Oil Change Interval Poll

[thatoneguy]

Modern poll thread for what change intervals in miles people are using, what's popular. I assume nobody is running their oil out on the time side, so we're ignoring that.

A lot of members have vocalized disliking Toyota's recommended 10,000 mile / 1 year interval for the synthetic 0w-20 oil in our trucks and put themselves in the 5000 interval club. Many members have stated they're well past 200k miles using a 10k interval. Commenting your interval along with current odometer reading would be useful.

I included various cutoffs. Someone that changes on roughly 4,000 intervals would use the 3000-4999 option. Someone that uses 5,000ish intervals would use the 5000-5999 option. Someone that uses a 6000 or 7000 interval would use the 6000-7499 option.

Feel free to mention if you've had engine issues with your 4Runner, and if you think those were a result of oil change intervals.

My 2023 is coming up on 5000 miles and just hit six months itself. I haven't quite nailed down what I want to do on intervals, but 5000 intervals strike me as being overly paranoid, given how many ultra long life 4.0's have done anything but 5000 intervals.


I imagine a number of people may mention The Care Care Nut's video where he adamantly suggests 5000 intervals, regardless of if your vehicle is running synthetic or conventional oil.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

Depends on how much I drive, lately it's been 3000-5000 miles since I started doing it myself. I never waited the full 10, the highest I made it was 8000 I believe, but the stealership dumped oil all over my engine bay and brand new battery so I went back to doing it myself.

 

[02SE]

I change mine based on time/ boredom. The 4Runner gets driven about 1k miles per year.

 

[Pedro367]

7500 miles because that's how many miles I've been driving per year. Once a year oil change. If I went back to driving 20k miles a year I'd probably do the 10k recommended interval. Maybe a bit less since I was commuting in a lot of traffic. If someone wants to make the investment to do twice as many oil changes, so be it. it's not going to hurt. I just don't see the need for it.

 

[HEAVY WT]

I change around 10k +/- a little. Currently at 126k on my 16.

 

[spartacus]

Around 5k.

 

[Humble Leader]

every 5,000 or once a year before winter. whatever comes first

 

[comtn4x4]

10,000 miles per Toyota? My truck yells at me at 5,000 and that's generally when I do it. Changing my oil has to do more with tire rotation and alignment than the actual oil life.

 

[MZ2215]

7500 miles because that's how many miles I've been driving per year. Once a year oil change.

Same but closer to 6,500/year for me. Carfax shows the previous owner had it done every 5k at the dealership up until they traded it in and i got it with 50k. Just got my 3rd change done after hitting 70k.

 

[kenwilliams0803]

I did 7500 on my old 2012 SR5 Premium. It remained perfect until 200k when I traded it. Saw mostly highway though.

I have resolved to do 5k with the new (to me) 2016 Limited, and also fluid film. Rust was killing the old one despite undercarriage washings etc. Hope to see 300k before I want to let it go.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[MasterFoo]

I change mine around every 5k. I abuse my gas pedal and my engine takes the brunt of the abuse. Plus the truck will give you a maintenance required oil change light at 5k:bolt:

 

[thatoneguy]

I change mine around every 5k. I abuse my gas pedal and my engine takes the brunt of the abuse. Plus the truck will give you a maintenance required oil change light at 5k:bolt:

Not quite an "oil change light", really just a maintenance required light. The 5,000 mile service, straight from the 2023 maintenance guide in front of my keyboard, says at 5,000 miles / 6 months to:

-check installation of drivers floor mat
-inspect and adjust all fluid levels
-inspect wiper blades
-rotate tires
-visually inspect brake linings/drums and brake pads/discs

It only lists replacing oil and oil filter at 5,000 / 6 months if the majority of your driving falls under Special Operating Conditions (such as offroad). They bolded the word majority, not me. Otherwise, oil and oil filter is on the 10,000 mile / 12 month service interval. According to Toyota.

 

[Dynamo]

Every 5000 miles. As in +/-25 miles of each 5000 mile odometer milestone (e.g. 5k, 10k, 15k, 20k, etc). I'm pretty OCD. :biggrin2:

 

[johnnygraphic]

I have a 2021 ORP with about 17k miles bought new with 19 miles on it. First oil change was 500 miles and then at 5k, 10k & 15k. Get the tires rotated too while I'm at it.

I'm set to start doing these on my own (have been doing my own maintenance/repairs etc on my 2004 BMW 330i for the last 12+ years).

Since both of my cars now see mostly around town driving and the occassional long drives (even less so for the BMW), I'm sticking to the 5k interval.

 

[wcjeep]

Wife's 4runner changed once a year on time. About 1k miles a year. Prepandemic every 6months at 5k miles.

My 4runner once a year, 5k miles.

 

[Where_am_i]

I prefer 7,500 mile interval. I feel like 5k is just too early, and 10k just seems like a bit too long. At 7,500 when I do my oil changes the oil still seems pretty clean and filter looks to be in good shape. My 2012 is at 105,000 miles.

 

[Jon S]

I do it as close to 10k as possible, 2016 sr5, 178k miles

 

[kjbenner]

I do about every 10,000 miles. I don't think I've ever sent in a sample from the 4Runner, but I do 10k intervals on our Rav4 as well and have had it tested by Blackstone and reports always came back good, so I'm pretty comfortable following Toyota's recommended intervals.

 

[thatoneguy]

Some great responses. So far 20 people do 5,000 mile intervals, and a cumulative 34 do 6,000-10,000+ intervals. Sounds like a lot of people with intervals between 5k and 10k do so for "timing out" reasons.

 

[cbreze]

I use the time interval and do it annually only because I only drive around 4k per year. If I drove more I'd change every 5k>7k probably. 2012 SR5. w/56k on the clock