Recommend synthetic oil? Change at 3k or 5k

[caaront]

I have a 2007 Yaris sedan and love it.

I want to extend its life as much as possible and have heard that synthetic will allow for a cleaner, cooler running engine and increase the engines life span.

Willing to pay a little more for that.

Another question, I noticed the owners manuel recommends changing the oil every 5000 miles, butmif using regular oil a lot of folks say change it every 3000 miles, but everyone says to go 5000 miles between changes with synthetic oil.

Thoughts?

[IllusionX]

Amsoil and once a year or 15k miles for me.
Else I'd stick with 6 months or 5k miles.

[CoryM]

I've done some oil analysis on my car and ended up doing 8000KM (5000miles). If the oil can handle my driving (lots of 10min trips), occasional abuse, and autoX racing and still be good at 8k..... you should be just fine. That's on regular oil too btw.
Cheers.

[Exiwolfman]

Amsoil and once a year or 15k miles for me.
Else I'd stick with 6 months or 5k miles.
15k per oil change wow I run synthetic oil and won't go over 5k and that is km's oil is oil don't understand why ppl wait so long... I work on car's everyday and see first hand the importance of an oil change... Just saying.

[caaront]

Thank you.

[mimelio]

Mobil 1 5w-30 with Wix filter 6mo or 5,000 miles. I wouldn't sweat it to run it 5,500 miles though with the Mobil 1

[IllusionX]

15k per oil change wow I run synthetic oil and won't go over 5k and that is km's oil is oil don't understand why ppl wait so long... I work on car's everyday and see first hand the importance of an oil change... Just saying.


I'm using amsoil signature series oil and their EK filter. It's not your regular oil change.

I wouldn't do it with any other oil/filter combo though. So far so good.

I did about 10k km with royal purple and toyota filter and I found it long and I did start to see condensation on the oil cap. So we will see. I still do oil change once a year

[bronsin]

I have a 2007 Yaris sedan and love it.

I want to extend its life as much as possible and have heard that synthetic will allow for a cleaner, cooler running engine and increase the engines life span.



Heres why that doesn't work. When synthetic oil came out extravagant claims were made for increased fuel economy and engine life. Synthetic oil DOESNT improve fuel economy and nobody selling it makes that claim anymore. Neither does it extend engine life over using conventional oil. When a car gets to be 10 years old the engine will often run well but the rest of it falls apart making it inconvenient to own. You can often get a lot more out of the car if youre willing to have the little things (brakes, alternator, battery etc) fixed.

People who put 500,000 or 1,000,000 miles on a car almost always drive like 100,000 miles a year. The 5000 mile interval makes sense for them. If youre driving like 5000 a year or less like I do, then it makes sense to change the oil twice a year. Someone driving the typical 15,000 miles a year would also do well changing at 5000 miles.

You have a great little car and Toyotas seldom have the engine or even the auto transmission fail before others do. If you maintain the car regularly and fix what goes wrong when it happens you can drive one for a long time....maybe 15 years. Maybe more!

[caaront]

Thank you.

I put synthetic in it but will be changing at 5k, also put a good filter on it.

Do not want to go over 5k between changes, might cost more but I spend $60 on junk and forget where it went so to spend it on good oil and a filter is better than blowing it on junk.

I like to fix stuff immediately, so it doesn't snowball into other problems.

I want to drive this car until it won't drive anymore.

[fourbangingfun]

I run whatever oil/filter is on sale and that's 5w30 every 5k miles. Though statistics say you're probably good out to 8k with synthetic.

I'm currently running Mobil "Super" fully synthetic 5w30 with a drive works filter. Cost me $25 all together. (5 quart jug, only used 3.5 quarts of it.)

Never heard of drive works before, but I figure if I'm changing it at 5k I needn't worry about the highest level quality filters.


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[mr_miles]

I change my oil every 5k to 8k, depends on how busy I get lol. I use synthetic. most synthetic oils are good for 8-10k in my opinion. my oil always comes out a dark toasty brown, almost black color.The car's healthier than I am haha.

