quote:
I see you've already made the move and that is fine. I'm late reading the post. I'm one of the few dissenters who would advocate a longer breakin before switching to synthetic. Like may on this board, I follow a long running UOA spreadsheet at the Maxima site where Bill99gxe has noticed that cars that switch too soon to synthetic show higher wear levels at later mileage. A Toyota engine isn't a Nissan. I'll give you that. But I also know of no one tracking a long term wear analysis of Toyota engines. I also get lower UOA wear numbers in my car following the manufacturer's recommendation on 5W30 oil instead of 10W30. There are times when I think the manufacturers may be making the right call with their recommendations. Initial engine breakin is one of them in my view.
Still, you waited 5K. That's good. Just my $0.02
I thought about it and the way I look at it is this, I've been doing most of my driving in forth at 60 mph, except on the Interstate, where I drive in fifth. The legal highway speed here in Washington state, outside of the major cities such as Seattle, is 70 mph. So at those speeds, that 2.7L I4 is running between 2800 to 3000 rpm. That's a lot of wear and tear, especially on a 4 cylinder. I figure that by 5000 miles of running at around those speeds, that engine has got to be more than broken it. It I weren't driving at those speeds, then yes your right.
In other words, are engines that run 5000 miles at speeds of 3000 rpm any more broken in than say an engine that has run at 2000 rpm in casual day to day driving?
If it were the 3.4L V6, I would most likely have waited a little longer.
I did of course, take it easy the first say 500 miles, running, at most, maybe sixty, in fifth.
I changed the oil and filter at 1000, to flush any metal chips and casting sand from the manufacturing process out, as well as the metal particles produced from the engine being broken in, then 3000, and now 5000 miles, after which I'll go 5000 miles between changes, w/the synthetic.