10K OCI Really??

[The Shape]

We bought a 2011 I4 Camry for my wife. She is set on sticking with the recommended 10K OCI. I am a little nervous about going that long. Maybe I am just old LOL. It took me a long while to accept the 5K OCI on my Tacoma. Is any one else nervous about going this long??? Car has 5600 miles now and the oil is just a golden brown.

[Yuko]

Same thing here. The dealership told me I can run 10K on full synthetic and 5K on a blend. I feel a bit uncomfortable with it thou. In the maintenance guide book (I have the 2012, but it's the same engine) it reads 5K for severe driving and idling and 10K for normal. If Toyota says it's okay, then it should be fine.

[GeeEssVee]

Wow i could barely get over the fact that mine is recommended to be changed every 5k, but TEN!?!?!?!? i am not comfortable with that at all.

Even if Toyota says its ok, you'd probably be safer servicing every 5k. Your transmission will surely thank you.

[Zembonez]

My company car (Ford Taurus) is on a 10K OCI running mobil1. Oil looks about as good coming out as it does going in. I'm at 51K now and still near zero oil usage between changes. It barely moves on the dipstick at all.

My 2010 Accord is on the 7500 mile OCI

My Truck is still being changed at 5000 (about once a year).

Full synthetic in all of them. The only thing I have dino oil in is my Miata.

[JohnGD]

Do a change at the end of the next 5000 miles, and send an oil sample to Blackstone labs for analysis. They'll recommend an OCI based on your specific engine and driving pattern. Might want to spend the extra $10 for Total Base Number (TBN) to see if the oil has any life as far as alkalinity goes that helps to neutralize the acid in the oil.

Order a free test kit (collection cup) and decide if you want to use it:
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free-test-kits.php

If the car is a keeper maybe just go with 5000 miles. Most driver under the severe service category anyway.

[sixsix]

I did the first oil change on my '11 the other day, it was at 10k miles. I did the 10k in just under 6months and refilled it with amsoil 0w-20 and an amsoil filter and I'm not worried at all about the 10k oci's. For the next one I'm gonna grab a sample at 7500 or so and get it tested, should be able to get more than 10k out of the amsoil with how much I drive(all interstate, no stop and go) which is not hard on the oil at all. I wented to test the toyota oil that came out but my oil test kit took to long to come in and I had to change it. Oh and it never burned a drop of oil.

[touringcamry]

Originally Posted by Zembonez

My company car (Ford Taurus) is on a 10K OCI running mobil1. Oil looks about as good coming out as it does going in. I'm at 51K now and still near zero oil usage between changes. It barely moves on the dipstick at all.

My 2010 Accord is on the 7500 mile OCI

My Truck is still being changed at 5000 (about once a year).

Full synthetic in all of them. The only thing I have dino oil in is my Miata.

Used oil that looks the same as new is not necessarily a good thing because it can mean that the oil isn't doing a good job of absorbing and suspending crud. This probably is not a concern with Mobil 1 synthetic though.

At least in teh past, there were some cheap oils that didn't work well at all that will kill an engine over time because dirt gets left in the engine rather than coming out with the oil. Because of that, some people thought the oil was awesome because it didn't look especially dark coming out.

[touringcamry]

How much oil do the 2011 and 2012s take? Is it still 4.5 quarts? I mean if the oil capacity has increased, then going further between oil changes should not be an issue because there is more oil and detergents in the system meaning longer possible duty cycle.

[AML]

Toyota 0W-20 full synthetic is a very good oil. Lots of molybdenum compared to other synthetics. I recently switched over to 0W-20 from 5W-30 the dealer's basic synthetic blend. I have no issue running 10k OCIs.

My Mercedes ran 10-13k mile OCIs and never used a drop of oil in its lifetime. All of my vehicles now run either synthetic blends at 5k OCI, or full synthetic at 10k+ OCI. BMWs and Porsches have called for 15k intervals.

[The Shape]

The car sees about 25 miles of interstate 5 days a week as well as in town stop and go. Then atleast once a month it usualy gets a good 90 or so mile interstate trip. Our last car was a Yaris I did 5K changes on it myself and it was flawless. I want this one to last a long long time, I may go with 7500 to split the difference. I want to take advantage of the free oil changes from Toyota because frankly even though I have done all my own oil changes for years I am a little intimidated by this new filter setup and will probably just let the dealer take care of all the oil changes.

[Zembonez]

Originally Posted by touringcamry

Used oil that looks the same as new is not necessarily a good thing because it can mean that the oil isn't doing a good job of absorbing and suspending crud. This probably is not a concern with Mobil 1 synthetic though.

At least in teh past, there were some cheap oils that didn't work well at all that will kill an engine over time because dirt gets left in the engine rather than coming out with the oil. Because of that, some people thought the oil was awesome because it didn't look especially dark coming out.

I basically agree. Blackstone has done one analysis on my truck which came back extremely favorable using Amsoil full synthetic. The Honda is using the Honda recommended interval but I use synthetic as well for maximum protection.

The company sled gets Mobil1 at 10K. I'll send off a sample and see how it's performing.

[touringcamry]

Originally Posted by AML

Toyota 0W-20 full synthetic is a very good oil. Lots of molybdenum compared to other synthetics. I recently switched over to 0W-20 from 5W-30 the dealer's basic synthetic blend. I have no issue running 10k OCIs.

My Mercedes ran 10-13k mile OCIs and never used a drop of oil in its lifetime. All of my vehicles now run either synthetic blends at 5k OCI, or full synthetic at 10k+ OCI. BMWs and Porsches have called for 15k intervals.

How much oil did your Mercedes take though? My friend's BMW 3.0L took 7 or 8 quarts which is part of the reason the car can go 15k miles for OCI.

Some truck engines recommend over 30000 mile OCI, but they probably have several gallons of oil.

[AML]

Originally Posted by touringcamry

How much oil did your Mercedes take though? My friend's BMW 3.0L took 7 or 8 quarts which is part of the reason the car can go 15k miles for OCI.

Some truck engines recommend over 30000 mile OCI, but they probably have several gallons of oil.

The Mercedes took 8.5 quarts. However all of my other vehicles have taken about 4.5-5.5 quarts. I use quality synthetic oils and I buy a good oil filter. You cannot forget to use a quality oil filter if you're going for long intervals.

The limitations these days aren't the oils, it's whether or not the engine works well enough with the oil to maintain extended intervals. Most of the time, it is. Most of the UOA I've seen for the Mobil1 full synthetics have given the oil a "life" of about 20k+ miles....even longer for most Amsoil weights.

[isrb710]

I just switched all 4 of my cars to a 10K OCI interval using full synthetic. My vehicles are all high miles (97K to 158K), so I use 10W30 and a good oil filter (M1 extended performance or Bosch Distance Plus).

With my cars, I have to top off the oil at about 5,000 miles - between 1/4 and 1/2 quart so far.

A member on my 300M website sent his oil to Blackstone for 2 cars over an extended period and he's comfortable going 12K. I'm choosing 10K just to make it easier to track when to change the oil.

[sljorge]

I use full synthetic 5W-30, change filter only at 5k and oil and filter again at 10k.