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#21 ·
RonnieJ said:
So if you disagree with the CCN, not on mileage, but time in use, sounds like you put less than 5k miles on your vehicle per year AND are a frequent cold start "short tripper", which is where problems can arise in DI engines. All the more reason to possibly spring the extra $30 a year for that extra oil change. Yes, any 0w16 or 0w20 is generally going to be a high quality synthetic, but unless you are putting in at least 20-30 minutes of non stop driving per week, I'd just stick to 6 month intervals or 5k, whichever comes first.
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I’ll put on more miles during the summer months. I’ll probably be on a 9 month cycle of oil changes. I’m already cutting in half the 10000 mile oil change recommendation by Toyota and going with their “Severe Service” recommendation of 5000 miles between changes, so I don’t see any reason to further decrease my oil change interval. The 3 extra months will make no difference whatsoever.
 
#22 ·
JayW4 said:
Hello fellow RAV4 folks,

I have a 2022 RAV4 Hybrid ELX. Took delivery from Dealer Feb 24th 2022. I am really getting to love this vehicle. I have just over 2,300 miles and reading that RAV4 engines have been experiencing metal shavings in the oil changes. It's been advised that the first change should be at or before 2,500 miles and it's recommended to have this done with a flush of the engine as an added protection of this hazard of the metal shavings. My dealer provides a free first oil change, is it advised that I mention the metal shavings and request the engine flush at this first service?

Looking for solid advice, Many thanks,

JayW4
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I did my first oil change at 636 miles. I did it again at 5000 then been doing every 10,000. Now at 30,000 and I love this vehicle. Glad I did the extra oil changes and broke it in mostly driving on mountain country roads, in manual, changing gears and rpm’s often for first 636 miles. Although never really exceeding 4500 rpm’s the first 636 until the last 36 miles begofore first oil change when I drove her hard in sport mode.
 
#23 ·
JayW4 said:
Hello fellow RAV4 folks,

I have a 2022 RAV4 Hybrid ELX. Took delivery from Dealer Feb 24th 2022. I am really getting to love this vehicle. I have just over 2,300 miles and reading that RAV4 engines have been experiencing metal shavings in the oil changes. It's been advised that the first change should be at or before 2,500 miles and it's recommended to have this done with a flush of the engine as an added protection of this hazard of the metal shavings. My dealer provides a free first oil change, is it advised that I mention the metal shavings and request the engine flush at this first service?

Looking for solid advice, Many thanks,

JayW4
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I did my first oil change myself at 5,000 miles. I think that 10,000 is a bit too long to go, particularly on a new engine. I pulled the filter apart to check for any signs of metal but there was very little. New engines often make some metal in the first few thousand miles. I change my oil at 5k, and the dealer dies the10 k intervals but my free oil changes are about done as my car is now 2 years old.

I figure the hybrid engine doesn’t run near as much as a standard engine, however I have no idea if the stopping and starting is beneficial or not. I figure now that I have 20,000 miles on it, I will probably do my oil changes about every 8k or so, whether I do them or the dealer does.

These are just my thoughts. Based on my engineering background and my career as an aircraft maintenance technician.
 
#24 ·
FKHeath said:
The metal shavings issue is an over reaction. Toyota runs all their engines during the installation process then replaces all fluids (oil coolant, etc) with new fluids during final assembly, so any particles would be flushed out during this process.

You only need change the oil according to the plan in the maintenance manual that came with the car, which is once a year or 10,000 miles under normal driving (there is a earlier maintenance item in the manual at 5,000 miles which mainly consists of a tire rotation).
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I was old school and would insist on changing oil on every new vehicle I purchased when reaching 1000-2500 miles from date of purchase. Since 2000 I became a Toyota customer, only. My dealer talked me out of this practice most recently (again) on my 2022 RAV4 Hybrid citing I should follow the manufacturers guidelines of 10k miles between oil changes. One of the service advisors with 14 years service weighed in and spoke about motors having an appropriate amount of service before first oil change, to allow the motor to "seat" and negate future premature issues with excessive oil consumption being the chief user complaint. I don't routinely have people work so hard NOT to take my money and having owned six RAV4's one of which I reached 200K with routine maintenance only (and a new gas and radiator cap) I am going to adjust my thinking and follow Toyota's recommendation.
 
#25 ·
I agree with what you say JayPee. Having seen many engines apart, I kind of like my own approach. My reason for changing the oil early at 5k miles was that if there was a lot of debris inside the engine, I would know about it, and could do something about it early on. Or, what I would probably have done, was to run it a while and then do another oil change and check the filter. It’s really just a precautIon are thing On my part. I think I‘ll probably just change the oil when it starts to get dark in color. I also have a 2019 Toyota Tundra that I use to tow a boat and a travel trailer. I change the oil in the Tundra more often also, simply because it works hard when pulling a load, and I can see that in the color of the oil. Last time I had it in for service, I asked the rep about the transmission fluid and how often it should be changed, as there is no dipstick and you can’t service it without a machine. He told me 100,000 miles you change the transmission fluid if you pull a trailer and if not 150,000 miles. So I will bow to their knowledge there.

The new vehicles with the synthetic 0W-16 or 0W-20 oils clearly have diffevent internal clearances to handle the thinner oil, and the oil hold up a lot longer than conventional oil. It also doesn’t release the acids etc that conventional oils do over time.

So, on my RAV 4, I will probably just keep an eye on the oil color and see how it goes. Mash ve it will look ok at 10k, and if so, I’ll just resend out the oil changes to match.

Cheers
John
 
#26 ·
FKHeath said:
The metal shavings issue is an over reaction. Toyota runs all their engines during the installation process then replaces all fluids (oil coolant, etc) with new fluids during final assembly, so any particles would be flushed out during this process.