[Ben_]

I emailed Mobil 1 and asked about their normal synthetic. They said it was designed to be changed every 10k or 1 year. I change every 5-8k depending on how I'm feeling lol. Also

[Ben_]

Doing oil changes more often than specified is cheap insurance to avoid engine failure

[Exiwolfman]

I emailed Mobil 1 and asked about their normal synthetic. They said it was designed to be changed every 10k or 1 year. I change every 5-8k depending on how I'm feeling lol. Also
Don't forget on ur style of driving.. If ur hard on it, stop and go traffic etc
I use Mobil 1 and do my change at 5k tho I drive the crap out my Yaris lol

[nookandcrannycar]

I've only done 20 oil and filter changes on my 2007 :eek:. Re my 2014, my plan is to do max 5k intervals.

[Ranger SVO]

I emailed Mobil 1 and asked about their normal synthetic. They said it was designed to be changed every 10k or 1 year. I change every 5-8k depending on how I'm feeling lol. Also

My 2010 Yaris currently has 36,800 miles on it. I average just a little over 7000 miles per year. So the once a year oil change makes sense for me. I change the oil every May. I use Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5W30. Mobil states that this oil can go 15,000 miles so I'm in good shape changing the oil at around 7000 miles.

In my 2012 Honda Civic EX, I use Mobil 1 AFE 0w20. I change oil when the Maintenance Minder tells me to. That's typically around 8500 miles. According to Mobil 1 and Honda, that is not a problem with synthetics.

So I'll just keep going the way I'm going.

[Yaristeve]

I have a 2011 with 124k miles on it. I use conventional Castrol GTX, 5W30, OEM filters. First 100k miles or so, I changed it every 3k miles. Now I change it every 4k miles. I haven't had any problems. In fact, other than the oil/filter changes (and one air filter change), I haven't done anything else to my Yaris...

The reason I use 4k mile intervals is because sometimes I get busy and can't do it at or near the next interval so 4k mile intervals gives me a 1k mile buffer in case I am busy. I don't like going over the recommended 5k mile interval.

[bronsin]

I've only done 20 oil and filter changes on my 2007 :eek:. Re my 2014, my plan is to do max 5k intervals.

Interesting. I expect if you drive a lot even 5k miles is too often.

[alanwagen]

The car guys on PBS would recommend 5k intervals with conventional oil. Anything less is a waste of oil and a boat payment for the quick lube. Oil and engines are much much better so this is not your grandad's Oldsmobile with a carburetor.

BTW, the Prius interval is 10k with synthetic and even then the oil looks real clean.

[nortonfb]

With Mobile 1 extended mileage, I changed the filter at 5,500 miles and oil at 9000.
I'm trying out Total/Elf now and will change the oil & filter at about 7000 miles.
Both oils are 5w/30. I look at the oil color on occasion, real scientific.
Norton

[garrettbeachy]

We have a 2004 Scion XB that now has 291,000 miles on it. It has had full synthetic and an upgraded air filter in it for most of its life, with oil changes at around 10k. The engine still runs great and will probably continue past 400k.

[alanwagen]

Read the url below. Even Click and Clack would say no sooner than 5k.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/stop-changing-your-oil.html

[caaront]

At 120,000 miles I will have 7000 miles on the synthetic, will get on a 5000 schedule or, whatever then.

[Jcp123]

this is not your grandad's Oldsmobile with a carburetor.

BTW, the Prius interval is 10k with synthetic and even then the oil looks real clean.

I'd take Opa's Olds over modern cars any day. Modern cars are, shall we say, overrated. And this from someone with much love for my Echo.

Prius doesn't run its engine all the time, so longer OCIs make sense.

[MoneyT8]

I put Mobile one full synthetic and change at 5,000 miles or 6 months. I'm thinking about going longer maybe 7-8k. My car has 151,000+ so I would like to ride my car until the wheels fall off. I only use toyota OEM oil filters which can be purchased at the dealership.

[alanwagen]

I'd take Opa's Olds over modern cars any day. Modern cars are, shall we say, overrated. And this from someone with much love for my Echo.

Prius doesn't run its engine all the time, so longer OCIs make sense.

I can see a nostalgic affection for old cars, but changing plugs and rebuilding carbs all the time gets old. You would be lucky to get 100 k out of an old car without extensive repairs: shocks, front end, alternators. What I don't miss the most of old cars is the tweaking the automatic choke and hesitation, stalling and balking when the engine was cold. Back in those days, you had a good car when it would start on the second crank. And lets not even get in to the ignition points and setting the dwell.

