At 5000 I switched over to Mobil One and had the filter replaced at Jiffy Lube. Today I changed the oil myself for the first time at 9921 miles. I was just a little surprised that the oil was as dirty as it was, at least visually. I wonder if the fiter they used was crap? I guess I'll have to see at 15000 with the OEM filter.

What have you guys observed with the first few oil changes?

color is not a determining factor in the life left in oil.....


that being said, i would expect oil to be dark at some 9000+ miles.

Well it's just over 4900 since the last oil change, maybe my expectations were unrealistic.

I never let my oil go much past 3K, and I run Mobil 1 and Mobil 1 filters. I know alot of people say you can go like 5000 or 7500 miles on Mobil 1, but I just dont feel safe doing that.

Kinda like those damn Amsoil kooks saying you can run their oil 25K miles and just "top it off and replace the filter. BS. Do they have any idea how much contamination that oil has after 5K miles, even with filter changes???? Yikes!!

But oil will be dark at nearly 5K miles, means it's doing it's job and keeping debris and combustion deposits in suspension. You only worry when you see patterns in the drain pan that look like metallic paint being stirred up......... :awais: lol

Even at 3000 miles, the oil may look dark, depending on your driving conditions. If you're worried if the oil is doing its job, you can send in a sample of your oil to blackstone labs and they'll analyze it for you.

Also, I run regular dino oil (Valvoline or Castrol) and my change intervals are ~4000 miles. Regular oil will protect the engine for 5000 miles, usually, and start to break down after that. But if you go synthetic, I'd even go 7500 or 10000 miles before the change. On my past race cars, I ran synthetic and changed it 3-4k miles, but the engines took MUCH more abuse than my 4Runner. Even then, I could've gotten away with 5-7k mile intervals. On a 4Runner, you're just wasting $$ if you change synthetics every 3k miles, IMO.

oil analysis is the key...


most non syn oil these days can easily go 5000 miles with proper monitoring

your higher additive syn oils can go 10,000+...changing at 3000 miles on synthetic only costs you and everyone else more in the end.

I currently run Castol 0W-30 in mine and my Used Oil Analysis have shown really well on it. Mixture of high additive oil and easy wearing engine (v8).

What would you expect oil to look like after nearly 5,000 miles, as was stated the color has nothing to do with whether it is doing its job or not. I run Mobil 1 w/ a M1 filter for 4-5,000 miles, I only do 4k because I drive very little, so after 5-6 months I change it no matter how many miles it has, if I drove a lot I would go 5-6k. Just keep changing it yourself w/ a quality filter, OEM, M1 and K&N are all good ones among others, and don't worry about it so much. And changing synthetic oil every 3,000, unless you drive in incredibly extreme conditions, is being very wasteful, you will pretty much be throwing away perfectly good oil, not to mention wasting money as changing every 3k you may as well just use dino oil.

Running synthetic oil for 3K miles is a complete waste of money. You can safely run the cheapest dino oil for 3K miles. Casper is correct, used oil analysis (UOAs) is the key! Toyota engines (in the 4Runner) have proved to be very gentle on oil and can easily/safely be run for 1 year, on good synthetic oils (with UOA).

I have 25K miles on the current oil in my V8 and it still has life left in it. Yes I'm one of those kooky Amsoil nuts running that BS 35K mile oil, with a bypass system.

Koz

These are the comments from my last UOA

"You have not changed this oil yet, and that's good. Wear improved nicely, and you can see your new 4Runner maturing in wear, even though you're already running quite a long oil change. The TBN read 3.0, still showing active additive left in the oil. We consider 1.0 or lower to be too low. The oil has gone just a hair thick on you, but the viscosity is still fine for a 30W oil. Try adding 3000-5000 miles and then check back. If you have to add any fresh oil over the next 3000-5000 miles, that will probably help keep the viscosity in line. No contaminants found."

Koz

Oils last a lot longer than many think. The manufacturers claimed 10-15K miles on their patents in the 1950s. The oils and the engines have become a lot better in the past 50 years.

My 1999 BMW M3 went 12-15K miles before calling for an oil change (internal sensor). Better engine (tolerances), yes, but also likely to be run much harder than a normal vehicle.

During the warranty, follow the manufacturer's recommendations. Out of warranty, I think you can run dino oil 10K+ without a problem and the synthetics probably 50K.

Changing oil every 3K miles isn't cheap insurance, as some say, but instead it is wasting money. The oil companies want to sell you more oil and the dealers want to sell you more service, so they encourage frequent changes. I don't think you will find any empirical basis supporting a need for frequent oil changes in a properly maintained engine in good condition (harsh conditions - hot, cold, dusty - may require somewhat more frequent changes, though).

How many cars have you heard of having engine problems due to oil breakdown (not running out of oil or having the oil contaminated by leaking solvents or dirt getting past the filter)?

Unfortunately, everyone has an opinion on this topic. My opinion is based on the fact that 99% of oil nowadays (synthetic or dino) will easily last past 10,000 miles. What you do get in the engine as miles rack up are debris and dirt. Therefore, changing the oil filter often makes more sense IMHO.

See this thread: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showth...5&pagenumber=1

One of the post is interesting:

*Engine wear actually decreases as oil ages. This has also been substantiated in testing conducted by Ford Motor Co. and ConocoPhillips, and reported in SAE Technical Paper 2003-01-3119. What this means is that compulsive oil changers are actually causing more engine wear than the people who let their engine's oil get some age on it.

* Topping up the crankcase is a critical component of extended oil change intervals, and frequent filter changes are most likely the key to extreme-length intervals. The cumulative effect of even minor top-ups, let alone a filter change, substantially increases the longevity of the oil.

*One thing we're pretty sure about though: 3,000-mile intervals is a huge waste of resources.

*To date we have completed our test of Mobil 1. It held on for 18,000 miles, and didn't need its first oil filter until 12,000 miles