first oil change at 3000 miles on a new Tundra?

I am surprised that it even needs a change at 3000 miles. Most Toyota engines sold in Europe, and that includes many also sold in the USA, now have their first oil change scheduled for 10,000 miles. Many other manufacturers now have their first oil change scheduled for 15000 miles or more. Yes, you read it right, fifteen thousand miles and in some cases

OTOH it is silly to say "drive the hell out of it". Never do that unless there is a *very* good reason to do so. Always drive with some mechanical sympathy.

Huw

This is for sales not because it is the best for the engine, Rmemebr that they want you to buy a new truck and even if you change it every

I know of a few that have now exceeded 200,000 miles at 20,000 mile service intervals. Remember that these engines are superior design and quality engines using better oils and your Toyota may not qualify. There are no issues with Toyota at 10,000 mile schedules in Europe. Follow the guidelines set out in the official service schedule. American sold engines from International manufacturers have their service schedules sharply increased in density due to the mindset there as exemplified above in your post. Far easier and more profitable for the manufacturer to specify an oil change every 3000 miles as the customer is brainwashed to accept this and suspect an ulterior motive for reduced maintenance schedules.

VW started offering extended service schedules with no early first change but found that many idiots were still changing oil at the first 500 miles causing the cylinders to glaze. They gave up in the end and reduced their intervals and gave a first service at something like 2500 miles which was just about acceptable to their customers and gave a reasonable chance of a successful running-in. This was far easier than trying to educate 3000 mile 'ostriches'.

Basically, quality engines do need to be run-in reasonable hard and with no initial oil change to give of their best.

Huw

Huw. You've not kept up with Toyota 'here.' Due in part not only to Toyota's V6 sludging experience but also Chrysler's and VW's similar experience with longer service intervals, Toyota has shortened up their service intervals to 5,000 miles and installed in-dash oil service reminder devices.

However, when they print out the little reminder that goes on the inside of your windshield, the next oil change is due at 3500 miles.

"They" is your dealership ... not Toyota.

The psychology is to state 3,500 which in actuality brings in the vehicle by about 5,000. The problem with the 7,500 mile interval is that people would show up by 9,000.

VW have had no such issues. Their issue was of people changing the initial fill of oil too soon. Mercedes and BMW persist in the longer service intervals as do all manufacturers in more enlightened areas and this includes Toyota who are known to be the most conservative in this respect. Even Toyota have 10,000 intervals here. Many GM and VAG cars have long had

Huw

And that would be a problem?

Huw

Sharx35 wrote: Why BITCH and WHINE and MOAN, like

I should perhaps mention that between my wifes car and mine, they cost in excess of US$150,000 and one is serviced at 10,000 miles and the other just shy of 15,000 miles on average. My bet is that, all other things being equal, they will last as long as yours.

Huw

They did 'here' Huw.

With which service regime? They currently offer a choice of two regimes here in the UK. One for low mileage drivers or those more comfortable with short fixed intervals of 10,000 miles or one year. The other is for flexible service intervals using better oils and service monitoring computer switched on which can potentially offer up to 30,000 miles or two year intervals depending on the engine fitted and operating conditions. There have been no problems reported with either regime which have been in place now for some six years or more. Prior to this VW offered fixed oil change intervals of 10,000 miles and I had a Golf [rabbit] GTi 1800 with this regime back in 1982. I ran this car for some 80,000 miles and it then went to a higher milage user, a vehicle finance broker who was in school with me, who ran it for a few more years and probably doubled its milage. Last saw it some seven years ago still going strong with the only problem other than normal service items being a blown head gasket at some point apparently. This thing flew with a 0-60 time of just 8.0 seconds. It was petrol by the way.

AFAIK the only issue in America with VW has been the oil consumption due to early oil changes and light early driving. Since very few Americans indeed would apparently buy such an exotic vehicle and not service it religiously every 3000 miles I find it hard to believe that there have been any other lube related problems. However if you know different and have some reference then I would be interested. The biggest problem VW had was customers complaining that they were not encouraged to change the oil more often and VW eventually gave up trying to educate and now just go with the flow.

Huw

Tell you what, you change yours at 7500 or 10,00 or what have you I I will keep changing mine every 3000 miles or so like I have for over 30 years now. I have yet to wear a engine out and I keep some of my vehicles a long time. One I have had for over 20 years now.

Huw, I agree with you on the oil change intervals. Oil change places still push the 3000 mile oil change here, a total waste of money and oil. Maybe good for cars of the 70's. I dont know if people here will ever be educated on oil changes, maybe when oil is 10-12 dollars a quart. Scott

My friend, you are invited to visit:

We maintain a TSB library and photo album that may be of interest to you. :^)

Oil here is about that level for basic API stuff while the better oils may well cost around $100 for a sump full of long life synthetic as specified by those vehicles with drain intervals of 15000 and above miles. This is not the reason for extended service intervals though, as the cars themselves are even more expensive relative to income. A Toyota Corolla

No, the reason that the service intervals are longer here is because they can be. Simple as that. People here expect their vehicles to last a long time with minimum maintenance cost and are willing to pay more for quality vehicles that need less servicing while still lasting around 20 years of average driving which would be around 200,000 miles. BMW 3 series outsell the Ford Mondeo for instance. Intensively used vehicles generally last for more miles while 'normally' used cars tend to fail for reasons other than engine lubrication issues, like an insurance claim for more than the car is worth or just general wear and tear. Irrespective of maintenance a ten year old ordinary car here is worth very little due to the shear number wanting a home. Many perfectly good trade-ins are scrapped just because they would be difficult to sell among the competition. Having said this there are plenty of 15 to 20 year old cars running around here.

I myself run a 22 year old Land Rover on a daily basis and it has had no lubrication or wear issues despite running well over 10,000 hours now. At an average of 25mph [which it does not do] that would be 250,000 miles. The average trip for this vehicle is around 2 miles between cold starts and it has a nasty dirty diesel engine which pours s*it into the oil and is changed only every 5000 miles, usually just on once a year these last few years. Some of the posters here would be changing the oil on this every week if they went by oil colour LOL

Huw

Not that high for us. Regular oil about 1.2 pounds per US quart . I use Mobil 1 synthetic and it costs me 15 pounds to fill the sump, saves me a lot of money to change every 10-12 thousand miles. The truck is 6 yrs. and done 101,000 miles. runs perfect. Cheers, Scott

You can easily do 100K on WalMart oil. THis is no milestone.

Only if it is 100k between oil changes. You may laugh but it will not be long before the first such oil change intervals appear on the market. VW/Audi Group [VAG] and European GM small diesel engines already run well proven 30,000 mile schedules with no apparent reduction in engine life. European GM petrol engines wherever actually built [Germany or Australia or elsewhere] have long had 20,000 mile fixed intervals and are now migrating to monitored variable intervals. There is generally a two year limit which may well override the mileage limit for low mileage drivers, which is sensible.

Huw

I just changed the oil for the first time on my 2005 Toyota Tundra at

Just thought I'd throw in my experience so far....

------------------------------------ Mike Mangione