[bairjo]

If your car is still under warranty, change the oil as they require on the maintenance schedule. I don't care what claims are made on here about the super duper oil, you will risk voiding your warranty. Unless anyone on here is an official Toyota spokesman making a statement saying "go ahead and change the oil whenevr you feel" i would not risk voiding my warranty regardless of the spin put on here.

[alanwagen]

My son puts Mobil 1 extended performance in his Yaris. Guaranteed for 15k but he changes it at 10k. Synthetic is supposed to have a more consistent molecule size for better performance. I guess there must be some value to synthetic as that is what is required in some high performance cars as well what is used in the racing circuits.



https://mobiloil.com/en/motor-oils/mobil-1/mobil-1-extended-performance

[ex-x-fire]

I go by the light which is every 5k, I use name brand dino oil(like shell or others) & USA made Q-state filters. I spend about 10 bucks to change the oil.
One thing that is important is to get your car up to operating temp to boil away the moisture that collects in the oil. If you do a lot of short trips, try and get the car out on a long run to get the oil hot once a month.
I hope you guys (who are going 15k on oil changes) are changing your oil filters at 7.5k.

[fnkngrv]

Oil analysis is the only real way to determine when you should be changing your oil. period. I was running usually 13-14,000 miles between changes before my build motor with AMSOIL Signature Series and their EA15 series filter. Now that I have the built motor and the full setup I am switching to 3-4,000 again to reduce coking in the turbo and with how the setup is designed.

[fnkngrv]

Also for those that are seriously misinformed you can't "look at" any lubricant and have any clue whether or not it is "clean" or serviceable. another tidbit is that conventional oil is only designed to lubricate the system. synthetic is designed to not only lubricate, but also suspend debris in ita structure to keep it away from the system's components however even that can only be taken so far.

[sheekeebut]

I'll go with every 8,000 km or 6 months per manufacturer's schedule, with full synthetic purchased on sale days, for a self-rewarding placebo-induced peace of mind.

I won't busy myself with trying to calculate my oil change cycle based on fuel consumption, driving habits, seasonal changes, etc. That's something a furious race driver like fnkngrv must do. I'll leave the land speed records to him, thanks. I just want my go-kart sedan to last me another 3-5 years or so of domestic life.

Is it not better to just get it done at the same time as the other regular maintenance?

Do you take showers once a week because your shampoo has three times the conditioners in it? Do you drink water less often because it's Evian and it's like pristine French alps cleaner, purer, cleaner water than tap water? Do you change your clothes less often because they have better breathing and sweat-wicking technology?

Some do... I don't.

I'd say until you know how your car behaves in the long run, just giving its due maintenance at regular intervals is much more important than the decision to give it full synth vs conventional. I think the point at which I switched to fill synthetic was when I realized I didn't care if it cost me that much more, because at the end of the year, I could more than afford it. Yet another advantage to, or side effect of, owning a Yaris.

[bairjo]

[quote=sheekeebut;756909]I'll go with every 8,000 km or 6 months per manufacturer's schedule, with full synthetic purchased on sale days, for a self-rewarding placebo-induced peace of mind.



Do you take showers once a week because your shampoo has three times the conditioners in it?

Soft water or hard water?

[alanwagen]

[quote=sheekeebut;756909]I'll go with every 8,000 km or 6 months per manufacturer's schedule, with full synthetic purchased on sale days, for a self-rewarding placebo-induced peace of mind.



Do you take showers once a week because your shampoo has three times the conditioners in it?

Soft water or hard water?

Actually I use synthetic shampoo and conditioner. Very slippery. I keep falling in the tub.:laughabove:

[tmontague]

I run synthetic (Canadian Tire Formula 1) for easier starts in the climate here. During the dead of the winter I started running Mobil 1 0w30 since I got it on sale. The >-20 morning starts are much easier and the temperature wamr up much quicker than my fiancees echo w/ conventional (mind you her Echo is also an '02).

I change every 8-9,000km depending on the amount of traffic I am in during that time frame as well as is it winter or not. So far engine has been running without a hitch and it looked extremely clean when I removed the valve cover.

[sheekeebut]

The hardest water known to man: moonshine

[bairjo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVvRlwUT2JY