Oil change

how often should one change oil in 1994 Toyota Corolla

4-5K mileage interval worked for me when I owned one.

1994? Every 3,000 miles or what’s recommended in the owners’ manual.

Please describe your typical driving pattern:

Primarily low-speed, local with a lot of short trips?
Primarily highway?
Mixed local and highway?

How many miles do you usually drive each month?

Only by knowing the answers to these questions can we give you a really good answer.

The owner’s manual may have recommended 7500 miles in those days (too long), and subsequently Toyota reduced that to 5000 miles (standard for all their vehicles now) because of too many sludged up engines. If I owned a 94 Toyota I would go 3000 miles for mainly city driving and 5000 miles with mostly commuter and freeway.

Car has only 88,000 original miles. Mostly city driving with occasional freeways. Average 8,000 miles a year.

In that case 3000 miles is your best interval. City driving with short trips is very hard on oil, especially if the car never really warms up. The best thing you can do for your car is to take it on a fast freeway trip of 20 miles each weekend. Cars are a lot like people; without some good excercise they get bunged up and out of shape!

The owner’s manual may have recommended 7500 miles in those days (too long)

My 98 Pathfinders and my wifes Accords had that 7500 mile interval…HOWEVER for extreme driving they recommended every 3000 miles…Then you read the definition of extreme driving…which was ANYTHING that wasn’t a constant 40mph for no more then 30 minutes a day.