Engine Oil?

[YarisHybrid2016]

Hi,

I was just wondering - do they fill the engine with a special running-in oil, or is it just the standard oil that is used at service?

On my previous car I didn't do the first oil change until the first service at 1 year (car had 4,000 miles on it), but I'm questioning if that is a good idea (even though it didn't seem to suffer for it).

I think the oil grade on these is 0w8 (M15A-FXE)?

[Bernard Foy]

Never heard of a specific running in oil for a new engine. Some people like to change the oil in a new engine a little earlier than recommended, but that's a personal thing. O8w is the recommended oil for the mark4 Yaris 

[Hybrid21]

Maybe over fifty years ago an early oil change would get rid of any particles in the oil that were created when bedding in the new engine.

Nowadays new engines don't really need bedding in so an early oil change is not as necessary, but some owners still like to have it done. No harm in doing it but in my opinion will not make much difference.

Also nowadays people tend only to keep a new car around three years whereas years ago ten years was common.

Just thinking back I remember some manufacturers actually advised not to do an early oil change as there were additives in the factory oil to aid the running in process.

[TonyHSD]

No need early oil changes on new Toyota cars. 
For running in process more important is to take it easy first few hundred miles but this applies to all new cars., similar to when start driving from cold, wait 30 secs to one minute after stat up and then drive sensibly until engine warm ups. 
See, these days everyone is rushing so much, people start the cars and immediately driving off and not only that but push hard to the floor, not good. 
The only full evs are ok to start and immediately go, but even with them first 5 min drive should be sensible too and avoid hard accelerations because they have no engine but they do have transmission which also requires the oil inside to warm up a bit to provide the best protection. 

[YarisHybrid2016]

4 hours ago, Hybrid21 said:

nowadays people tend only to keep a new car around three years whereas years ago ten years was common.

I'm planning on 10 years. I changed my last one at 8 years. If the Government go the way they claim though of stopping new petrol cars, that could soon become 20 years. Utter insanity!

[YarisHybrid2016]

8 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

The only full evs are ok to start and immediately go, but even with them first 5 min drive should be sensible too and avoid hard accelerations because they have no engine but they do have transmission which also requires the oil inside to warm up a bit to provide the best protection.

The batteries need to reach optimum temperature, too. Hammering a cold Battery is just as harmful as hammering a cold engine (and perhaps more so). Li-Ion don't like being outside their temperature envelope at high currents at all. In fact, Tesla limit the power delivery for this very reason.

[Cyker]

I didn't do an early oil change on mine, just after 10k miles. The engine runs a lot less in the hybrids and is under a lot less stress than in a normal car, so I think early oil changes are even less needed than in a normal car!

OTOH, the CarCarNut guy does recommend 1000 mile oil changes, but he's in the USA and probably used to more abused cars  

[FROSTYBALLS]

Standard oil.

The only car we had that came with a light running in oil requiring a change at 1,000 miles, was an '87 Nissan Micra. By 1990, Nissan had dropped the use of a running in oil. 

[YarisHybrid2016]

7 hours ago, Cyker said:

OTOH, the CarCarNut guy does recommend 1000 mile oil changes, but he's in the USA and probably used to more abused cars

Not sure if it is true today, but in the past the quality of fuels and oils wasn't as good as it was over here. That's the reason they have (had) shorter intervals for oil changes.

I'm just thinking about any metal fragments that are floating around. As the CareCareNut said in a recent video of a failed engine: oil changes are cheap; engine rebuilds not so much. 😂

6 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Standard oil.

Thanks!

[anchorman]

If you’re keeping a car for double digit years, I’d do two changes a year.  Keeping it in for 10,000 miles would depend on the duty and I’d only do that doing motorway miles.   If you want to open a quarter million mile engine up to look and sound new that oil change interval needs to come down.  It’s true that engines and oil are significantly better than they were but this 10k oil change was done to compete with servicing costs and it’s too long in most cases, especially very low mileage where inside surfaces form condensation on them.  

[Saxmaniac]

The last post is my attitude as well and this is what the car car nut is saying as well. It's such a small expense to change oil yourself so why spend so much time trying to prove that you shouldn't? The manufacturer has a different agenda when it comes to announcing minimum amount of maintenance needed to scrape through an assumed lifetime!

[TonyHSD]

Probably you are  right about it, but if the car is used regularly within those 10k miles per year there is no real need for two oil changes unless the car is kept in ready mode excessively, or driven in harsher conditions. The car care nut is a legend with tons of experience but he also add some of his personal opinion about the matter and he is not absolutely right always. His recent video proof exactly that. 
His two major mistakes here are about the synthetic oil and the premium fuel. Even if your car has not been built to work on these two specifically, switching to these will add only benefits and not cause any issues or counts as money thrown away. There are real benefits of using highest quality fuels and oil. 

Totally wrong to believe that using lower grade engine oil and do more often oil changes will protect your engine better., not at all. The engine will lack protection from first day with the brand new oil in if the oil is not exact specs , viscosity or grade as recommended. 

