Man, I got the free oil change and rotate at 10k miles. I went back over it.

The lugs were loose as were the skid plate bolts never again.

My issue is I love to wrench to if oil is due on a car I am ready. 5k is my interval on things but I will send in an oil sample at 15k miles.

No matter how hard I tried, my best time to change oil from jacking up the car to lowering it back is always more than an hour even when I lined up the tools and materials required in perfect order. 20 minutes seemed impossible for me. Do I miss anything here?

No, you didn't miss anything. I take more than an hour to change oil and filter and spend extra time inspecting other items while under the vehicle. I take pride in the way I do it; I am working for myself.

Tons of experience and skill. This task is a no brainer.

I would add use of cordless tools will speed things up. I tend to really take my time workin on my car. Just recently bought a Dewalt cordless ratchet. We’ll see how that works out for me.


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The most time consuming part of the job is removal and reinstalling the front skid plate. A TRD skid plate plus the “Saker stud mount modification” makes this part much easier.

The oil is usually supplied in large drums and they use overhead hoses to fill. They don't use individual bottles of it. I highly doubt they use Mobil1 or Toyota oil. I would say the cheapest of the cheap. I'm sure the dealership has contracts with oil distributors and the brand can/will change depending on market conditions.

Every single dealership is in business for profit. Money is their sole motivation. The Parts and Service department is where they make a huge amount of their profit.

I understand the "use what's in the gun" thing and making a profit. It's what all the big shops do. It's a tale as old as time, but we're not using 5W30 here. This is a fairly specific oil at 0-20, so that's why I question the "big drum in the back" theory. It may be true, but I'd be curious to know who makes the drums, if so.

I sold my Gen3 4Runner at 328,272 (that I bought at 21,323 miles) and bought a used 2018. I towed often in the 1998 and my average interval was 6138 miles, that's 47 oil changes. The last I knew, the Gen3 is still on the road. The maintenance light on the Gen5 comes on at about 5,000 miles, and like most people say on this thread, oil changes are cheap enough I'm following this interval.

I do 5k OCI's and I agree. I have a RCI on my Tundra so I bit the bullet a couple of months ago and swapped out the TRD PRO skid for a steel RCI skid for $279. I added the steel bumper plate for $59. Shipping was $45. Sold the PRO skid for $250 on marketplace. Balance was $132 and about 30 minutes of my time for a stronger skid with a oil filter access panel and not having to remove the skid at each OCI.

I'd like to add my 2cents to this discussion and there's no judgement on anyone for whatever OCI they choose to follow, if it differs from my own.

The 1GR-FE is an incredibly stout and well built engine. It can handle abuse and neglect and still operate fine for years upon years. The new generations of engines being introduced by Toyota, which have been available from other brands for a decade are not as robust and may not be able to handle this type of neglect.

For me, changing the oil costs me $50 (CAD) using Mobil 1 and a Toyota oil filter as I buy my oil when it's on sale. I change my oil every spring after a harsh winter of extended idle times and cold starts and every fall after a summer of off-roading and "abuse". Occasionally I change it 1 additional time per summer if I've done enough long road trips. The extra $50 and 1 hour of my time to change the oil is well worth it to ensure my 4Runners engine has the best chance of remaining healthy that I can give it.

I think of my 4Runner the way I think of people (myself). While I may be able to handle neglect and abuse and still come out the other side, it's not how I want to be treated. I don't treat other people or the things that I own any differently, as not everybody or everything can take that same abuse.

The new generation of Tundras/Tacomas are having some engine recalls already, so creating a habit of maintaining your engines now, while you own one that gives you some leeway to make mistakes, might help you create habits for your next vehicle that may not be able to handle the same treatment.

My wife has a 2015 Ford Edge 2.0 Ecoboost and I change the oil every 6000kms on the some-bich because it absolutely destroys oil. It's currently nearing 200,000kms trouble free (knock on wood) and I've seem many horror stories of failures in ecoboosts from people saying they go 10,000kms between oil changes (sludge, timing failures, lifter/cam damage from lack of oil).

Sorry for the long post... just wanted to share my perspective.

If you make short trips between the longer ones your engine does not come out of "open loop" long enough to burn off all of the excessive fuel in the oil because it's runs rich when it is is cold for most of the short trips. I use mine to commute to work every day and it runs for about 30 minutes each way and stays at operating temperature long enough to burn off excessive fuel and moisture in the oil every day so no fuel smell from the oil when I change it.

*Results may vary!

I purchased my 2015 with 44k in 2017. Ever seen I have changed my own oil around the 10K mark. I always use Castrol Syntec and an OEM filter. I am at a little over 125K now but since 109K have been sending my oil to Blackstone for analysis. I am only two samples in (and one for the rear diff) but for my engine the oil is performing as it does for samples with ~6k miles. None of the metrics are over the tolerance.

But again...oil is cheap. My wife's 2024 Highlander I am changing oil every 5k due to the turbo.