In a regular camry, you need to change your oil every 5000 miles, right? But in a hybrid, the engine isn't on for lets say 1/5th of the miles. So shouldn't you get more miles between oil changes?

Keep in mind you have 5+ times the shut downs and start-ups as a regular car. I would not suggest going beyond 5,000 miles. Others may have a different opinion.

Questions like oil change intervals will always be subject to opinions UNTIL a simple oil analysis is performed for the particular vehicle you are interested in under your own driving conditions and style.

In my mind, there is no answer that is correct only some may be better or safer until an oil test is performed.

Take the oil to the approximate mileage interval the manufacturer suggested and then take an oil sample and send it off for analysis. Then change your oil because you are already close OR wait and see what the oil report says. You may be surprised.

I speak from experience on this and no longer lose sleep nor waste oil since doing this test yrs ago on my other cars.

To be safe change it according to the scheduled maintenance in your manual. No sense in voiding the warranty.

TNSIG,

u said it much more clear than I did with less words.

What I meant for the post to say ultimately was that taking the oil to the suggested interval is perfectly fine and the oil test will show that.

Was not suggesting going out as far as the oil test indicated was possible.

Hey Tony

Not to hijack the thread but what kind of oil are you running in your two HV's? Full synthetic?

TNSIG,

I use regular ole dino oil recommended weight and change no earlier than recommended interval.

The last car I had oil checked in was my Diesel Rabbit because the oil was always immediately BLACK and it bothered me. VW recommended something like 7500 mile interval and the dealer of course suggested 1000 mile.

This oil change interval uncertainty always kept me up at night so I had it tested. When at 7500 miles on the rabbit the report came back that the oil was still fit and capable of another 4-6k miles easily.

Soooo like you said, you shouldnt go wrong with following the suggested engine oil change interval in the manual. The transmission fuid interval may be different as Bob Wilson has noted based on the oil tests, not simply a matter of opinion.

Sorry for the long winded reply.

Tony

Ah...not long winded at all. I was going to ask you about the test you mentioned...glad you brought it up.

I didn't catch the post by Bob about the transmission fluid...have the link by chance?

Hi folks,

Just to share the facts and data, I'm a strong advocate of oil testing as a way to gain insights about what is really going on. In my case, I was especially interested in the transaxle oil since my first test show such poor results:

http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_T_cold.html
http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_toil.html

These oil tests are affordable, about $20 but to shorten the interval takes many more samples. I asked for used oil samples and paid for many of the tests, a small scale version of our hybrid vehicle database. But at last, there is data supporting a shorter change interval for the NHW11.

Since then, I've learned from an SAE paper about a better approach that does on-vehicle viscosity testing. It records the oil temperature and pressure at idle, using the existing engine as a viscosity test instrument. This is an approach I'll be investigating in the future for both engine and transaxle oil testing.

What I'm trying to suggest is:

• respect the warranty - until the engine warranty has expired, follow the manufacturer's recommendation and keep good records
• post-warranty - use oil testing to determine what is going on and needs to be done to keep the engine happy

GOOD LUCK!

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Just an interesting on topic article....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17726747/