[Hybrid21]

We owned a mini cooper (BMW type)  and it had a variable service interval system that flagged up a service message as and when required, depending on how the car was driven.

I had done over 17000mls and it still wasn't showing a service message, so I changed the oil and filter myself.

Certainly the oil looked quite clean 🙂

 

 

[Serban]

So uhm...is it decided? Every 5k, 10k or 15k lol?

With my current job, I'm expecting 12k-15k/year because I'll be on the highway or motorway 70% of the time.

Guess every year as per Toyota Service is enough or do an oil change in between? Wouldn't hurt, eh?

[Yugguy1970]

The service schedule is 12 months or 10k whatever is soonest.

I'd follow that.

[Stivino]

1 hour ago, Serban said:

Wouldn't hurt, eh?

Just your wallet.

[anchorman]

1 hour ago, Serban said:

So uhm...is it decided? Every 5k, 10k or 15k lol?

With my current job, I'm expecting 12k-15k/year because I'll be on the highway or motorway 70% of the time.

Guess every year as per Toyota Service is enough or do an oil change in between? Wouldn't hurt, eh?

Depends how long you’ll keep it.  If you’re one of these very sensible people that keeps cars years, you might consider intermediate oil changes. 

[Stivino]

Unless you know something that Toyota and the oil companies don't know, I'd stick to the recommended intervals.

[YarisHybrid2016]

Well... the two big things with oil is contamination, but the lesser-well-known issue is that the oil breaks down at the molecular level through use. Yes, it still looks like oil when you remove it, but its properties are changed/diminished, and so its ability to do its job is diminished, too.

The only way to know for sure is to send the oil for analysis.

Just because it looks OK, doesn't mean it is.

Without going to the trouble of constant analysis, increasing the frequency of changes only incurs a slight cost, but could greatly reduce the potential for problems.

We're only talking oil filter and oil; not a full service.

[Stivino]

Halfords want £144.99 to change the oil and filter on my car.  It's hardly as cheap as chips and as it's surplus to requirements, I'll go with what Toyota recommend rather than Car Care Nut Job.

 

 

 

 

 

[anchorman]

1 hour ago, Stivino said:

Halfords want £144.99 to change the oil and filter on my car.  It's hardly as cheap as chips and as it's surplus to requirements, I'll go with what Toyota recommend rather than Car Care Nut Job.

 

 

 

 

 

If you’ve got a T180 you are sitting on a ticking bomb depending what usage and mileage you put it to so you are right amongst the category I would definitely do two changes a year if it were mine.  It only wants high grade diesel too.  Choose to ignore it if you wish, it makes no odds to me but I’ve had more to do with those 2AD engines than most.  

[Stivino]

I'm on my 3rd T180, I've heard all the stories from the scaremongers but, none of them have gone bang yet.

In fact, they've all been the very opposite of what the doubting Thomases say.  I think I must be doing something right.

[TonyHSD]

15 hours ago, Serban said:

So uhm...is it decided? Every 5k, 10k or 15k lol?

With my current job, I'm expecting 12k-15k/year because I'll be on the highway or motorway 70% of the time.

Guess every year as per Toyota Service is enough or do an oil change in between? Wouldn't hurt, eh?

Your case is so simple, 12-15k miles means  2 x oil changes per 12 months. 
As Toyota recommends 10k miles or 12 months intervals.
If you drive only  8-10k miles a year or less then one service is enough. 

 

[Saxmaniac]

I think that if you regularly do long motorway miles and bump up a lot of miles per year, 10k is possibly ok. If you're in the habit of only keeping a car for a few years then any reduction in lifespan is a long way after that. I'm sceptical about manufacturers recommended change intervals as they're also motivated by marketing to make maintenance look cheap. If you want to keep engine top notch and don't mind a small extra expense, it might well be unnecessary but it's the owner's choice based on how long he wants to keep the car and his own pattern of use. I could never believe Astra H diesel recommended OCI of 20k miles. The oil's very dirty at 10k! 

I think the clue to how to view the car care nut is hinted in his title! He's into maintaining cars to the highest possible standard, eg Wiper Blades every year regardless. So his information is valuable and he knows his stuff, but everyone makes their own choices. Brake fluid is another debatable item, I'd change regularly, it's cheap and easy, others will find every reason not to! 

[TonyHSD]

I agree with these shorter intervals on engine oil changes but it is strange to me that there are so many Toyota cars that has always had 5000 miles oil change intervals and again after some miles and years they start burning a lots of oil, some worse than those who had 10000 miles oil service. 
Then it’s the transmission oil drama. Toyota does not recommend changes but only inspection every 40k miles. 
There are Priuses out there with 300K+ miles on its original transmission fluid and they have no issues, noises or leaks whatsoever. I do change that though, first change at 80k miles, then 140k, then at 200k and now next change will be at 250k very soon. Only the first change the fluid was a bit darker but then since remains very clear, just tiny bit dark.