AndersBr

Anybody ever heard of any problems with following the recommended maintenance with an interval of 7500 Miles for Oil Changes?

1999 Tacoma PreRunner

Thanks
Bradley

Yoda

Hi Bradley,
Welcome to the forum!

As for your interval, first what kind of driving does the rig get. Stop and go, long trips, short trips, dusty roads????

It seems the manufactures all say you can go the extended interval if you start it and drive 7000 miles without stopping .
But seriously, if you drive like most, the 3500 mile is the way to go. If you use a synthetic oil you could go extended.

What part of IA are you in? My ancestors lived in West Union, Fayette Co., during the time of the civil war. 4 of 5 sons fought, one did not return (died Pea Ridge, Arkansas), the other was too young.

David

AndersBr

The extended interval makes sense to me. Why should modern cars get serviced as often as cars from 20 years ago? Micro-Finishing within the engine, tighter manufacturing tolerances, etc. all contribute to why one would not need to change the oil as often.

I have always followed the manual and never had a problem. I check the oil every 1000 miles and its always full and clean looking.

I am from SE Iowa Lee County.

Thanks
Bradley

Mohamed

Personally I stick to the mechanics rule of 3500 miles every oil change. Call me old fashion, but that's me...

data

yeah same here. synthetic or not I usually change it every 3000 miles.

jx94148

I change my oil..... when it looks dirty. When I was running Quaker State conventional oil and Fram filters (the worst out there) it would get dirty at between 2500 and 3000 miles. Now i'm on my 2nd batch of synth and Purolator Pure1 filter and its not very dirty at 5000. I changed out the first batch of Mobil 1 full synth 10w30 at 5500 miles, just because I thought it was time, and it still had some golden color to it. I currently have Havoline 5w30 full synth in there with approx. 4500 miles on it and its still very clean looking.

A quality filter has as much to do with extended oil changes as the oil does. Most swear by Genuine Toyota filters, for me Purolator is good enough. Here'a an interesting study on filters. . Read that and you'll know why I quit using Fram filters.

BTW Mobil 1 full synth, $5 per quart. Havoline full synth $3.79 per quart.

Ron(Fla)

Free Dealer oil changes at ~4K miles (3.5K-4.5K). Since I use Syn I have to pay the difference.

Mohamed

what I got when I clicked on the link:

Sorry, but due to high network traffic, poor system administration, phase of the moon, evil spells, the Enron scandal, terrorist attacks, lack of bandwidth, "W" Bush and other random phenomena, the page you are trying to access is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

lol...

jx94148

Sorry, Try this one. Or try the other one later. It does that from time to time when lots of people are trying to view it.

Both are working fine for me at the moment.

the_supernerd

I once heard that a lubrication component in the oil eventually gets depleted whether the oil is clean or dirty. I do not remember where I heard this though, so I am not sure if it is true or not. I do know that oil will start to sludge up if left in there too long.

Mohamed

Really? See if you can find this article? I am interested in finding out this "lubrication component", I mean thinking from a scentific standpoint, oil is a lipid (or fat), it's the same principle like soap. it has a cleaning component (something to do with the fatty acid) and since it is non-polar or hydrophobic (non-water binding) it gives it the slippery feel. I don't get how a lubrication component can get depleted. The dirt and other stuff in the oil maybe binds in so that those contaminates cover the non-polar areas. But I am curious though. That's why in class we learned oil has three principles, it lubricates, cleans, and seals (i think the seals aspect comes from the fact the oil binds to parts and expands).

the_supernerd

I don't think I read it in an article. I think I heard it from someone (I think it may have been a mechanic). If it does not make sense then it probably is untrue. I do remember from chemistry that bonds (bonds in the oil)will hook themselves to other bonds (contaminants in the oil) just like you said, so that may be what I heard.

cpw2002

Hey guys at cartalk.com there is an
article I found when the engine sludge
topic came up before.

I am not able to post the link but it is
listed under the index of advise and then car adviser.

It gives complete details on why,
when and how.

If you can't find it let me know and I can
forward it to someone.

cpw

AndersBr

I heard of Toyota having a problem on a few Camry's with Sludge. I do know that Honda is coming out with a new hydrogen fueled car called FCX. It has 10,000 mile oil intervals. Avalon's have 10,000 mile intervals too.

Bradley