I did on the RAV4 and will do the same with the Venza. Lots of opinions on yes or no but it can't hurt to get it changed early.

 

Lots of opinions for sure, but I would change it now if the car's a keeper. If you're trading it in 3-5 years later, I wouldn't bother.

 

Those 10k mile oil changes I hear is very hard on the engine. Oil comes out dark and nasty looking. So the way I see it even if you plan on trading it in 3-5 years down the road might as well plan as if your keeping the car longer. Oil changes are cheap. You never know things could change in 5 years unforeseen financial situations so better safe then sorry and just do 5k mile oil changes to keep the engine's longevity in top health.

 

The rational behind 1st oil change before 10k miles is to get rid of all the metal debris as the engine breaks in.

Some people do the 1st oil change after a few hundred miles, by 1k miles at the longest.
Some do the above and a second by 5k miles, an additional 4k miles.
I will be doing this, when my R4P arrives.

Then they stick w/ the 10k OCI at the longest, or just do 7.5k miles.

 

The dealer I bought my Venza from did not change the oil at the 5,000 maintenance appointment. Said they only do it every 10,000 miles.

 

10k or 12 months is the normal operation change frequency for synthetic oil in Toyotas, see the maintenance and warranty guide.

https://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms-s/T-MMS-21VenzaHV/pdf/T-MMS-21VenzaHV.pdf

 

I was told my dealer won't change the oil at 5K. I have a filter and the tool to remove the filter housing. 0W-16 is what will be going in. I was told I can get the oil changed at 8K if I want. I like Castrol not sure what Toyota uses.

 

I’ll likely do mine very soon as I’ve just racked up 4K miles. So if I do that oil/filter now I can have Toyota do their “recommended OCI” at 10K. So I’ll incur the added cost of these halfway OCI’s knowing I’ll be keeping the Venza after the 3 year lease is up. I’ll source the oil and filters in bulk likely from Toyota online if I cannot get a competitive price from my local dealer. A service book is another purchase if I’m to do routine maintenance, but I’ll force the issue and just tell them to change it regardless of their recommendations. If I’m paying $40-50. what can they say? No??? I doubt it.😏

 

The most important oil change any car gets is its first. It removes abrasive bits of metal that come from the process of breaking in the engine. Leaving oil with abrasives in your engine for 10,000 miles is simply bad. At 5,000 miles my oil was also horrendously black due to the effect of cold operating temperatures in Alaska during December and January. Toyota knows this: It says in their manual (see the quoted page in post #8 above) that the oil should be changed at 5,000 miles if your driving includes short trips below 32 degrees. Up here that is a given.

This is two strikes against Toyota: First they cheaped out by fitting the Venza with the nation's lowest-rated all-season tires (per TireRack consumer reviews) which were totally unacceptable for winter driving. Second, they cheaped out again by not providing an oil change at 5,000 miles in Alaskan winter driving. They need to provide that oil change at 5,000 miles and - if they still want to be cheapskates with their 25K free maintenance - skip the one at 10,000 miles and start the 10,000 mile interval at 15,000 on the odometer.

The bean counters at Toyota need to rethink this as this has caused me to find oil and tire service elsewhere which I am using between 10K intervals - and which I will continue to use after my 25K free maintenance has expired. Are you listening Toyota?

 

The Maintenance/Warranty manual contains a maintenance log to be stamped by the Toyota dealer when maintenance is done. Notice the”special operating conditions which indicates a 5000 mile oil change at your expense. The relevant p. 38 is this:

 

Something to think about on these hybrids/Primes (I have the 2020 Prius Prime):

If you are running hybrid then the electric engine is the only thing on for a portion of the mileage - the combustion engine is not running (unless it is running dual). On the plug in Primes you can run 5,000 miles without ever using the combustion engine depending on where/how you drive and plug it in every night. Point is, ODO mileage on hybrids/Primes is not as telling as it once was. You may drive 10,000 miles and still only put 5,000 miles or whatever on the combustion engine. So if the combustion engine is essentially the same Toyota engine, and if you can go 10,000 miles on it, then in a hybrid you could exceed 10,000 miles on the ODO and still be under 10k miles on that engine...

The weirdest moment I had changing oil was on my Prime after driving it around the city (EV mode only) and cracking the pan to have cold oil come out. Made my brain skip a beat wondering "WTF!!!" until I snapped that I had been EV only all day.

 

The 2021 Venza Hybrid does not have a plug-in option, so the internal combustion needs to run frequently to charge the battery. I've noticed the engine on my Venza is frequently short-cycling, coming on for a few short seconds or minutes, then shutting off, just to do it all again in a matter of another few seconds or minutes. It's always been my understanding that short cycling is not good for an internal combustion because it doesn't get hot enough to fully evaporate moisture that inevitably accumulates in the oil in the crankcase. If my assumption is correct it would be best to change the oil and filter on a much more frequent schedule. I'd like to read more opinions on this subject.

