12,000 mile oil changes?

I drive my 4Runner for work usually averaging 40-50k a year.

I sent in an oil analysis at 12,500 and everything was above normal for the oil. Could have probably hit another 3-4K out of it with no issues.


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Weird. I change my Mobil1 5W-30 every 3-4K miles, and it's REAL dirty at that interval.
Doing harm to your engine by changing your oil more frequently is the funniest thing I've heard this year. So funny I almost fell off my dinosaur.

The most funny thing I've read is also that you can judge the quality/life remaining of your oil just by looking at how dirty it is. So retarded I almost lost an I/Q

Pretty funny too, how people rely on myths and misconceptions about motor oil, then make dumb statement like ''it looks dirty, must change the oil''. I won't do the researches for you folks, but mostly, what you are doing is a waste of your $, harm to the environment and pretty much useless wear on the engine.

FYI, the same oil as you, at 8K miles, sitting in my truck right now, is approximately maple syrup color. hey, looks like it's wearing slower than yours! Let the show begin. :snacker:
 
Weird. I change my Mobil1 5W-30 every 3-4K miles, and it's REAL dirty at that interval.
Doing harm to your engine by changing your oil more frequently is the funniest thing I've heard this year. So funny I almost fell off my dinosaur.

if your oil is looking bad @4K miles something is wrong. can be a load of things to cause the oil to be contaminated and then the wear and condition to be damaging..

ON my vehicles I do check with scan tool the engines operation so that its all properly functioning and keeping the fuel trims correct .

if your oil is as you say bad @4K you best find out why .. also changing the oil when it begins to look / change in a bad way is the time to change. you may have to change YOUR oil at a lower amount of miles !!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHANGING THE OIL TOO MUCH DOES NOT HURT THE ENGINE .

OIL BEING CONTAMINATED DOES !!!!!!!!!
 
Dealership Leaves oil out at oil change

I'm new here so I can not start a new post. So I'm posting here in hopes of help.
I have a 5 month old 2016 4runner bought new. Went in for its 15k service.
The mechanic forgot to put oil back in.
I drove it 7.3 miles the engine light came on, I pulled in a parking lot & it died.
Dealership sent someone out to me & they put 6qts of oil in.
On the way back to the dealership the 4runner was running bad with a crazy idle.
They kept it for a day & said to come get it everything is fine??
They gave me a free detail ??
What should I do? Afraid to pick it up & drive it!!
 
While I won't weigh in on the perfect oil change interval above, I will mention that how you drive your truck makes a difference. If you run 6k miles per year wheeling most of them, it probably isn't a bad idea to change it more frequently.

Personally, I drive 85-90% highway miles, and change it at 8-10k with an extra filter change in the middle. There are way worse things you can do to your truck than run a lot of miles on oil without changing it.
 
I'm new here so I can not start a new post. So I'm posting here in hopes of help.
I have a 5 month old 2016 4runner bought new. Went in for its 15k service.
The mechanic forgot to put oil back in.
I drove it 7.3 miles the engine light came on, I pulled in a parking lot & it died.
Dealership sent someone out to me & they put 6qts of oil in.
On the way back to the dealership the 4runner was running bad with a crazy idle.
They kept it for a day & said to come get it everything is fine??
They gave me a free detail ??
What should I do? Afraid to pick it up & drive it!!

This is the 3rd gen (96-02) 4runner area and also not the best place to make a 1st post/question (there is a new user thread) but if you want an opinion on your situation, I'll give it.

I would document the shit out of this incident. Make sure you get it in writing that they forgot to put oil back in it and it died on you.

I have a hard time believing it is "fine" after running it without oil. I would personally contact Toyota and tell them what happened since your motor is probably screwed up.
 
I'm new here so I can not start a new post. So I'm posting here in hopes of help.
I have a 5 month old 2016 4runner bought new. Went in for its 15k service.
The mechanic forgot to put oil back in.
I drove it 7.3 miles the engine light came on, I pulled in a parking lot & it died.
Dealership sent someone out to me & they put 6qts of oil in.
On the way back to the dealership the 4runner was running bad with a crazy idle.
They kept it for a day & said to come get it everything is fine??
They gave me a free detail ??
What should I do? Afraid to pick it up & drive it!!

Wrong forum, but if this is for real I'd be looking to get that free detail after they're done putting in the free engine.
 
FYI, the same oil as you, at 8K miles, sitting in my truck right now, is approximately maple syrup color. hey, looks like it's wearing slower than yours! Let the show begin. :snacker:

Mine too, but like a real Canadian, It actually IS maple syrup.
 
while I don't really care at explaining in great details, since everyone on forums rely on myths more than anything else when it comes to oils... I'll try to do a short summary of what's still in my memory on the subject.

Synthetic oils like Mobil1 for example, have a very high amount of detergents in them, which is good to clean up the engine from the sludge and unwanted particles, but in the same time, it cleans up the phosphorous and zinc anti-wear coating that the oil itself created over time.

