Oil Change Schedule

Geri O

New member
Hi, guys, we sold the girlfriend's 2004 4Runner with 200,600 miles on it and the ubiquitous head gasket leak in cylinder #6 (and the buyer showed up with 5 gallon jugs of water and drove it 185 miles back to his home!).

She is now the proud owner of a 2011 SR5 4Runner and she loves it! It's a perfect step up for her. So far, our only question (and why I didn't ask the dealer at the time is beyond me) is about the oil change interval. Around here, I'm seeing 10,000 miles, but I think I read something about 5,000 in the owner's maintenance schedule. I'd call the dealer, but it's a lot more fun and informative to mix it up with you great folks here. So, 5K or 10K?

And we've already had a scare with it. She had it for a day and that night, she went to the store and that's when I noticed some new oil spots on her otherwise pristine driveway. Yikes! I called her and told her to stay put at the store. I drove to where she was and checked the oil. Yikes again! No oil on the stick! I went a little further to AutoZone and got three quarts of oil. That brought the oil level to a half-quart low. So the next morning, I got three more quarts of oil and headed out for the dealer in it. Got halfway there, stopped and checked the oil, by now, it was a little less than a quart low. I put in enough to fill it up and went on to the dealer. It had lost a 1/2 quart by the time I got there. Upon checking it, the technician that did the service on the truck before she bought it had over-tightened or otherwise improperly installed the O rings on the external filter canister! Double Yikes!! So they did another oil change, pulled codes and found no low-oil-pressure warnings, inspected everything really well and I was on my way. No oil leaks. And while I'm fairly mechanically inclined, I watched a couple of tutorials on changing the oil filter and decided that it would be best to just take it back to the dealer for oil changes. I probably could do it, but why take the chance. We have an advantage, because her son is a salesman at this dealer, which is a Buick and GMC dealer, and can get her good rates on service (He also found me a fantastic deal on a Nissan Armada back in May and I'll have it serviced there as well.)

So we feel pretty confident that all is well with the 2011 after this little scare. We just need to figure out the oil change interval.

Thanx for listening and the awesome contributions you guys make!
 
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Congrats on your purchase and hopefully you won't have any further issues after the scare. Luckily you were very observant and noticed the oils spots before the situation got much worse.

From what I can tell its a debate whether its 5,000 or 10,000 for the oil change. Here is a thread that will help you decide for yourself. There is also an Edmund's article debunking the frequent oil change practices of the past.

Here is a How To thread with lots of pictures on how to change your own oil if you decide to go that route.

I have a 2013 and am going to do the 10,000 recommended in my owner's maintenance schedule. And judging by all the stuff you have to remove to get to the filter, I am going to let the dealer do it :-).
 
i bought my 2014 back in December, and that was a first for me too.

1Engineer, the resident expert and i went back and forth, and he showed me the light. i went my first 10k and everything was just fine. so thats what i am going to do from now on.

think about engine tech improving, oil tech improving...this aint your fathers 1977 Toyota with Dino oil running thru it.

10K is the way to go...
 
Why would you take it there when they can't even do a simple oil change?
http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms/T-MMS-114Runner/pdf/2011_4Runner_WMG_lr.pdf
A very fair question, I should have explained further...(and yes, it's a 2011, I corrected the original post.

The problem oil change was done by a Toyota dealer in the next town at the time the vehicle was traded in. Then, my girlfriend's son made a "dealer transaction" to get the vehicle to the dealership where he works. I have confidence in his dealership, but not the first one where the truck came from.

I mentioned the 10,000-mile interval, she's not comfortable with that, and insists that the oil be changed every 5K. Well, she's otherwise a very smart woman and it's her money. So what the hey, ya know...
 
She probably is used to her old 4Runner running standard oil. 5th gens use a synthetic combination that means you can easily go 10k miles without having to worry. As I write this, I am getting my first 10k service and oil change at the Toyota dealership (as per Toyota requests).
 
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