10K oil change interval on 2015's?
 

Thought I'd post this here instead of the lightly trafficked maintenance forum.

I took my 2015 Camry V6 in for its 5K service, fully expecting an oil and filter change. Instead, the service advisor said Toyota extended the change to 10K or 12 months for all Toyotas with a factory 0W-20 synthetic initial fill.

I confirmed that in the Warranty & Maintenance Guide but find it strange since the 2014 car with the same engine had a 5K change interval last year. Maybe they improved the oil, but I'm betting that the number crunchers figured out the bottom line savings and doubled the interval since service is included "free" to the owner.

My 2013 FR-S came with the same oil but had a much shorter change interval, less than half of that. Has that been extended on 2015 FR-S too?

BTW, the oil is very dark and I'm old school so am leaning toward changing it and the filter myself.

I went out to the SCION website and looked at the Warranty/Service Manuals for the 2013 through 2016. All indicate the standard oil change is 7.5K miles with the normal "extreme" condition of half that.


Toyota may have changed it for cars with Toyota engines in them but I would suspect they follow Suburu's lead on their engines.


http://www.scion.com/manuals/warrant...tenance-guides

N/M, just looked up the guides online and see that nothing has changed for FR-S since 2013, still 3¾ months/3,750 miles for severe duty, 7½ months/7,500 miles normal duty.

Cross-post, thanks. I'm a little slow until the coffee kicks in.

I've got a 2015 FRS and my intervals are every 8000KM so just under 5000miles

Yep! In one year I have already had 5 oil changes.

Despite what is "the recommend", I'd say use your best judgment and simply check your oil frequently. I've changed my oil anywhere from 4,000 miles to 7,000 miles on the FR-S dependent on the type of driving I've done.

If I recall correctly, Subaru changed the interval from 7500 miles for the 2013 and 2014 models to 6000 miles for 2015. I thought Scion did the same for the FR-S, since it's the same car.

There doesn't appear to be any reason to reduce that interval other than to make more money for the dealership service departments. I send off a sample to Blackstone for analysis at every oil change, and the oil coming out of the engine after 7500 miles is still in very good shape. You could easily run this oil 10K miles without an issue if you wanted, although I'm sure that would have detrimental effects on your warranty if you had an engine problem.

I think they lowered it to 6000 to account for the oil consumption that some people are seeing. I figure if you're not seeing any consumption issues, you're probably still good for the 7500 mile interval, warranty aside.

Right there with ya....I drive ~2500 miles a month, so I'm pretty excited for the 7,500 recommendation...I get to have the oil changed every THREE months now instead of every two months like I did in my xB.

Oil color is no determination of oil condition.

As for interval, it's always meant for those that have zero car experience.

-alex

Are you implying that it's extremely conservative or bad?

Given how much of your UOA thread I've read, leaning towards the former...

I'm relatively sure that if they made an "official" change that would impact warranty and such they would have to send out an update to the manual. I'm about 100% sure they would not still be publishing a PDF of the 2013-2016 model year manual online that was incorrect.


It is interesting that the period is different in Canada, perhaps weather related?


In the end, as @MokSpeed and others have said, you need to use your judgment on the interval and do what you think is right.


On all of my previous cars (which typically had the standard 3,000mile recommendation) I would usually go double that outside of warranty. Having had multiple cars with over 250,000 miles on the odometer when I traded them in or scrapped them, I'd say I've been doing OK.


I could see where it would be safe to run this one to 10,000 miles as long as you aren't abusing it. The 7,500 mile interval though is good enough I'm OK with it. It is, in the end, relatively cheap insurance in the grand scheme of things.

I know what you mean, but I wouldn't go so far as saying color has no determination of condition. When you can't see the dipstick through the oil film after 5,000 miles, some of that on dirt roads, it's time to consider a change. I still wonder what changed for Toyota to suddenly double the normal interval on a carryover engine running the same oil.

During the Camry's 5K service, they inspected the engine air filter and cabin air filter and determined that both needed replacement. I take that as another reason to change before the normal interval.

A recent SAE technical paper indicates color is related to contamination by weight, especially in a synthetic, but I didn't buy and read the full study to see what they mean.

They tested GDI and diesel engines using conventional and synthetic oils using fuels refined to Korean standards, whatever those are, and checked every 300 miles.

The preview paper in the link has a few pics.

FTA:

A GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection) vehicle and a diesel vehicle without DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) were selected because those vehicles obviously emit more particulates than port-injection gasoline vehicles and diesel vehicles with DPF. A combined mode consisting of the US EPA emission test cycles FTP-75 and HWFET was used for these tests. HORIBA and PIERBURG gas analyzers were used to measure regulated emissions and fuel economy, respectively. Unregulated emissions and particulates were analyzed by FTIR and PPM-S, respectively. Samples (300 ml) of test engine oil were taken periodically just after each test, and the colors of the sampled oil compared.

The color of the engine oil samples became dark due to contamination. For the diesel vehicle, in particular, the sample color changed rapidly. The properties and components of engine oil comparing new and used one were almost same. Neither emissions nor fuel economy were seriously affected by engine-oil type in either type of vehicle. The number of particulates (PN) was similar with different engine oils, in both types of vehicle. The weight of the PAO particulate matter from the gasoline vehicle with synthetic oil was greater than that produced by other engine oils. The shapes of the particles from GDI and diesel vehicles were similar for all three types of engine oil, based on examination with a scanning electron microscope.

http://papers.sae.org/2014-01-2837/