The detergent will act for only a short time, 1000-2000 miles before wearing out, and then the anti-wear coating will rebuild itself. It's why you always see higher amount of wear metals at the very first few thousand miles in oil analysis, then tapers out, and later on, when the oil gets very old, wear metals rise again.

So you're saying that's possible when people change every 1-2k miles? I don't think people do that unless breaking in a new motor.
 
I drive my truck 6K miles a year - do 2 oil changes @ 3K intervals and my oil is BLACK! At around 2K miles I can start to actually feel the engine not running as smooth as it does the 1st 2K miles so in my case, 12K miles would be a nightmare! I'm even thinking about changing my oil every 2K! I use Mobil Super High Mileage oil btw, I think it's a synth blend.

My oil is Black after 3000 & my tail pipe is Black, I think I'm running rich but I'm not getting any codes.
 
...but does anyone here believe that an interval like that is safe with any oil?

Next time he brings it up I'm going to ask him for a sample of his used oil so I can send it to a lab.

Truckers average around 20K-25k mile oil change intervals on their rigs. Some even go as far as 40K-45K on a single oil change monitored through regular oil analysis and filter changes. And that's just the mileage. These trucks also tend to see a lot of sit and idle time.

I know a semi and a 4runner are 2 different things (heavy-duty vs light-duty), but it's still relevant to your question.
 
Synthetic oils like Mobil1 for example, have a very high amount of detergents in them, which is good to clean up the engine from the sludge and unwanted particles, but in the same time, it cleans up the phosphorous and zinc anti-wear coating that the oil itself created over time.

The detergent will act for only a short time, 1000-2000 miles before wearing out, and then the anti-wear coating will rebuild itself. It's why you always see higher amount of wear metals at the very first few thousand miles in oil analysis, then tapers out, and later on, when the oil gets very old, wear metals rise again.
So apparently this is only an issue with synthetic?


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So you're saying that's possible when people change every 1-2k miles? I don't think people do that unless breaking in a new motor.

to make it simple, based on an oil that is good for 15k miles per oil sampling:

person 1: doing oil change every 5k miles, goes through 3 times 2k miles of high wear metal for 15K miles. That is 6K miles of high wear metal period on a total of 15K miles

person 2: making oil change every 15k miles, goes through phase of high wear metal only 1 time 2K miles. That is 2K high wear metal period on a total of 15K miles.
 
Nope. That's crazy. All the byproducts of combustion - which are contaminates - are in the oil. The idea that you change the oil because the OIL needs it is misunderstanding the entire thing.

I advise my clients not to go over 5K with full synthetics, although I'd prefer 3.5 and any quality oil over extended mileage and synthetic.

But hey, what do I know? :)

Depends on what conditions you're driving in regularly...bobistheoilguy has tons of linked evidence suggesting most full syns can easily go beyond 5k, typically further.

If you're "advising clients" to change full synthetic oil at 3.5k miles, I can see the profits from here.
 
Truckers average around 20K-25k mile oil change intervals on their rigs. Some even go as far as 40K-45K on a single oil change monitored through regular oil analysis and filter changes. And that's just the mileage. These trucks also tend to see a lot of sit and idle time.

I know a semi and a 4runner are 2 different things (heavy-duty vs light-duty), but it's still relevant to your question.

I'd say the biggest difference is one being a diesel engine.
 
Depends on what conditions you're driving in regularly...bobistheoilguy has tons of linked evidence suggesting most full syns can easily go beyond 5k, typically further.

If you're "advising clients" to change full synthetic oil at 3.5k miles, I can see the profits from here.

And again, the byproducts of combustion are the issues here; not the lubricity of the oil. In our particular vehicles (my specialty field, not Toyotas), there are plastic components and bearings with seals within the engine that are broken down by contaminants in the oil - which lead to catastrophic failure of the engine. Changing the oil is the way these contaminants are removed from the engine.

Check this out if you'd like to read more, it's based on the same philosophy I have for my own clients.

And, ironically, I'd rather not do oil changes at all - I run a build shop, and offer this advice to clients who do their own oil changes - but I'm pretty sure even you would feel well-served if you were one of my clients.
 
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I'd say the biggest difference is one being a diesel engine.



And a lot more than 6qt of oil in the sump. My Cummins holds 3gal. Those big over the road trucks I'm pretty sure hold over 10gal. I thought the Macks where I use to work held 13gal.


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<"not Toyotas"

Exactly. No point in changing the oil in a 4Runner at 3500 miles especially if full synthetic. I check the oil level once every few weeks, but I don't change mine until minimum 7k, there's just no point.

You can't tell if you're oil needs changed by look either for whoever said that earlier with the exception of another fluid that has compromised it.

I can't believe I got sucked into an OIL thread here lol. Bobistheoilguy.com is the savior many of you apparently still need, and is ready for that Jesus talk about your oil.
 

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