ewarnerusa

Go with longer intervals, especially when using synthetic! use less oil! Decrease our dependence on petroleum! Save the whales! Hug trees! Buy organic! Be smart!

Pitbull

I'll be switching to Mobil 1 5w30 at the next oil change (16K miles) and will change oil/filter every 5K miles (only because that is what Toyota recommends for warranty coverage). I will go to a 7500 mile interval when I am out of warranty. I've been changing every 3750 miles using Castrol GTX 5w30 dino. My 2004 4runner V8 will last longer than I would want to own it with these change intervals, the V8 is such a great engine and very easy on oil, per oil change analysis on www.bobistheoilguy.com

terryjmatthew

Mobil 5W30 Synthetic. Every 3-5K depending on how much in town driving.

ewarnerusa

i've read on that bobistheoilguy.com about how somehow the rule of thumb of 5k between changes became 3k or less, but 5k for the most part is fine. gotta keep jiffy lube profits up! when I was growing up, the oil change was more of a seasonal thing rather than based on mileage. I'm running Amsoil in my truck these days, changing the filter twice a year and the oil once a year. My oil right now is on about 6k miles (7 months) and second filter and still looks great. It just makes me scratch my head to read about dumping out oil that looks as good as the day it was put in..... Especially with synthetic. That's just throwing away money and wasting precious oil.

X-AWDriver

I used to change my synthetic in my Eclipse at 3500 miles but it was regularly raced and with the turbo I was more paranoid but with my both my Runners using synthetic I go about 7000 before a change.

hillbilly

I swap my Mobil 1 Synth every 7,500 miles (apporx. every 6 months right now). I also run an oversized Wix filter which is replaced along with the oil. Amsoil in the tranny and gear boxes...

psd4mike

change out the amsoil every 3500 miles. 182,000 miles and when I had the heads off, it was real nice and clean inside.

My grandfather traveled around in a motor home. He changed the oil every 2500 miles. He was known to pull over on the side of the road and change it when the miles ticked over. Kinda anal for an old man.

EDGE

I always get a kick out of seeing guys change their old every 3000 and the vehicle has 80k and nothin else has been touched

CynicX

Bah what it comes down too is.....some do it every 3000 some every 7500 and everything in between.....obviously getting it done more often wont hurt, might not help all that much....but you cant put a price on peace of mind, so for the 10-40 bucks depending on oil and filter type you get a good sense of peace of mind.

The real benefit to changing the oil every 3000 is if you dont check your oil level very often and dont realize your rig is burning a little oil.....3000 it might be low, 7500 it might nearly be out. I dunno I like doing it every 3000, and every vehicle I've ever owned last past 200k...hopefully this one will too...

Pitbull

Based on the voting it looks like 4000 miles is the average and most posters use synthetic. With that combo they should last forever.

krasher

Let me first say this no- please.

I'm no treehugger, but this is why Americans stink, sometimes. Yes, I am an American and it is your right to do whatever heck you want. I am not disputing that.

Changing your oil every 3k is wasteful. Yes, I too grew up on the religion that you should change your oil every 3k. That was back in the 80's. If you think technology in engines and engine lubrication has not changed since then, you are surely mistaken. Things have changed. The sheep mentality upsets me because of the wealth of information that is out there about this very topic and people are too stubborn and set in there ways to change. Even dealers/quick lubes are now saying, "Come back at 5k." Of course they will tell you to come back at 3k-5k. They lose out on some $$$ if they tell you to come back at 7k-10k. I know not much, since most dealers don't make much off of changes. You get my point.

You're right, changing your oil every 5k or less is fine and will do nothing harmful to your engine. Dial-up, postcards, and personal checks all work fine too.
I prefer efficiency and try not to be wasteful. I am not strapped for cash, can't bring myself to dump out oil and an oild filter that still perfectly useable.

With oil and filters, basically you get what you pay for. Synthetic is more expensive but better.
I have a '99 Taco TRD with 159k on it. It runs like a champ on Valvoline Maxlife sythetics being change between 7-9k miles. I have a '98 Jetta TDI with 116k using Mobile 1 Truck and SUV sythetics and change that every 10k.
I use NAPA(WIX) filters and change with the oil everytime.

Edge make a great point:

"I always get a kick out of seeing guys change their old every 3000 and the vehicle has 80k and nothin else has been touched"


Don't flame me by calling me un-american. It is our right to do whatever the H we want.

Just thought I would vent and give my humble opion to this fantastic user-group.

