August 21, 2023

A Gen 5 4runner -- oil and oil changes

First of all, the interval. The recommendation from Toyota is the first change after 5000 miles and 10,000 mile intervals from then on. Many people seem to think this is nuts and change oil every 5000 miles.

My vehicle comes with the first 3 changes prepaid, so I can take it to the dealer for 5000, 15,000, and 25,000. If I want changes at 10,000 and 20,000 that is on my dime.

The recommendation seems to be synthetic oil these days (and maybe that goes hand in hand with the 10,000 mile interval). You can get well reviewed synthetic oil at Costco if you do your own changes.

The above article has a long list of change intervals recommended by various manufacturers. Toyota has recommended every 15,000 at some point in time, Lexus ask for 10,000. American makers (also Honda and Subaru) ask for 7500. Change it every year, regardless.

More about this (and other good information) in this video:

The 4runner 4.0 Liter engine uses 6.6 liters of full synthetic oil. I see 0W-20 generally recommended. Note that the often recommended Mobil 1 is not full synthetic. Also note that in the USA oil that is 75 percent synthetic is called "tier 3" and can be labeled "full synthetic". So some people say they will only use imported full synthetic (like the genuine Toyota stuff you get at the dealer). AMSoil gets high recommendations.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Auto repair pages / tom@mmto.org