I’ve got a 2007 Toyota Sienna that takes the ‘paper’ oil filter; the kind where the metal housing is part of the car. I’m looking to run Mobil 1 so I can change the oil every 10-15K instead of every 3K. The issue is that there’s no corresponding oil filter made by Mobil 1, so I think I’d be in a situation where my oil has a life of 15K while my filter has a life of 3K. Thoughts?
You’re wasting your money using a synthetic oil unless you have a specific application in doing so.
If you look in your owners manual, the manufacturer of your vehicle specifies when the oil/filter should be serviced. But they make no distinction as to what type of oil is used. So, whether you use a synthetic oil or a regular oil, you change the oil/filter per the specification in the owners manual.
Tester
Agree with Tester, your manual rules here. There’s no such thing as a ‘extended life’ oil filter, anyway. Check and follow your manual, regardless of the type of oil.
What makes you think Mobil-1 has a life of 15K miles?? Change your oil as specified in your owners manual, not Exxon/Mobil’s advertising…
But if you fantasize about your oil, just fantasize about the filter too…
If you REALLY want to fantasize about oil & filters, there is a dedicated web-site for that…bobistheoilguy.com
So long as you are under warranty, you should follow the max oil change interval specified by Toyota. It appears Mobil 1 has a filter in the works for this vehicle. $18.49. Fram and Wix both make filters for your vehicle, at $9-11 dollars each. If you insist on extended oil change intervals, some folks change the filter half way through the oil life.
On the other hand, the Wix filter comes with a one year, no mileage limited warranty, if purchased from O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Does the owner’s manual say to change the oil every 3K? Somehow I suspect they are saying more like 6K, unless you have one of the sludge engines. In any case it is likely their recommended oil change is based on synthetic oil.
BTW I have never seen a oil filter for synthetic oil. The Mobil oil filter is nothing special. A good filter but not special, I suspect the parts store can find you other over the counter filters that will work as well.
The service interval on my wife’s 2006 Sienna is 5k miles. Older Toyotas had a 7500k mile interval, I’m guessing this contributed to the V6 sludging problems. I get the oil and filter changed every 4k out of habit. Synthetic or not, I wouldn’t exceed the 5k interval.
Ed B.
The purpose of an oil filter is to trap the particulates that the detergent oil holds in suspension. I don’t think that the type of oil, synthetic or regular, makes any difference–both oils hold these particles in suspension. Therefore, I can’t see why one would need a different filter for synthetic oil as opposed to non-synthetic oil.
Over the years, different things have been tried for oil filters. I remember the porous bronze filters that were advertised in Popular Mechanics and other publications in the 1950’s that were supposedly more effective than an ordinary filter. The reason given for why manufacturers didn’t equip all cars with these filters is that the oil would remain so clean that the engine would never “break in”. About a decade ago, we heard about using toilet paper oil filters. My understanding was that one wasn’t to use colored toilet paper if one used the Royal Triton oil which contained a purple dye. The resulting color might be terrible.
The late Tom McCahill advised against using detergent oil. He thought that the non detergent oil was better because the particulates would settle out and build up a crust in the oil pan just as you get a crust formed in a pipe when you smoke it. If you use non-detergent oil you probably don’t even need an oil filter. If you are going to do this, you will need to get an old flathead 6 engine from the 1950’s to install in your Sienna.
What I am trying to tell you is to stick with the manufacturer’s recommendations as other posts suggest. Stretching oil changes to save a few cents is penny wise and pound foolish. I’ve seen engines sludge up in the 1950’s and the oil wouldn’t get to the rocker arms in the overhead valve engines. The problem today would be much more costly to repair.
Thanks for all the advice folks. So to summarize the comments, most folks seem to think that pushing the limit to 15K between oil changes isn’t wise. Also, everyone seems to think that (synthetic or not) I should just stick to the manual’s recommendation. Need to look it up but I think the interval is 5K.
I found this on Mobil 1’s website and found it interesting:
Myth: Mobil 1 and Mobil 1 Extended Performance require a special oil filter.
