2013 Tundra oil change interval

[Milo]

I saw where GM backed off their extended oil change interval (at least on some of their vehicles) after some of their engines experienced excessive cam chain wear. They issued a TSB for dealers to "recalibrate" the cars computers to shorten the mileage interval.

I have no doubt that high quality synthetic oil is capable of staying in spec for 8-10,000 miles and even longer under the right conditions, but not all. I know the German manufacturers (probably ours too) are under regulatory pressure to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels including oil. They have a lot to gain by increasing oil change intervals from 5,000 miles to 10,000. Essentially they can boast of cutting fleet oil usage by 50%.

 

[sixdogs]

Having lived through decades of increases in oil mileage change suggestions, my guess is the day will come when oil is improved to the point of maybe a 50,000 or even 100,000 mile oil change. When it was a 1,000 mile oil change, none of could imagine a 10,000 mile interval, which is a 1,000 percent increase. It isn't difficult to imagine a similar increase.

My Iridium spark plugs go for 125,000 miles and I never thought that was possible. I guess never say never.

 

[Markcuda]

My Iridium spark plugs go for 125,000 miles

My original plugs are in my 2006 Nissan Frontier=140,000 miles.
No idea if they are Iridium or not.

 

[GManBart]

Having lived through decades of increases in oil mileage change suggestions, my guess is the day will come when oil is improved to the point of maybe a 50,000 or even 100,000 mile oil change. When it was a 1,000 mile oil change, none of could imagine a 10,000 mile interval, which is a 1,000 percent increase. It isn't difficult to imagine a similar increase.

My Iridium spark plugs go for 125,000 miles and I never thought that was possible. I guess never say never.

Exactly. I've had my hands inside car/truck engines from the 1920ss to modern times, and it's pretty obvious that the materials and machining has improved so significantly that it's not all that surprising to see oil life increasing dramatically. The engines don't put nearly the amount of junk back into the crankcase that they used to, they don't get nearly the amount of outside contaminants in them, and the metal is less likely to break down, so all the really leaves as a major variable is the rate at which the oil deteriorates. The oil companies seem to have a pretty good handle on that now. Nobody even blinks about getting 200K+ miles out of a modern car/truck engine, when that used to be unusual just 20-30 years ago…better materials, better manufacturing, better oils.

 

[Gary Fowler]

40 years ago, it was SOP to change oil at 3K miles and folks bragged about how good their engine was if it went 50K without some sort of overhaul. Manufacturing processes, materials upgrade and off course much better oils have much improved engine performance and durability but lots of folks are still stuck in the 50'& 60's mentality of must change oil at 3000 mile intervals. The only businesses that recommends changing at 3000 miles is the "Jiffy Lube" type of businesses since that is all they depend on for income they want you back often. I follow the recommended schedule for oil changes and I think even that is likely got a lot of fudge factor built in by the car companies. If they said change at 5K it is likely ok to go 7.5k or even 10K without a problem. I don't think mileage is the major factor involved in oil change frequency, more of it is time related for many of us (myself included) Most of my oil changes are time based rather than hours or miles. Between the 3 autos we have, I doubt we rack up 5000 miles a year total so it becomes a yearly oil change.

 

[Heywood Jannockitov]

The "little old lady" that only uses her vehicle on Sundays to go to church and the grocery store in my opinion is "severe service". Any usage where the vehicle is used in such a manner that the engine isn't operated up to working temperature such as short hops, starting it up just to shuffle vehicles around in the driveway, living on a dusty gravel road, excessive idling, over-revving when cold etc. This is all severe service.

BTW, anyone with a third party warranty? Check the fine print. I purchased an extended 4 year bumper to bumper warranty for my Audi S5 when the factory warranty ran out. A stipulation is that it is mandatory to follow Audi prescribed "severe service" maintenance intervals so in order not to void the warranty, so... I just follow it, which unfortunately, for this vehicle at least, I have to have a dealer change the oil so I have maintenance records.

 

[sixdogs]

Gary-more than 40 years ago I worked in a garage and there were a number of cars still on the 1,000 mile oil change and grease service. I forget the details now and it may have been older vehicles or even trucks but I saw many 1,000 mile service intervals. I think spark plugs were 10,000 or 12,000 miles.
Today it's a rare event to even find a passenger car that even has any grease fittings.

 

[deerefan]

I appreciate everyone's input. I used to change every 3k miles. On my 97 F150 I go 5k on dino oil.

 

[crazyal]

My Rav4 doesn't even have a dip stick for the 6 speed auto. It's time to unlearn what was the norm 30 years ago. In the 80s you got a 350ci v8 making 160 hp. Now you get that out of an engine half the size that will last 2 or 3 times as long.

 

[dwellonrooftop]

I have a 2011 BMW diesel X5 and no dipstick at all.