Thank you jbollt. We have always gone to Desert for our Avalons, both still in the family with the children and working great, no problems. Turns out the service manager we always went to is the hybrid-guy now so won't even have to change. They have four hybrid techs, I'm told. Wrong answer was from another service manager, he probably was not very familiar with the hybrids and their special needs. I'll stick with the guy who knows them!

 

And I l love when people accept everything as gospel. Here is another view on 5w20 oil. You can believe anything you want, but nothing is black and white, there are different opinions on everything and truth is probably somewhere in between.

http://www.performanceoiltechnology.com/ford5w20.htm

To save you reading some quots from article:
"You certainly can use a 5W-20 if you choose to, however you do not need to use a 5W-20 oil. You do not have to use 5W-20 to maintain your warranty, even though some dealership personnel may lead you to believe that you have to use a 5W-20. Your warranty is still valid and has to be honored whether you choose to use a 5W-20 or another viscosity of oil, such as a 5W-30 for example"
Another quote:
"One of the main reasons 5W-20 was specified for your engine is to increase the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) reported to the Federal Government."

Anyhow I'm using 5w20 synthetic in my car, however be aware there are different opinions on the subject and even manual, page 347 only says to use ILSAC multigrade engine oil with recomended viscosity of 0W20 or 5w20. Nowhere does it say you must use w20 oil. The only benefits of low viscosity oil I ever came accross are: slightly better fuel efficiency and little faster initial flow on engine start up. Not really big deal IMO and whenever oil flows faster on start up, at the same time it will drain back as fast after engine shutdown, so I'm not sure what is better. If you have more info on the subject, please enlighten me. But please feel free to read the website to at least beaware of another point of view on the subject.

 

Since the non-hybrid 2007 Camry ALSO uses 0w20 or 5w-20 oil, and they sell zillions of those and have done so months before the first TCH hit the market, there is NO excuse for a dealership to be ignorant of the oil viscocity recommendations.

 

Thank you for your input, but until someone gives me a good reason to go with different than the factory recommendations I will follow that. The only benefit of using 5W30 is that they buy it in bulk. Believe it or not that's not my concern.

Anyhow the point of my post is that their comment of "just as good" is not based upon any particular knowledge or recommendation from Toyota.

I wouldn't get MY gospel from a website extolling the virtues of one particular product.

P.S. I will not be responding any further to this

 

It sounds as if many dealers are putting 5W-30 oil in because of one of the following reasons:
1.) it's cheaper and what is pre-loaded into their lube system.
2.) They are un-aware of the TCH recommendation.
3.) Trying to avoid higher cost oil.
4.) all of the above.

Perhaps the answer is '4'. Ok Given that, how can we collectively prevent this from occurring?.. Any service/dealers out there that can recommend the correct approach to resolving this or would you assume that by just telling them, it will actually do some good?.

 

Actually it was for 2006 and 2007 models though the bulletin was issued only on March 29th 2006

http://rav4world.com/tsb/2006/EG018-06.pdf


ILSAC GF–4 SAE 5W–20
This oil has been set as the Toyota genuine engine oil, starting in February 2006 for
the U.S. This oil is superior in terms of fuel economy, engine protection, and cold
starting performance.
ILSAC GF–4 SAE 0W–20
This oil has even better fuel efficiency and cold starting performance than 5W–20. Initial
application for 0W–20 is in the 2006 model year 2AZ–FE engine and will be used in new
engines to be developed.

 

You cannot prevent it totally. It depends on integrity, honesty and knowledge of the service tech and the orders received from above. Do you stand and wait there for the oil change to be done or do you leave the car and come back later. Even if you wait, you are not allowed on the shop floor while the car is being worked on due to their insurance policies, in case you get hurt. Workers are covered by workers comp, not customers. Since they use 55 gallon barrel oil containers the tech cannot bring the fresh oil and show you what they have used in your car. So you are at their mercy.


BTW, 0W-20 and 5W-20 oils were recommended for 2006 engines in addition to 2007, so all mechanics and not just “hybrid trained” should have used 5W-20 at the very least. The fact that they are not using it even with ASE training means that they chose to ignore Toyota service bulletins to help the dealers bottom line.

 

It's only on the oil cap. I don't know how much training is required to read the label.

 

This is true! How sad, that they are apparently in such a hurry that they don't even read the cap.

 

Reminds me of the old blonde joke, where the blonde could not find any 710 to put into her car. (sorry to all blondes out there! )