You have learned well, grasshopper.
No, 10,000 isn’t too long for the original owner. She’ll trade it in in a year or two and then it will be the new owner who will have to deal with sludge. C’mon Man! 10,000 miles is too long and you know it! Why be cheap and avoid a $50 oil change on such an expensive car? Sorry, but questions like this annoy me. Rocketman
“And wasn’t Toyota the ones with the sludge problems from extended oil changes?”
Not quite. Toyota’s sludge problem was from a design flaw in the cylinder heads that caused the oil to run hotter and “cook, coke, sludge” more quickly.
Using synthetic helped to bandaid the problem because synthetic tolerated the overheated oil passages better than dyno. It was still an engine design problem.
Yep, my mother owns one of those sludge-prone Toyotas (a 2002 Sienna), and I haven’t seen any sludging, before or after switching to synthetic.
Your mom probably tool care of her Toyota. Toyota acknowledged the design problem described by Joe, but I think owner negligence greatly compounded the problem.
She doesn’t take nearly as good of care of it as I think she should. She has only been asking me to change the oil about once a year.
@JoeMario
I would agree if the requirement for synthetic was made and the change interval was the same. But it has been extended to 10k miles and the 3.5 6 cylinder in some models is allowed 5w-20 mineral at the old, unchanged 5k miles. So, it isn’t a bandaid I feel. It’s an addition. If @Whitey’s mom drives less then 10k per year, what’s the problem. Or course , it is a 2002 so this discussion means little if we don’t know the actual changes made to subsequent motors.
Toyota seems to have adopted the 5w20 option on many models (the Prius manual has the option too) if you change oil every 5k or every 10,000 miles with the 0W-20 which is either fully synthetic or a blend depending on which brand you buy. My mom’s 2010 Prius is on a in-between oil change schedule set by the trusted independent. She’s started going to this shop with her previous car in 1993.
In regards to my brother’s 2008 Highlander . . .
Conventional oil is required. The manual says you may use synthetic. The viscosity is 5w30
5K oil change intervals
There is no mention of extended intervals if you’re using synthetic
Toyota changed some of the intervals (such as on the 2010 Prius) around 2009-2010. The 5k interval was the only recommendation before that.
0W-20 which is either fully synthetic or a blend depending on which brand you buy.
Which oil company sells 0w-20 synthetic blend? I’ve only seen full synthetic in that weight.
Interestingly Briggs and Stratton now says you may use 5-30 synthetic in all of their engines year around instead of the old 30 wt in summer and 10-30 in winter, etc. They make no mention of extended intervals beyond the 25 hour changes. Its got to be synthetic though not 5-30 dino. Would sure simplify maintenance on the 8 plus engines. Going from $3 oil to $7 Mobil 1 would be one issue but they really want you to go with the $10 Briggs oil. Maybe its the zinc.
Honda is the only source I’ve seen:
That’s the first blend in that weight I’ve ever seen. Never knew they made it. I wonder who makes it for Honda.
Yep, we were in Michigan and I was down a quart of oil so I stopped at the Acura dealer for oil. He came out with the blended 0-20. I wanted the full syn since it was still on the original oil but he said that’s all they carried. Funny but I just used the full syn that I’d bought at Acura in Minneapolis and stowed the other quart. Then when I had the oil changed in Minneapolis, they gave me the blended stuff again for the same price as full syn so just do my own with Mobil 1. Same $8 price but one is blended and one is full. Can’t really say now if it came with blended or full from the factory and the manual is silent on it.
What get’s me with the Blend…Everything I’ve read says 0w-20 can’t be made with conventional motor oil. So how are they doing the blend? Blend is made by mixing Synthetic and Conventional oil together (usually a 80/20 mix with 80 being conventional). Are they using a different weight for the regular dyno oil? If so what weight are they using?
@Bing
Many manufacturers dummy down their more recent manuals and really don’t assume that customers are fully aware of what is a mineral oil and what is synthetic. For example; when Toyota says 0w-20, they MEAN full synthetic of that weight. When they say any other weight, it’s mineral oil and blended is treated the same way for interval changes. That’s the way Toyota talks; just ask any dealer or call any customer support. People who do their own oil changes should know what a recommendation like " use Toyota motor oil or equivalent " means in their manuals. All Toyota motor oils are branded that way and if a dealer uses an Equivalent motor oil of a different brand, 0w-20 WILL BE full synthetic and any other weight will be mineral oil.
Now, we can talk about oil companies possibly making 0w-20 weight in a blend till the cows come home; if you disregard the intent of the manufacturer in assuming that 0w-20 will be synthetic, you had better check with the maker before you use a blend in that weight as to what interval will be used. It WILL be the shorter interval as far as Toyota is concerned. If for for the sake of argument for example, a dealer used Castrol oil instead of. Toyota brand oil for their service, and Castrol marketed 0w-20 weight in a blend, the dealership WOULD NOT USE IT for their 10k interval change and the customer doing their own changes should not either if they wanted to comply with the warranty requirements.
So the manuals may not really be silent…they just maybe hard to understand for "Car guys " who care about details.
Ford also sells synthetic blended 0W20 motor oil under the Motorcraft name. Quaker State sells it too.
So how is it made? Anyone know?
While looking on line I came across this interesting post on speed talk. If you change your own oil and want to play with change intervals, this gives you real information to work with.