 

The free service by Toyota requires they be done every 6 months or 5000 miles, whichever comes first. If you are too late, the free service is terminated. So I have now got 6000 miles and 1 year on my Venza and already have had the 5000 and 10,000 mile services. I arbitrarily changed the oil at the first service, at about 2500 miles and 6 months, which I paid for, myself, just because I felt the new car engine might grind some chaff into the oil. Toyota pooh-poohed my worries but still insisted later on that I do the second (free) oil change at 6 mos (and only 6000 miles) to keep the free service going, even though Toyota says the oil I put in at 6 mos is good for a year and/or 10,000 miles.

 

I’m not sure when I’ll do my first oil change, maybe 1,000. Then I’m going to go in to get my tires rotated at that 6 months or 5,000 mark. At this point I will change my oil myself. Then bring it in at 10,000 have them do it and I will at 15k. Think I will do this going forward. My dealer gave me 5 years of oil changes but follows the 10k rule. I’ll be using Pennzoil Platinum when I do it and Toyota oil is Mobil (not Mobil-1) so should be a good marriage.
i have looked over those oil analysis reports and oil might look bad at 10k but I bet they would say it still is working though I don’t want to chance it.

 

A cautionary note: use 0W16 synthetic oil: see this video :

at 6:25 min.

 

According to the Car Care Nut, despite Toyota’s suggested change of synthetic oil every 10K miles, don’t do that. First caution is to observe length of time, which often comes up before mileage. Second caution is not to go past 5K miles in the interest of longevity. Here is the link, go to 2:30 min point:

 

It’s your car and money, so you can decide how to maintain it

just got the 5000 mile service done and told the dealership to change the oil and filter at my cost, which the service writer was cool and gave me $10 off, so the change was $60 instead of $70

 

I DIY on basic maintenance items.
Was $30 on the Corolla, but the Toyota 0w16 is $45 for a 6-pack, so it's $50.
$60 is a pretty decent deal... problem in my area is you need to schedule an appointment, then it's still a 4-hour ordeal. Just too many people in California.
I can do the full 5k/10k service in 30 minutes on my own schedule.

 

I did my first on my Avalon at 4400, I'll send a sample to Blackstone at 10,000 on the next oil change and see how the 0w16 does.
The results of that analysis will tell me whether to change again at 15,000 or continue with the recommended 10k intervals. I do 25,000 per year, so on 5k oil changes I'd be doing them every 2 months. My '16 Corolla got changed at 10k and it was fine at 120k... no oil consumption issues or noises. The 0w16 makes me a bit more cautious.

Wife's new Venza? She doesn't drive a lot, so like her '15 Rav4, it'll probably get an oil change once a year whether it needs it or not, as she typically doesn't drive 5k in a year.

 

I was thinking more about this yesterday on why the 10k in the manual and I thought that if you had a Venza and a 2nd gas SUV drive side by side on the same trips. In the end after 10k miles the gas one would be worked a lot but what percentage of the Venza engine was not actually running? How many actual miles are on the engine when you factor the battery in play? I’m thinking 10k mile change is technically a lot less then what is on paper if you follow me. I’m still going to stick what I said. I’ll follow the manual with the dealer and do it myself in between.

 

Bingo.
I'm getting 47+ out of my Avalon.
A non-hybrid isn't a fair comparison because it's a V6 rated at 22/32, but the Camry, which is only a little lighter/smaller is rated at 28/39, so it's pretty safe to say that the ICE is not running at least 30% of the time, and when it is running, it is primarily charging the batteries, and augmenting the MG2 when at higher speeds, so it's not under heavy acceleration loads.
Particularly in heavy stop and go traffic, I won't see the ICE start for 5-10 miles.

 

Do yourself a favor and change your oil every 5,000 miles. It is cheap assurance that you will get long life from your engine.

 

For the first oil change, I can't argue with going early. There's more pros than cons. But it stops there. On my last hybrid, I used Blackstone Labs for several samples in a row. They told me I could go 25,000 miles! Ya really! They have no dog in this fight thus no reason to be deceptive. The longest oil they actually tested for me was oil at 22,000 miles and they said "good for about 3,000 more"...... well not wanted to press my luck, nor spend more on testing or oil samples than necessary, I did oil changes every 15,000 for 259,000 miles. Car was running like a champ at 14 years old, nothing replaced other than tires, and I would still be using it today had it not been rear ended.
It's all true. Hybrids run less hours per week (zero idle unless you are in cold climate) and the hours they do run are at low torque and low load. The electrics provide most of the torque, the engine just cruises. Literally and figuratively. Hybrid ICE's are babied their whole lives. Save the planet. Save money. Save oil. Change at 10k. No sooner (than the first). The rest is the same as filling with Premium Gas. It's something that costs extra and is something your car doesn't need.

