I purchased prepaid maintenance with my 2010 SR5, which only covered oil changes at 10K and 20K, but covered tire rotation, etc every 5K. At 25K, I told the dealer that I wanted an oil change anyway. He said "ok, but synthetic oil costs extra." Without thinking much about it, I said "fine, go ahead and do it." So when I pick it up, the oil change alone was $77.94. What the heck? If this were a BMW or Porsche, I wouldn't be that surprised, but $77.94 for an oil change at Toyota?

So, I'm wondering whether I should:
A-go to some other Toyota dealer for oil changes
B-suck it up and keep paying almost 80 bucks for oil changes every 5K at this dealer
C-go with the recommended 10K interval between changes
D-go to Jiffy Lube, etc for oil changes

Any advice appreciated.

Bob

I choose option "E" - Do it yourself.

7 Qts of 5W/20= +/- $56
1 OEM Filter= $13
45 minutes of your time= ??
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So about $69 to do it yourself. You can get the oil cheaper at Walmart by purchasing it in their 5qt jug and buying two single quarts.

That's paying yourself minimum wage with the savings of $8, but... the pain of doing an oil appointment eats at least two hours in itself. Big time and effort savings.

Do it yourself. I pay around $90 every 25K miles or once a year on all my vehicles. AMSOIL. It's like mowing my yard, I will not let anyone do it but myself.

I agree with the others- NOBODY touches the oil on any of my vehicles but me. it's too important to the life of the vehicle. That said-

The 5th Gen is hands down my least favorite vehicle of all time to change the oil. Nothing like taking a simple job and turning it into a skid-plate removing, cartridge filter, oil dripping everywhere, pain in the a$$ mess. I've been changing my own oil for 25 years, and it takes me almost an hour to complete the job (I can change our Odyssey's oil in 10 minutes).

I can't imagine what some punk 19yr old at Jiffy Lube would do under there...

Where are you located? I just paid about $79 for an oil change, but am in Canada. Our T4R's come with synthetic oil right from the factory and it costs quite a bit more...



errrr 0W20 right? Thats what mine says....

The pricing is about right but since you have synthetic oil you only need to change it every 10k miles. Figure about $35 every 5k miles your $77 sounds about right with tax. I trust my dealership but we are not in a big city and know the owners.

If your dealer is still using the bottled synthetic 0W20, that charge is about right. Bottled oil costs more than bulk oil in tanks. Dealers with newer service bays tend to have the 0W20 in tanks (like Kalispell, MT) where older dealers tend to have to either make room by swapping out a current tank for something new. As more and more Toyota vehicles switch over to the 0W20, more dealers will swap out the tanks and prices will drop back down to saner levels. My oil change at the dealer I bought from cost me $75, while the dealer in Kalispell charged me $50 for the exact same service.

And forget about Jiffy Lube and the like as they charge even more of a premium for bottled oil and you are trusting your baby to a guy who only had to learn how shout back confirmations in order to be qualified to work there.

Walmart is carrying the 5 quart jugs of Mobile1 0W20 last I heard. That's 0W20, not 5W20 or 5W30 or straight 20, but 0W20 for your 5th Gen 4runner. Yes, I know the manual says 5W20 can be used but it also says to replace it with 0W20 as soon as possible, which would mean (unless you are a blithering idiot) that 5W20 IS NOT THE RIGHT #&!$&!@&$!@$*&!$@ OIL TO USE!!!!!!11111eleven

Dispite what the manual states; there is NO reason to not run 5w/20. 0w/20 flows the same when at operating temps as the 5w/20. The ONLY reason Toyota specifies the 0w/20 is because of the CAFE standards in relation to cold starts. You could run a straight 40 weight and the motor wouldn't care.

But I guess I'm a "blithering idiot".

- Bob is the Oil Guy

Hmmm.... I've noticed that Mobil sells their 0w20 line as 'advanced fuel economy' or something like that....so it must help that as well...

$77.94 by the dealer is a very fair price in my mind. I just purchased the oil and filter from my Toyota for a DIY oil change and the parts added up to $60 and change. Mobil 1 is not yet available in the 5 gallon jugs in 0W20 yet, and the dealer's price per quart is about the same as quart sized bottles at the auto parts places. It's always cheaper to DIY but, considering the time to actually do the job, clean up the mess (if any), and dispose of the used oil (recycling; not the back yard ditch ), I'll easily pay the dealer $15-20 to do the job. Especially, if I have access to a larger dealer that serves up fresh baked cookies, complimentary juice & coffee, has a business office with internet access, and a comfortable TV waiting room. However, today will be a bonding experience with my T4R.

I pay 80$ and that's 20 miles north of NYC....seems like a fair price.

The nicest part is you drive right in the bay, they take your info, you go have a cup of coffee, and your done, hell, they even have a deli if you want a sandwich!

Sorry guys, I just have to vent a little...

$80 for a service that most of us can not "completely" do is a very fair price IMO. I think that it is great that some of us here can DIY, but are you really DIY?
For example, do you have a grease gun, know where all the grease fittings are, check tire pressures (including the spare), air filter (both of them), make sure all lights are operational (including tag lights), reset maintenance light (both of them if you have nav), etc...
It would be obvious to most people here that I am in the automotive industry and have stood up for some dealership/independent shop oil change threads. But just to let you guys know, even I pay full retail at my shop to have the techs change my oil. Granted, I haven't done that yet, as my T4 has 2k miles on it. The time it takes to get your parts, change the oil, dispose of it, AND do all of the included "courtesy" checks, it's well worth the $80. By the time I pay my technicians the labor to do the oil service, check over the vehicle, etc... I have taken a loss in the business.
Oil services is the auto industries loss leader. It is there so that we CAN inspect the car and build on the service ticket to make a profit on other issues the car may have.
Again, it still blows my mind at what we all spend on making our T4's look the way we want, drive the way we want, perform the way we want, sound the way we want, yet still complain about how much money we have to spend in the investment of potentially $80 every 5k miles. Some of us at 10k? but hey, it's your truck.
How many oil changes have we spent changing out perfectly good, brand new tires because we thought they didn't look good enough for us? I see at least 4 oil services in wheel spacers because the tires/wheels didn't stick out far enough from the factory. How about the 2 or 3 oil changes because we didn't like our factory floor mats? I won't even get started on the lift kits!

Sorry guys, it's your investment. Rant is over.

Paying the Dealer under $ 10 while I sit in his waiting room having a cup of coffee is a no brainer for me.

I used to pay ~$100 for an oil change on my BMW back in the 90s. $78 sounds about right for full synthetic. I doubt changing it yourself will save much money. Personally, I hate changing oil, especially in this heat - not to mention dealing with oil disposal. I can think of better ways to spend the time.