My Oil Change Help Me, Please!

[JetfireK]

My 2008 Yaris that I bought new 2DR Liftback has 12,000 miles on it. I keep up with all maintenance due.

The sticker on my window gives the mileage for me to return or it gives me a return date.

Well as you might guess...I go in by the date....

How bad is it to ignore the date to return for an oil change? I heard Oil breaks down, does it?

I also heard that it is not necessary to change or good to change my air filters everytime I have my oil change but I do and have the wheels rotated. Anyone have an advice....I certainly need some...and I thank you in advance. Judy

[slow.yaris]

You should do whatever comes first, but oil will last 6 months no problems in an engine. If you aren't hitting the mileage by 6 months, I'd definitely change it out.

You can probably get around 10-15k miles out of air filters, but changing them too often is not a problem at all. I personally prefer a reusable and then I just clean it every time I do an oil change so I never forget.

[bronsin]

Look in your owners manual for the service intervals. Your airfilter is meant to be changed every 30,000 miles. That is for the Toyota filter you get at the dealer. Which is by far the best one I have seen. Unless you are driving on dirt roads you can trust that. The oil is changed every 6k miles or 6 months and that is normal too. I change mine every 4 months because that is the interval for the ECHO I had and I only drive 6 miles to and from work never on the highway.

Check your OM.

Good Luck!

[slow.yaris]

Look in your owners manual for the service intervals. Your airfilter is meant to be changed every 30,000 miles. That is for the Toyota filter you get at the dealer. Which is by far the best one I have seen. Unless you are driving on dirt roads you can trust that. The oil is changed every 6k miles or 6 months and that is normal too. I change mine every 4 months because that is the interval for the ECHO I had and I only drive 6 miles to and from work never on the highway.

Check your OM.

Good Luck!

That's true, but I've seen air filters at 30,000 miles, and would never let my engine run with that much crap on it. Notice every 5k miles it says inspect air filter if you are in dusty conditions. The engine will probably be fine at 30k changes, but with reusables its easiest for me to do it every oil change. And with paper filters I'd probably still do it at 10-15k.

[nemelek]

You don't drive many miles. I believe the manual says 5 months or 5,000 miles. Whichever comes first. If it were my car I would change the oil at 5,000 miles or 12 months. At that time I would rotate the tires. Every other time change the air and cabin filter.

[daf62757]

If you haven't already done it, switch over to synthetic oil. Depending on the quality of the synthetic oil, you can go up to 12,000 miles without a change.

[MadMax]

If you're that worried about it, get your oil professionally analyzed when you change it.

You'll probably learn that you're worrying about nothing, and if anything you are probably changing your oil too often!

Cheers! M2