How often should you change oil in a 2005 Toyota if you only drive approximately 1000 miles per year?
Your owner’s manual will have a schedule that will say X,000 miles or X months, whichever comes first. Follow that.
Click that “Search” button at the top of this page and put in “Oil change” You will find your answer. This topic has been discussed at length.
transman
As far as I know, the oil change schedule for your car, as per the people who made it, is “every six months or 5,000 miles, whichever comes first”. At least that is the schedule for Toyota products manufactured over the past 4 years or so.
The ultimate authority is sitting in your glove compartment, possibly still in its original plastic wrapper. Take out the Owner’s Manual, find the Toyota Maintenance Schedule, and see what it advises you to do regarding frequency of oil changes. It will probably say, “every six months or 5,000 miles, whichever comes first”, but you will only know if you actually read what the car’s manufacturer had to say on this topic.
While the recommendation is a static one (5k/5m) it’s under the assumption of daily driving. For example some garage queen Corvette that only sees long trip Sunday drives doesn’t need to change its oil annually. Most do, but it’s not required.
So, if your 1000 miles is composed of .25 (1/4) mile events year round in a 4 season climate, absolutely. If it’s 20 events of driving 50 miles each time, in southern California/AZ/FL/TX, one year would probably be overkill.
“should” ? Oil is cheap insurance…you could get away with once a year…have a 2005 RAV/ 6,000 miles per year and usually change oil once with annual inspection…doing this for 5 years. never needs oil between changes.
At least once per year. Twice per year is optimal.