Why not an early first oil change since Japanese motorcycles call for it?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by cycledrum, Nov 20, 2008.

  1. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    I've bought several new Japanese motorcycles recently - all require a first oil and filter change at 600 miles even though the spec'd regular interval is about 4,000 miles. Motorcycle engines have quality, modern manufacturing, albeit I4 sportbikes have redlines over 15,000 rpms these days. Still, why would a car engine, a new Prius engine not be called for an early oil, filter change the first time?

    I've searched a lot here and elsewhere about early (~ 1,000 miles) oil and filter change on a Prius. I've heard there is no concensus. No concensus at dealers either. At Hayward, a serv. adviser said, 500, 1000 miles, sure, he used to do that on his new cars.

    Another service adviser at Piercey where I purchsased said, why would you change early? 35 years ago that used to be the case, not now.

    This is a PITA.
     
    #1 cycledrum, Nov 20, 2008
  2. jbumps wvu mntrs

    jbumps wvu mntrs PC Superfan

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    As far as the relationship to motorcycles go, I can't make much of an educated comparison. The stroke, piston design and fuel delivery of the bike's engine introduce all kinds of different variables. The best evidence I have in support of the early oil change is the results from my oil analysis at 2000 miles. The results from this analysis were significantly worse than any change since then, including some with more than three times that milage. The way I see it, it can't hurt. As a side note, for each of the subsequent oil changes I used a much larger oil filter than stock, in hopes of seeing some increase in filtering efficiency and oil life. How much of the superior results are a result of the larger filter and how much are attributable to being past the break-in stage is an entirely different discussion.
     
    #2 jbumps wvu mntrs, Nov 20, 2008
  3. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    The consensus at Toyota (you know, the people who designed and built the thing) is that Prius does not need an early initial oil change. Find something else to worry about :_>
     
    #3 richard schumacher, Nov 20, 2008
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