The only downside to changing oil early is wasting money. The oil is not like a switch, where at exactly 5k or 10k it will suddenly degrade to thick syrup. From the time you put new oil, it'll gradually degrade continuously. At what point do you feel like you got your money's worth and change the oil is up to you. Personally I do it 7 to 8 months or around 5k-6k whichever is earlier.
It's around 50 bucks if you do your own changing. I don't think there needs to be a 5 page debate if you wanna spend 50 bucks extra a year or not.

 

I wonder what will be the divisive topic on future auto forums (post internal combustion engines).

 

Battery pack or Charging issues would be a quick knee jerk guess.

 

Why wouldn't they suggest a 100k interval, then? It would cost them nothing, at that point it's on the owner. Why would Toyota want to tank their reputation for reliability by telling you to skip any needed maintenance?

 

They suggest a 60k interval if you tow frequently (and maybe some other reasons). It's in the maintenance guide.

If you just DD it, there will probably be no issues in the expected ownership time (I'm guessing 150k miles, but even that's a lot for some people).

 

I voted 10k and here is why. In 2007 I bought a brand new Infiniti G35x and was on an Infiniti forum where this same question was asked over and over again. Now the US market version of the service manual called for 5k intervals and the European version called for 10k intervals. Hum, I wonder why that is? So I dug into it more and discovered that only the US market version called for 5k intervals, the entire rest of the planet called for 10k. The reason was in the US they want you to waste more oil when they know it's totally unnecessary but people will go along with it. So I would bring in my G every 10k miles and the service manager would constantly say to me "you know the interval is 5k right?" I would just say full synthetic please and you know what his response was on several occasions? Full synthetic is too slippery and can cause long term problems. I put 150k miles on the car over the following 12 years before trading it and never had a single problem that was engine related. I'm not saying anyone on here is wrong for going with 5k intervals, to each his own. This was just my experience and it has served me well and I've been driving since the mid 80's and only had one engine failure and not shockingly it was in a Ford. LOL

 

I agree!

I've heard that said before, as well. I find it hard to believe that Toyota would risk their reputation for longevity just so the marketing team can advertise a slightly lower cost of ownership.

Also, people seem to always forget that the manual actually recommends 5K intervals in many scenarios.

It adds up more when you change it 4-5× every year.

But, I still do 5K on this one, due to the extra stress I put on it.

 

this thread belongs here ↓

https://www.4runners.com/threads/th...-refuse-to-open-the-thread.32248/#post-461615

 

This is nowhere near as bad as some of the other ones listed there.