I changed my oil

2010 Prius III with Navi

With 5,030 miles I changed my oil with the help of my wife, Nadia.

I First drove the car up on plastic ramps. I crawled underneath the engine and there are only two push pins holding the cover beneath the engine oil pan and filter housing.

When I pulled the cover down the car was not high enough to clear. So we took off the entire plastic cover, about 15 push pins and about 7 bolts.

The drain plug was removed easily. The oil filter housing is retained by a metal clip which appears to keep the filter housing secure from unscrewing.

The clip was then removed and I used an oil filter wrench 65-67 size I had to press it on to keep it from slipping but it worked OK. Get one that is just 65 mm in size It will be easier.

I Placed the new cartridge inside the oil filter housing and used the supplied O ring which I coated with fresh oil.

I than screwed the unit into the filter housing and torgued to 18 ft lbs.

I also torqued the drain plug to 27 lbs, the gasket looked fine and I did not change it , maybe next time.

I put in 4 quarts of Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil, 0 X 20 weight.

Placed the engine cover back on. Wrote down the mileage and date and the maintaince book and cleared the code on the engine maitaince screen. (This is in the owners manual)

Next time I will raise the ramps by using lumber say 10 x 2 under the ramps and place the same size lumber in front of the front wheels of our car to clear the ramp. I think two more inches would have cleared the cover.

The four quarts of oil placed a little more than half way from the full mark to the add oil mark. I believe the manual calls for 4.4 quarts.

The drained oil that came out of the filter and oil pan was more than 4 quarts probably 4.5 or so.

Alfon

 

Acutally the oil color was a medium dark amber. The oil in the filter housing and filter looked fine. I did not notice any contiminates but I did not make a close inspection.

I did oil the O ring on the oil filter housing and did torque to factory specification of 18 lbs.

In respect to synthetic Mobil One oil (0X20). I found nothing in the manual mentioned where you could not use Mobil One oil. (I have a 2010 Prius, that may be true of the 2009 Prius).

Tell me where can you find 0 X 20 regular grade (non synthetic) motor oil?

The manual does mention to use 0x20 motor oil. You can use 5x20 oil once and than you must go back to 0x20 oil the next oil change.

Alfon

 

Yes, our refuse collector, Western Oregon Waste, let us leave used motor oil in gallon containers on the side of our Recyle Bin every other week. The used oil filter can also go into a plastic container.

Alfon

 

Just last Saturday I spoke to the parts manager at Lum's Toyota, Warrenton, Oregon. He was not even aware that the 2010 Prius required 0x20 motor oil. He said he had none in stock, but would have to order a few cases.

I paid $6.25 per quart for Mobil 1 0x20 oil. Does anyone know the
price of the Toyota 0x20 oil that Toyota would like you to use?

Well, I did change my oil and did use Mobil 1 0x20 oil. I have over 120 miles on the oil now. I noticed no difference, the gas mileage is still like it was maybe just a little better, hard to tell, .

Dash MPG guage is reading 56.7 MPG, which would bet about 54 MPG (real MPG) with the optimistic reading of the guage.

alfon

 

Underneath the engine there is a plastic cover plate. The engine oil pan has a seperate opening that when the two pins are released the flap comes down, which gives you access to the oil drain plug
and filter without removing the entire engine cover which has several bolt and pins to remove.

Alfon