Pitbull

That used oil is recycled. I use dino and change every 3750-4000 on my 4runner V8 and every 3000 on my 350Z. I do turn the lights out in the rooms I'm not in.

firemedic

Should've included the factory recommended interval of 7500 miles in the poll.
My 93 FZJ80 had 200k on it and I changed every 7500 w/synthetic, ran like a champ when I recently sold it. I have no problem trusting the engineers who built my truck, and recommend to change oil/filter every 7500, so that's what I'll do.

Koz

If you are using synthetic oil and changing it less then 10K miles, you are wasting your money. Synthetic oil with 10K miles on it provides more lubricating protection then conventional oil with 1K miles. Don't waste your money!

Koz

Mohamed

huh? it has to do with cleaniness of the oil. Lubrication has nothing to do with it. Have you ever changed oil at 10K miles? It starts looking like black goo coming out of the crankcase pan. Remember all it takes is half a cap of dirt say off of a Pepsi 2 Litter bottle, and little ways down the road your engine is toast. Cleaniness is the utmost importance for internal moving parts, and yes although viscosity has alot to do with it, so does cleaniness of the oil, that's why for the most part you change your oil and filter at specified intervals.

WATRD

I have changed my oil plenty of times at 10,000 miles and it's a little darker than it was going in, but oil analysis says it's still suitable for continued use. If your oil looks like "black goo", you have a serious problem. An Toyota engine in good running condition should never do that to good oil, even after 10,000 miles.

You can't judge oil by it's color, feel, taste, etc. The only way is with oil analysis. He didn't mention the filter in his post, but I am betting he does like most of us do and changes the filter at least a couple of times in that 10,000 miles.

He's entirely correct. In many cases, synth oil is still going strong at 10,000 miles. I have done the oil analysis to prove that. But some crappy brand of dino oil that contains more paraffin than oil might be done for at 1,000 miles.

no1sportz

I run Amsoil Series 2000 0W30 Racing oil in all my vehicles. Along with an Amsoil filter too ofcourse! I change my vehicles around 12K to 15K depending on what I have been doing with it. My wife's 2002 has over 80K on it and has run Amsoil since day 1...yes day 1. It just now feels like it is broken in...in other words more powerful than ever. I break all (ATVs, dirtbikes, watercraft, trucks, tractors) my machines in with Amsoil from the beginning. I drain the crap from the dealers out right away and switch over immediately. I change again at 1K for road vehicles and after that it is every 12 to 15K. My 2004 4Runner has had it since 20 miles. Love this stuff!!

CynicX

Cant believe this thread is still going!....lol.....i gotten well over 200k miles on 5 vehicles using dino oil, changed at 3k miles.....except my WRX which I blew up using Mobil 1.....I mentioned this before......I dont really see the reason for using syn in a toyota pickup truck or suv, not exactly high performance vehicles, esp since the ones you see that ran over 300k are usually on dino oil....but its your money and your truck, and it wont hurt anything and probably last longer, oil manufactors tell you that a engine that has regular oil changes on dino or syn will last the same time though....the benefit of syn is longer change intervals....although some manufactors use fancy wording on other benefits....

X-AWDriver

In cold temps syn get going through the engine better plus synthetics also have additives to keep seals conditioned and I like beibg able to change my oil every 6-7k and synthetic won't brwak down if you do encounter harsh conditoons and off roading you can encounter some hash conitions adn I like the peace of mind I get from synthetic.

CynicX

This link is in the other oil thread http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/s.../oil-life.html

After testing amsoil for per amsoil directions they said this

"This is it. Amsoil is done! The oil exceeded a year in service, with 14,000 miles on the ticker, and no filter change! Well, if the year hadn't ended, we would have had to change the filter now -- it finally reached our insolubles cap, 2,000 miles after Mobil 1. The main thing that stands out on this, our final Amsoil sample, is the ridiculous viscosity. This 5W30 oil has now thickened out to a 15W40 -- argue whether it matters if you like, but we believe engine builders spec an oil for a reason, and this oil is far, far thicker now than intended for the LS1. Switching to our flush Mobil 1 netted a nearly instant 10% improvement in fuel economy, and the engine runs a heckuva lot smoother too. To Amsoil's credit, wear metals remain in check, but we will soon see whether that was really thanks to the oil or just to engine break-in. We'll start posting detailed analysis in the coming weeks"

Seems like a good oil, but I'd still change it on a regular basis....