# 2018 Toyota Highlander- Early oil change **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** toyota\ **Created:** [December 3, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142 "2018-12-03T18:25:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darin45](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@Darin45](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Darin45)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/1 "2018-12-03T18:25:47Z")
Is it ok to change your oil the first time before the 10,000 mile mark? ---
**Author:** ![VOLVO-V70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8e8cbc/32.png) [@VOLVO-V70](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VOLVO-V70)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/2 "2018-12-03T18:41:59Z")
Yes, you can change it as often as you like ---
**Author:** ![Purebred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/purebred/32/46796_2.png) [@Purebred](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Purebred)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/3 "2018-12-03T20:16:12Z")
10000 is probably the absolute MAXIMUM you can go, chances are your oil life monitor will tell you to change it sooner. ---
**Author:** ![GorehamJ](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/gorehamj/32/24103_2.png) [@GorehamJ](https://community.cartalk.com/u/GorehamJ)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/4 "2018-12-04T17:40:04Z")
Yes. The idea of “Break-in Oil” has pretty much gone away in mainstream vehicles. [Here’s an old Tom and Ray summary on the topic.](https://www.cartalk.com/content/how-long-does-break-oil-need-stay-car) ---
**Author:** ![Scrapyard-John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Scrapyard-John](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Scrapyard-John)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 3:50am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/5 "2018-12-05T03:50:03Z")
Actually, there’s no oil life monitor on a Toyota (or there isn’t in my 2013 Highlander, there may be on new models). Oil changes are recommended at 10k miles with 0w20 synthetic in my case. I’m not sure if there’s a “severe service” schedule that outlines a shorter change interval. I change it at 5k and have done so since it was new. ---
**Author:** ![Purebred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/purebred/32/46796_2.png) [@Purebred](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Purebred)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/6 "2018-12-05T13:45:52Z")
Oops, I made an assumption. ---
**Author:** ![Scrapyard-John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Scrapyard-John](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Scrapyard-John)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/7 "2018-12-05T14:39:35Z")
To be honest, I found it odd there was no monitor. Just a change at 10k miles blanket recommendation. ---
**Author:** ![VOLVO-V70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8e8cbc/32.png) [@VOLVO-V70](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VOLVO-V70)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/8 "2018-12-05T14:45:15Z")
Not all vehicles have oil life monitors and it is not a blanket 10000 miles. It is x number of miles or x number of months . ---
**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/9 "2018-12-05T14:58:31Z")
The 2018 Highlander owners manual recommends oil changes every 12 months or 10,000 miles, whichever occurs first. That changes to 6mo/5,000 miles for: Driving while towing, using a car-top carrier, or heavy vehicle loading Repeated trips of less than five miles in temperatures below 32°F / 0°C Extensive idling and/or low speed driving for a long distance such as police, taxi or door-to-door delivery use ---
**Author:** ![MikeInNH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a587f6/32.png) [@MikeInNH](https://community.cartalk.com/u/MikeInNH)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/10 "2018-12-05T15:38:07Z")
> [@Scrapyard\_John](#): > > To be honest, I found it odd there was no monitor. Just a change at 10k miles blanket recommendation. There is no monitor…but every 5k miles the Service engine Soon light comes on. Toyota recommends rotating the tires every 5k miles, and oil changes every 10k miles. I’m not convinced that 10k oil changes will allow me to keep my vehicle past 300k miles (which is how long we normally keep our vehicles), so I’m sticking with the 5k oil change intervals. ---
**Author:** ![Scrapyard-John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Scrapyard-John](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Scrapyard-John)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/11 "2018-12-05T23:58:52Z")
Ah, you know what I meant. X miles and X months is still more blanket than an oil life monitor vs X months (generally 12). I just thought it odd no OLM when we bought the yota. Perhaps OLM’s are more of a domestic thing. ---
**Author:** ![Scrapyard-John](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Scrapyard-John](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Scrapyard-John)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2018-toyota-highlander-early-oil-change/130142/12 "2018-12-06T00:01:25Z")
Preaching to the choir. I change mine at 5k also. It might be a waste with synthetic, but I’d hate to regret the 10k mile interval in hindsight, should I follow the recommended interval and problems occur.