Reality: While ExxonMobil recommends that you use a high-quality filter, you can use the same type of oil filter that you would normally use with conventional oil. ExxonMobil does offer a very high-quality oil filter that is a perfect companion to Mobil 1. The Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil Filter contains synthetic blend filter media instead of the typical cellulose filter media. With a 99.2 percent efficiency rating (under SAE J1858 Multi-Pass Efficiency Test), the Mobil 1 filter is much more efficient than a typical oil filter. Its new high-capacity design stores more contaminants (two times the capacity of the leading brand).
I also found this on the Mobil 1 website with regard to pushing the oil change interval to every 15K:
To validate the protection offered by Mobil 1 Extended Performance, we used Las Vegas taxis and pushed their engines over 130,000 miles only changing their oil every 15,000 miles. The results were that engine parts showed almost no visible wear, proving that Mobil 1 Extended Performance will help keep your engine running at optimal conditions cleaner and longer during extended oil intervals.
Good info. This points out our problem as ‘contributors’ - I won’t recommend somebody else try something unusual if the usual route has proved effective. Might you be OK with 15k changes with Mobil1 and their filter? Maybe, but I know you’ll be OK following the manual. On top of that, you have a Sienna, and the Toyota V6 has had some oil problems in the past, another reason I wouldn’t recommend pushing the interval. The small $$ just don’t justify it.
…especially since a 15k oil change interval will void the Toyota warranty.
My thought is that changing oil/filter every 5K is cheap insurance. why experiment?
The oil filter will last as long as the oil. In a modern engine, the only real source of contamination for the oil is the oil itself. Fuel injected engines running properly have almost no “gas wash-down” and with modern air filtration, outside contaminants can’t get in.
Since the Mobil 1 breaks down more slowly that regular oil, the filter has less to do, so it lasts longer. Using Mobil 1 in a Toyota V6 is a good idea because of the sludging problem, but I’d be leery of going much over 10k, maybe 7500 would be better. But regular oil should be OK for 5k.
As for testing on Las Vegas taxi cabs. While any city taxi does a lot of stop and go driving, they are not shut down hot very often. When you shut down after driving, oil stops flowing and a thin film of oil is left on hot parts of the engine. As the engine cools, the oil has to absorb all the residual heat, so that thin film breaks down. At start up, this gets flushed away and mixes with the rest of the oil. Over time the oil slowly darkens due to this contamination. This contamination is microscopic so it slips through the oil filter. Anyway, as impressive as the taxi test sounds, its not really as hard on the oil, mile for mile, as a family car or “daily driver”.
BTW, less of the synthetic oil breaks down during the cool down, thats why it lasts longer.
Quote: The results were that engine parts showed almost no visible wear, proving that Mobil 1 Extended Performance will help keep your engine running at optimal conditions cleaner and longer during extended oil intervals. Unquote
This sounds like ad copy stuff.
Visible to a person using measuring instruments I assume? What does “almost” mean? You could drive a truck through that.
An oil filter doesn’t have to do much, so don’t let it bother you. You can change it at 3,000 or whenever without draining any oil. Don’t try to save money on everything on a car. Cheat a little here or a little there but not a lot everywhere.
I agree. Never exceed the recommended oil change interval, even if the car originally called for conventional oils and now you are using synthetic. There are more factors than synthetic vs conventional that influence when oil should be changed.
Some of the replies in this thread recommend that the OP uses synthetic in his 2007 Toyota due to Toyota’s engine sludge problems.
Toyota’s engine design that caused the oil to overheat and turn to sludge was corrected in their 2003 engines.
Since the Mobil 1 breaks down more slowly that regular oil, the filter has less to do, so it lasts longer. Using Mobil 1 in a Toyota V6 is a good idea because of the sludging problem, but I’d be leery of going much over 10k, maybe 7500 would be better. But regular oil should be OK for 5k.
The sludging problem was resolved 5-6 years ago in the 3.0 V6. Not an issue today.
Sounds like you have the same engine as my wifes Lexus ES-350. I’ve changed the oil several times already…using Fram, Wix and Toyota/Lexus filters…Since there is no canister…all you see is the paper element. No matter what filter I used they were all identical…I don’t think anyone could tell them apart if they were side by side.
So synthetic oil doesn’t do anything? Oh, I guess that’s right. That’s why they use standard oil in all those race cars, right?
Sorry, here is one who doesn’t buy this nonsense.