Oil change frequency

Changed my oil yesterday. 2016 4Runner SR5 Premium, with 1K miles. Drained the factory fill and replaced it with 6.5 quarts of Mobil 1 extended performance 0W20 and an OEM filter. When I check my dipstick it shows 1/4 inch above the max fill marker. Has anyone had this issue? My owners manual says 6.6 quarts, not sure if my T4R is just an odd duck.
 
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Georgiey22 said:
Changed my oil yesterday. 2016 4Runner SR5 Premium, with 1K miles. Drained the factory fill with 6.5 quarts of Mobil 1 extended performance 0W20 and an OEM filter. When I check my dipstick it shows 1/4 inch above the max fill marker. Has anyone had this issue? My owners manual says 6.6 quarts, not sure if my T4R is just an odd duck.
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Could be something as simple as the oil wasn't very hot when you drained and/or just how long you let it drain. Next time get it to normal operating temp and give it plenty of time to drain. There's also plent of margin between the low and high marks on the dipstick (1.8 qts). So you can safely just add 6 qts next time and see where that puts you and then add from there.

It would also be easy to misread the level high due to the viscosity of the oil and oil sticking to the dipstick edges. When you check it, try warming up your engine, shut it off, remove dipstick and wipe it clean but leave it out to allow oil in dipstick to drain back down, wait 5 mins, insert dipstick and count to 10, check level. If you don't see clean edges and the same level on each side of the dipstick you may have a false high reading.
 
I'm with LandCruiser. Three big things have happened since some of us were changing oil at 3k, points & plugs at a somewhat lomnger interval, and all washes were with a bucket. Maybe rubbing compound occasionally?

Introduction of affordable synthetic motor oils (and corresponding advertising budgets)

Changing g engine component tolerances (0w-20??? Really?!?)

Toyota paying for oil changes as part of a sales well-received sales promotion.


Of course, incremental mentions for other things such as enviro awareness, etc. Any others?
 
It is crazy that people will put so much stock in Toyota reliability, and then doubt them on one of the most critical components of the vehicle. Oil threads are the reason "old habits die hard" is a common phrase these days.
 
My dad has a '96 4runner that has 463,XXX miles on it and he changes the oil religiously every 3K miles. One of the easy things to do to make a 4runner run forever.
 
9linerock said:
My dad has a '96 4runner that has 463,XXX miles on it and he changes the oil religiously every 3K miles. One of the easy things to do to make a 4runner run forever.
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Curious, does he run conventional or synthetic in that considering it's a '96?
 
I did my first change at 5k then the Toyota care at 10k. I plan on sticking to the 10k OCI unless I do a lot of towing.
 
9linerock said:
My dad has a '96 4runner that has 463,XXX miles on it and he changes the oil religiously every 3K miles. One of the easy things to do to make a 4runner run forever.
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No offense to your Dad - he is old school and nothing wrong with that. But he is wasting money.

Modern syn oils (which everybody should be using by now) are good for easily 7500 miles under severe service, 10K miles under standard use and oil analysis (which I have done a lot of) proves it time and again.
 
Blitzkrieg said:
No offense to your Dad - he is old school and nothing wrong with that. But he is wasting money.

Modern syn oils (which everybody should be using by now) are good for easily 7500 miles under severe service, 10K miles under standard use and oil analysis (which I have done a lot of) proves it time and again.
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I tell him that every day :lmao:
 
9linerock said:
I tell him that every day :lmao:
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Yeah. Old habits die hard. I was taught the 3K mile oil change thing too.

It was REALLY hard for me to break myself of that. How I did it was I started having my oil analyzed by OilAnalyzers Inc.

First I stretched to 4K miles, tested. Oil in great shape. Then I pushed to 6K, tested. Oil was great. Then 7.5K miles, oil still great.

I do change my Mobil1 in the T4R once a year because I only drive it about 3.5K miles a year. My rule of thumb is 7.5K miles or one year, which ever comes first.

To be honest, if I put on a lot of miles I'd probably change it @ 10K after testing it once with that mileage.
 
I just did the first oil change on my 2016 T4R. 3K miles. reason at this 3K is I will be on a very long trip like 4k miles so I want this done before I get on the road. obviously the engine oil/filter looked great a nice brown color filter had no particles etc..

however I also had the rear diff gaskets so to check the diff level and condition . the rear diff oil was nasty 3K miles ? since I do read most of these posts on this stuff I had the gear oil ready to go. took a little over 2.5qts used 75-90wt mobil synthetic. the toyota diff oil was with a blue color looked like the conventional 80-90wt I had pumped over 27 yrs at the transportation shop .

seemed to have less drag after that rear diff oil change ..

so I guess you have to change the diff oil more often then the engine oil .. next time when the truck has 10K on it I will change the engine oil and check the diff we will see how it looks then .
 
Service reminder light settings?

I assume my service reminder light will come on at 5,000 miles. Is there an option to set it to come on at the 10,000mile interval? That orange light would bother me for 5,000 miles!
 
TallyTrailRunner said:
I assume my service reminder light will come on at 5,000 miles. Is there an option to set it to come on at the 10,000mile interval? That orange light would bother me for 5,000 miles!
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you can turn it off yourself

but remember for your warranty there are service items every 5k miles, you can do these yourself but you still need to document that you did them so if you have an issue in the future toyota can't deny a warranty claim by saying you didn't follow the maintenance plan
 
Oil change on 4Runner

Ok. I bought a new 4Runner in 2016. It gets driven mostly short trips of a couple miles in winter, and tows a boat in summer. Total mileage per year, around 6000. So, poster truck for severe schedule. I let the dealer change the oil and filter yearly. Every 6 months, I just change the oil myself. This keeps my warrenty intact, along with my piece of mind....
 
Low mileage oil changes

So did a few searches and it seem like this may be a good place to post a question about low mileage oil changes. My wifes 2018 Rav4 has got 3400 miles after 14 months and am wondering how often should I change the oil as it will take 3 years to get 10000 miles. And if I should change it yearly, should I still be using synthetic? Doesn't make sense to use the synthetic if I am only getting 3000 miles before oil changes. My 4Runner will be getting even less miles, maybe 1500 miles a year. What say you?
 
IslandJim said:
So did a few searches and it seem like this may be a good place to post a question about low mileage oil changes. My wifes 2018 Rav4 has got 3400 miles after 14 months and am wondering how often should I change the oil as it will take 3 years to get 10000 miles. And if I should change it yearly, should I still be using synthetic? Doesn't make sense to use the synthetic if I am only getting 3000 miles before oil changes. My 4Runner will be getting even less miles, maybe 1500 miles a year. What say you?
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First off, this the 4Runner forum, not RAV4. Second, always run synthetic, since that is what the engine is designed for, even the RAV4. Oil change intervals aren't just miles, but at time too. One oil change a year isn't difficult (or expensive), so use the correct oil and don't cheap out. Case closed.
 
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