Question and Opinions on Changing Factory Fill

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I'm new to BITOG and have been searching the forum for oil choices for my vehicles. Currently I have a 2008 Tacoma Pre-runner with a 2.7L engine. I decided not to do a early change keep the factory fill in the engine till the 5000 mile mark.
I opted to do this because:
-The large oil pan for this engine (6.1qts)
-it's a fairly new engine design (2TR-FE)
-it didn't use a drop of oil during the first 5000 miles
-I have a 7yr/100k mile warranty and I'm sticking to the recommended maint schedule.
-it's a Toyota 4 banger truck engine

My question is what's the opinion on the first OCI for a new engine, and was my school of thought correct on waiting till 5000 miles? I have a feeling it really varies on the type of engine and how its being used.
 
Since it can't hurt to change the FF early, I've always done it.

Someone posted some pictures recently of the magnetic drain plug when he changed his FF at 1000 miles, the plug had a lot of metal stuck to it. Better to get that out of your engine sooner than 5k.
 
You did just fine. Following the manufacturer's OCI will do you no real harm. Indeed, if you had a Honda it would have been highly desirable to have left it in as described in the manual. Honda does have a factory fill that contains higher levels of either silicon or moly...I've forgotten which, but they advise to leave it until until the OLM tells you to change it. For vehicles without any special fill I would change out at 500, 2000, then perhaps 5000. After that do as normal. On my new Ford Focus this is what I am doing. When I reach 2k I will be adding a full synthetic as well.
Remember though....changing your fluids in that Toyota well before the schedule tells you to.... CAN NOT VOID a warranty. Now if you go LONGER than the schedule and something happens....you may be hosed.
 
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I've only had one new car, but I changed out the factory fill early. I had the car for 5 years and the engine was flawless after 130k kms. I do however think this day and age you're also fine just leaving it in there until they specify to change...
 
I changed mine out early because I couldn't stand the thought of all that break-in metal floating around in there.


And
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YOu will probably be just fine, and in great shape.
But I could not go 5,000 miles with a new car before an oil change.
I just couldn't.
 
Bronx. I just got my new 09 Saturn Vue's oil changed at
1450 km or 900 miles. Normaly I've waited till about 1600
to 2500 km (1000 - 1500 miles) with my other cars. A new
engine will have a high iron ppm count due to the high points
or peaks of the cylinder wearing away from the ring pressures.
Also, there is always dust dirt etc from the assembly process.
 
Originally Posted By: cornfused
I changed mine out early because I couldn't stand the thought of all that break-in metal floating around in there.


If you have metal floating around in your engine , you need a better quality oil filter .
 
First of all
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I change out my factory fill on everything (incl Hondas) around 1000-1500 miles because we don't KNOW how long that oil has been in the engine.

You can bet the engine and oil in the pan were built 3 months (at a min)before it was put in the vehicle then add all the times it was idling while they charge the battery at the stealership, test drives and break in I'd rather be safe and change it.

I do NOT beleive in special break in oil and all the the vehicles I've had or my family has had over the decades last with no problems.

Take care and enjoy the truck!

Bill
 
I bought an 02 Taco with the 2.7L. For that year Toyota recommended 7500k OCI's. I changed it every 3k with Toyota brand dino. IMO you cant go wrong following the factory guidlines, if your ever in doubt...
 
i am no expert but i am going to change my G5 at 2k with M1 0-30..i have never heard GM or any mfg say you have to change it early...i assume they use the EOS break in additive in my pontiac which came highly recomended by a GM engineer in a article on this site a year ago and i feel he knows a lot more about it than i do...the car is great by the way, i think GM will do well if economy ever picks up and people are more aware of their quality now
 
"You can bet the engine and oil in the pan were built 3 months (at a min)before it was put in the vehicle then add all the times it was idling while they charge the battery at the stealership, test drives and break in I'd rather be safe and change it."