You only need change the oil according to the plan in the maintenance manual that came with the car, which is once a year or 10,000 miles under normal driving (there is a earlier maintenance item in the manual at 5,000 miles which mainly consists of a tire rotation).
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Oil change at 10,000 or six months. I had mine changed at 6 months when mileage was only 4,800. This is done because low mileage driving dilutes the oil with gas blown past the rings. Oil smelled like gasoline. So far oil looks like new, has not turned brown which indicates normal OIL wear due to hot engine. My sisters new Honda CX-R which has a turbocharger which uses oil to cool internal parts starts turning brown at 2,000 miles. She likely won't suffer from diluted oil but breakdown of the oil is possible.
 
#27 · (Edited)
I did my first oil/filter change at 2000 miles. Paid for by me, service record say 0W16 oil. But the dealer checked off that I asked for "5000 mile " service. I didn't. How can they perform a 5000 mile service when car only has 2000 miles?
Not sure why dealership did this. Maybe they got me to pay for oil change then also charged Toyota for this service. They also swapped out my winter tires for summer OEM tires, at my request, which I also paid for.
Car was only in service bay for 30 minutes.
 
#28 ·
I will respectfully disagree with the Toyota techs who advise to just follow the 10k guideline. It cost under $35 to do an oil change with Mobil1 0-16 and a factory filter. That is less than a cost of a trip to McDonalds for a family of four (sad in itself). The Car Care Nut, who is VERY experienced and is not paid by Toyota says you should first change it out at 1k. There is absolutely no down side in changing the oil at 1k and i'll continue this practice on all of my vehicles, along with changing the oil every six months or 5k, whichever comes first. Cheap insurance for a vehicle I plan to have very long term.
 
#30 ·
Ah the great oil & filter change interval debate.

I'm a 3,000 dude. I did a faceplant on my '19 RAV4 Hybrid as I didn't get the first one done at 500 or 1,000 miles.

My '98 Tacoma 4 x 4 V6 (off the lot with 21 miles, Thanksgvg '97) went 241k before the head gaskets failed (barely noticeable hydrocarbons in the coolant, caught at a cooling system servicing) . . . . the machine shop cleaned the heads. NUMI Factory clutch and rear main seal replaced at 253k.

It has over 260k with zero oil consumption or burn off.

I think I'll go with what I've been doing. ;)
 
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#31 ·
Freeman said:
Ah the great oil & filter change interval debate.

I'm a 3,000 dude. I did a faceplant on my '19 RAV4 Hybrid as I didn't get the first one done at 500 or 1,000 miles.

My '98 Tacoma 4 x 4 V6 (off the lot with 21 miles, Thanksgvg '97) went 241k before the head gaskets failed (barely noticeable hydrocarbons in the coolant, caught at a cooling system servicing) . . . . the machine shop cleaned the heads. NUMI Factory clutch and rear main seal replaced at 253k.

It has over 260k with zero oil consumption or burn off.

I think I'll go with what I've been doing. ;)
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to be fair my 98 Tacoma (4 cyl) has over 300k miles and has gotten Walmart Supertech oil or whatever is cheapest every 5k miles for years with zero issues. They’re aren’t very particular to any specific oil. My 07 Tacoma also gets the same treatment and is nearing 300k.
 
#32 ·
JayW4 said:
Hello fellow RAV4 folks,

I have a 2022 RAV4 Hybrid ELX. Took delivery from Dealer Feb 24th 2022. I am really getting to love this vehicle. I have just over 2,300 miles and reading that RAV4 engines have been experiencing metal shavings in the oil changes. It's been advised that the first change should be at or before 2,500 miles and it's recommended to have this done with a flush of the engine as an added protection of this hazard of the metal shavings. My dealer provides a free first oil change, is it advised that I mention the metal shavings and request the engine flush at this first service?

Looking for solid advice, Many thanks,

JayW4
Click to expand...
I used to change my new vehicles at 1000 and then every 3000. With synthetics I'm up to every 5000. With a prime remember that 5000 miles on the odometer isn't 5000 miles on the ICE. If your commute to work is short and you seldom need the ICE, 5000 miles may only be 1000.
 
#33 ·
Freeman said:
Ah the great oil & filter change interval debate.

I'm a 3,000 dude. I did a faceplant on my '19 RAV4 Hybrid as I didn't get the first one done at 500 or 1,000 miles.

My '98 Tacoma 4 x 4 V6 (off the lot with 21 miles, Thanksgvg '97) went 241k before the head gaskets failed (barely noticeable hydrocarbons in the coolant, caught at a cooling system servicing) . . . . the machine shop cleaned the heads. NUMI Factory clutch and rear main seal replaced at 253k.

It has over 260k with zero oil consumption or burn off.

I think I'll go with what I've been doing. ;)
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How do you know 2,000 mile or 1,000 mile intervals wouldn’t be better?

I’m a severe service owners manual guy myself.

For what it’s worth, I worked at a high volume Jiffy Lube for 8 years in high school and college and have filled out literally thousands of those 3,000 mile oil change reminder stickers. This was 25 years ago. Things have changed.
 
#34 ·
nels0300 said:
How do you know 2,000 mile or 1,000 mile intervals wouldn’t be better?
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The shorter the interval, the cleaner the oil ought to be. Undoubtedly 2k or 1k periods would be better. We're squarely into the pencil pushers domain here, cost/benefit analysis. Time spent performing the task, filter and oil costs, carbon foot print, etc. versus the benefit to the mechanical parts given the new delta of 2k or 1k versus 3k.
 
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