 

... last hybrid, I used Blackstone Labs for several samples in a row. They told me I could go 25,000 miles! Ya really!

Impressive! Proof is in the pudding. What hybrid did you do this testing on?

Only caveat is, Warranty. Bypassing Toyota's 12mo/10k mile Oil Change Interval (OCI), one runs the risk of getting anything powertrain warranty claims, and possibly hybrid warranty claims, denied. After the powertrain warranty is over, one can go for the true long duration OCI.

 

@gpsman ,
Good to know about Warranty. Didn't know burden of proof on dealer/manufacture. They would have a hard time refuting Blackstone Labs (respected and probably accredited too).

We're any of the seven UOA (Used Oil Analysis) done when you towed? If so, dang impressive how well/lightly used the oil was.

Forgot to ask, your UOA samples was about how many months of service? I get the feeling yoibput a ton of miles on per year.

 

Ya at the time I was going 18k to 22k per year.

 

Nice. You have verified multiple UOA, to soundly justify ONCE a year HIGH MILEAGE oil changes.
12month/25,000 miles; 15k miles more than Toyota's 10k miles.

 

Yes. I was about to say that. TBN or total base number is an important aspect to look at. Since there are normally almost no metals or water or salts or silica (as it should be) your base number is really what tells you when your oil is "worn out" under normal operating conditions. Base number will go down with age, this is why they say "once a year or 10,000 miles" and not just "every 10,000 miles".

 

I looked up an old report from 2012.
Ford Escape Hybrid 2.3L I4 engine
Used Mobil 1 0w20.

17,555 miles on the oil
Miles on car: 134,255

TBN was 2.6 (Should be 1.0 or greater.)
Viscosity was 53.7 at 210'F. (Should be 46-56)
Flashpoint 395 'F (should be 395'F)
Fuel below 0.5% (should be below 2%)
Water 0
Antifreeze 0
Insolubles 0.2 (should be below 0.6)

 

I change the oil myself every 5,000 miles. It is inexpensive to do, and I find the process cathartic.
I bought 0w-16 from Amazon for $70 for 3 5-qt jugs, so oil costs are only $23.33 per oil change. The filter itself is exceedingly cost effective - less than $4 per filter from Fred Anderson.

I suck all the oil up with a vacuum pump to make things clean and tidy.

 

Certainly looks safer than driving a nearly 2 ton vehicle with 19 inch wheels up on skinny tire ramps! Sorry for the question, but....how do you connect your vacuum pump to the dipstick tube?

 

I get it. I used to be like that. My 1988 dodge truck got new oil every 3,000 miles. Was fun. Working on the car is like a hobby. That was then. This is now. At age 50 I realized I wasn't going to live forever and wanted to do other things with my time. The car really can go 10,000 miles or more. Plus there are the environmental concerns. My other car is a Chevy Bolt EV. No oil changes at all. In the Venza I will probably do the oil change at 5000 on my own. Then have Toyota do the first free one at 15,000 and the second free one at 25,000.

 

@gpsman, I am your same age.

 

And then there is the time factor and how you drive. it's not always about the miles. Especially in a hybrid. For a 5 year stretch I was driving 1000 miles per week. One oil change every 5 weeks would have been over the top excessive. Every 10 weeks a tad much as well. Back in those days I would go 16 weeks, 16,000 miles or so. Used oil (example above) was always A-ok so I had data to back it up.

 

Ooooooffff. Changing your own oil that frequently is no fun.

I only do 10K miles per year, and I’m in Northern California, so changing the oil myself and enjoying nice sunny 75F weather while doing it 2x a year is still a pleasure, not a chore for me.

 

Did mine at 1k. Will do it again at 6, 11 and evermore.

 

I have about 2600 miles on my 22 Venza, and have decided to do a DIY oil change to get rid of the break in oil. I think I'll do it at 4K. I got 6 quart bottles of Toyota 0W-16 on Amazon, and a Wix oil filter. There is a youtube video of a certified Toyota technician recommending to NOT wait for 10K to do the first change, due to small metal particles from break in, most being caught in the filter. Also, he said in the video that if your hybrid is a keeper, change the oil every 5K for the longest engine life. Like a lot of veteran mechanics, even with synthetic oils being so much improved, he feels 10K is too long. That 2.5L 4 cylinder works hard and oil changes are the life blood.