Most manufacturers switched just in time supplying on drivetrains years ago. Saturn for instance had an engine & transaxle installed in the car 16 minutes after it was built. Now I realize not all plants build engines and cars, but nobody wants a warehouse full of them waiting around for months on end. However the point between when it was built and when that vehcile goes into service can be months.
 
You know, if you really believe it, then it's true. For you, anyway.

But there is no reason to change early. Break in is an old myth, modern manufacturing is much more a precision fit, no waiting for parts to hone themselves together!

And your rings are seated in just a few minutes anyway!
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
You know, if you really believe it, then it's true. For you, anyway.

But there is no reason to change early. Break in is an old myth, modern manufacturing is much more a precision fit, no waiting for parts to hone themselves together!

And your rings are seated in just a few minutes anyway!

Then why do manufacturers commonly advise that you vary your driving the first 500 miles, no towing for 1k miles, and factory fill oil analysis show high amounts of wear metals?
 
Thanks for the responses, this is a good discussion. I agree that the oil probably should have been changed based on time vs wear. I'd also like to point out that some vehicles such as Mini/BMW run their factory fill for 1 year or 15-20k miles (based on the computer), that makes the first OCI at 5000 seem conservative.

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
You know, if you really believe it, then it's true. For you, anyway.

But there is no reason to change early. Break in is an old myth, modern manufacturing is much more a precision fit, no waiting for parts to hone themselves together!

And your rings are seated in just a few minutes anyway!


Steve this is my reasoning as well. With roller camshafts, better machining, engines doesn't produce as much wear metals during break-in.

Now on the the flip side, I recently fired up a ford 351w create engine with cast iron rings and flat tappet cam. I changed the castrol 30wt oil after 30 mins of run time (it was black, mostly due to carb tuning), and then poured in 15-40w rotella for the first 1000 miles.
 
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I changed my oil filter ONLY at 1000 miles, 2000miles and at 3000 miles I changed oil and filter.
Every 4500miles I swap the filter and next 4500 I change oil and filter.
I also use synthetic Valvoline so I'm comfortable doing this as well as the Wix filter.
I personally don't believe all cars come with a "break in" oil, I want to believe Honda does, however I still recommend to people to at least change the filter.
and changing the fuel filter frequently is only helpful!
 
Originally Posted By: cornfused
I changed mine out early because I couldn't stand the thought of all that break-in metal floating around in there.


And
welcome2.gif
to BITOG!


Changed the oil and filters on my new 08 Malibu 3.6 at 500,1500 and 3.000 miles along with the switch to synthetic at the 3K mark
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When I bought my (new) 2005 Tacoma, I dumped the factory fill at 1000 miles, changed oil/filter to OEM filter/Mobil 1 Clean 5000 dino. At 5000 miles, I changed oil/filter again, but went with Mobil 1 full synthetic at that time. It runs very strong, and only uses about 1/10 qt in 5000 miles (1 qt/50,000 miles).
 
With all the new cars I've bought so far (6 of them) I've always done a very early change around 500 miles (sometimes earlier) but I no longer believe that's necessary. If there was an excessive amount of wear metals floating in that factory fill, the oil filter is going to catch them. And anything smaller than that is going to float through the engine relatively harmless. I'd be willing to bet that 95% of the cars on the road right now never had an early oil change done and they are all just fine. So I really don't think an early oil change makes an engine last longer at all, so I feel it's just a waste of time and money.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
With all the new cars I've bought so far (6 of them) I've always done a very early change around 500 miles (sometimes earlier) but I no longer believe that's necessary. If there was an excessive amount of wear metals floating in that factory fill, the oil filter is going to catch them. And anything smaller than that is going to float through the engine relatively harmless. I'd be willing to bet that 95% of the cars on the road right now never had an early oil change done and they are all just fine. So I really don't think an early oil change makes an engine last longer at all, so I feel it's just a waste of time and money.

So what made you come to the decision that an early change wasn't needed? Was it further reflection....or data? Just curious.
 
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