When to change to Syn. oil in 08 Avalon
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Whenever you like. You may want to go a few thousand miles on the factory oil, if you want.
NOW is never too early. No reason to wait.
I would change it out at about 1k mi. I fiqure any metal shavings or other engine breakin' garbage would get disposed of then. Then use regular oil until 5k, then switch to syn.
^^^
What he said. Run the factory fill for 1K, change with a quality dino, run that 4K, and then switch to synthetic at 5K.
Ed
What he said. Run the factory fill for 1K, change with a quality dino, run that 4K, and then switch to synthetic at 5K.
Ed
Use a cheap/good dino like Pennzoil or Havoline for a few changes until 10k miles and change every 3k miles. My opinion. Then use synthetic if you wish.
Synthetic can be used on a new engine without issues, but I figure if your engine is spitting out a lot of iron and other stuff during break in why waste money on synthetic with short OCI.
Synthetic can be used on a new engine without issues, but I figure if your engine is spitting out a lot of iron and other stuff during break in why waste money on synthetic with short OCI.
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Originally Posted By: GMFan
Use a cheap/good dino like Pennzoil or Havoline for a few changes until 10k miles and change every 3k miles. My opinion. Then use synthetic if you wish.
Synthetic can be used on a new engine without issues, but I figure if your engine is spitting out a lot of iron and other stuff during break in why waste money on synthetic with short OCI.
best way to go. Why do you nees syn oil? 5,000 mile oil changes waste the advantage of syn oil.
Use a cheap/good dino like Pennzoil or Havoline for a few changes until 10k miles and change every 3k miles. My opinion. Then use synthetic if you wish.
Synthetic can be used on a new engine without issues, but I figure if your engine is spitting out a lot of iron and other stuff during break in why waste money on synthetic with short OCI.
best way to go. Why do you nees syn oil? 5,000 mile oil changes waste the advantage of syn oil.
It will break in just fine on synthetic oil, but dino would save you a few bucks for the first few short changes.
Then go full synth if you want - mostly for long oil change intervals.
Then go full synth if you want - mostly for long oil change intervals.
That's what I did with our Town & Country. Ran the factory fill until 1000 miles. Then put in Motorcraft 5W-20 until 5000 miles. Then using Mobil 1. I'm too scared to do extended intervals, though, because the powertrain has a lifetime warranty and I want to ensure I save all maintenance receipts, including oil changes. If I ever have a warranty issue a few hundred thousand miles down the road, they may not see the humor in me running 15k mile OCIs, even supported by UOAs.
FYI,
The 2008 Toyota Avalon uses the same engine as the 2008 Sienna van. There has been discussion in the Sienna forum about Toyota recently changing their recommend oil for that engine to 5-20w. You may want to double check with your dealer if they also changed the recommended oil on the Avalon to 5-20w as well.
OBTW, These engines also use a disposable filter element & perm canister setup instead of the normal disposable spin on filter. Toyota dealers, NAPA (made by Wix), and Wix dealers are the only places I have found the filter elements at thus far. For details have a look here...
http://members.cox.net/n0v8or/avalon_oil_change.pdf
The 2008 Toyota Avalon uses the same engine as the 2008 Sienna van. There has been discussion in the Sienna forum about Toyota recently changing their recommend oil for that engine to 5-20w. You may want to double check with your dealer if they also changed the recommended oil on the Avalon to 5-20w as well.
OBTW, These engines also use a disposable filter element & perm canister setup instead of the normal disposable spin on filter. Toyota dealers, NAPA (made by Wix), and Wix dealers are the only places I have found the filter elements at thus far. For details have a look here...
http://members.cox.net/n0v8or/avalon_oil_change.pdf
I hate those type of filters. Just something else to make changing oil a lil more difficult.
Concerning the question of oil viscosity. Use what is recomended in your owners manual until you see in writing that a change is recomended. Dealers may or may not know what they are talking about. I like to change out the factory oil at ~ 2,000 miles and I switch to Synthetic at that time. I see no need to dump the factory oil with the assembly additives that protect the engine during breakin. JMO
My 2008 Sienna (same engine) also has 5W-30 clearly written in the owner's manual and on the oil cap.
I changed the factory fill oil in my 08 Jeep at 500 miles and filled with Pennzoil 5W-20 (yellow) and a Pure One filter. I plan on changing that out at 3000 miles and then switch to PP. Jeep doesn't use a break in oil.
Frank D
Frank D
wHY use syn at all? 5k on a quality dino will keep it clean, and your wallet fuller.
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