I have a 2001 Prius and now that I am working from home several days a week, I am nowhere near the miles on the oil change sticker when I get to the date on the sticker.
One person go with the date as the oil will get “stale”. Someone else said go with the miles.
Which is it? Miles or the date?
Open your glove compartment, and take out the Owner’s Manual.
It will contain the official Toyota Maintenance Schedule.
You will note that all maintenance procedures have both an odometer mileage value and an elapsed time value, with the proviso, “whichever comes first”. For instance, on more recently-manufactured Toyotas, I believe that the interval is expressed as 5,000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first.
In your maintenance schedule, there could be different intervals listed.
So, in answer to your question, “Which is it, miles or date?”, the answer is:
Both
In your case, it would be done on the basis of date (elapsed time).
In the case of someone who does a lot of driving, it would be done on the basis of odometer miles.
I don’t know if this is right but on my low mileage situation I consider spring and fall the minimum intervals.
Are these “persons” engineers working for Toyota who work on engine design? I suspect not. Would, as was suggested, your owner’s manual be written by them? Are you qualified to vote?
PS, what I said was not nice but sometimes I feel worried about things.
Ignore the ‘sticker’ they put on, it’s amost always quicker than the manual states. Go by the miles/time requirements listed in the manual.
The real answer is whichever first.
The sticker is usually far below the real time that is listed in your owner/mantenance manual.
In your situation I typically use twice a year when I worked 100% telecommuting.