I have always used Castrol Edge on my 2007 4Runner and I tried Eneos and was impressed. Yes, driving a vehicle for 10 years on the same roads, you tend to notice those things!
On my 2017 4Runner which I had it serviced at the dealer since I got it, I recently found out that they use Pennzoil Semi Synthetic Blend! As usual, stealership charging high prices and using the cheapest oil.
Going to wash it out with Kirkland 0w 20, which I have heard is good. But have the OEM Toyota 0w 20 and Idemitsu 0w 20. I want to try both after the Kirkland oil. I have heard great things about the OEM Toyota 0w 20 so I want to try it at least once.Idemitsu pioneered the 0w 20 grade oil and hopefully is good and I have heard great things about it.
Will update later.
I changed my dealer serviced oil after putting just 300 miles on it to Idemitsu 0w 20.
Couple of things I came across while doing the first oil change on this vehicle.
1) The skid plate was a pain to remove. It didn't come off from the hooks easy as I thought. The hooks were bent like a "S". I guess the dealer just swings it open and presses it down to get to the oil filter? It is fine when the vehicle is on a lift. With ramps. there is not much space to swing it down and hence it was a pain to wiggle it around. I looked at stock pictures of the hook and next time I might have to straighten it out a litte and leave just the ends with a bend upwards.
2) Sure enough, one of the skid plate bolts lost the threads and have to tap it and put a new bolt on.
3) Surprisingly, fearing the worst I had a breaker bar to deal with over torque issues. But the filter was intact with no broken tabs and came off normally and so did the oil pan nut. Kudos to the dealer for doing a good job.(Strange times we live in to thank the dealer for that!)
So after just 300 miles on a fresh oil change I was thinking I won't notice much. I was wrong! There are the things I noticed immediately,
1) The old oil was dark but not gooey thick black dark as it hardly has 300 miles on it. But as the oil thinned out from the drain pain, it become a dark red wine like color.
2) The engine is very smooth and went completely quite!
3) Early morning cold starts with valve chatter noise (like a Diesel engine idling) gone! I seemed to notice it coming from the right bank of the engine more than the left.
4)After 48k miles and driving on the same roads and conditions my mileage computer never crossed the 17mpg mark. Now after driving just 50 miles after the oil change it is showing 17.9! I think it will hit 18 or more soon the more miles I put on it for the computer to average it out.
5) The A/C fans inside seem much louder on the same setting of 3 as the engine went completely quite.
I used OEM filters and always do and have a half a dozen which I bought in bulk.
Mind you the engine still has remnants of dealer serviced Pennzoil gold(semi synthetic) inside.
I am going to do another oil change at 3k and use Idemitsu again to have a fresh start.
Very impressed with this oil and plan on using it on other cars as well.
