Toyota suggests 10K oil changes, a practice that I hate. We recently purchased a 2021 Highlander Hybrid with 50,000 miles and it had only had 5 oil changes. I am starting a 5000 mile regimen, but I was concerned that the long intervals might have been bad for the car. The more I think about it, I realize that a Hybrid engine runs less per mile on average due to the electric motors. Do you have any data on how much less the engine actually runs on a hybrid?
I have a friend with the RAV4 Hybrid, I believe it is the same engine as the Highlander hybrid. They did the oil changes every 10K while they were “free” from ToyotaCare, and then switched to 5K after my urging.
They did an oil analysis after the 5K interval, and it said that the oil could potentially go to 10k. But I’d still stick to 5K.
I am not sure about the exact numbers, but it is definitely less. There is no barely any idling in stop and go traffic. And if you are gentle with your take off from a stop, you can catch good speed before the engine needs to engage.
If this were a regular gas car I’d be a little more concerned with the 10K interval. But since it is a hybrid, the engine isn’t always on.
Bonus points if the previous owner did mostly long freeway driving. It’s less wear on the engine.
You might do a search of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) publications to see if they studied it. It's an interesting question.
In the meantime, I think @kaizen is on to something. If you get an oil analysis once or twice, that will give you a little extra info on whether your engine has any abnormal wear. It's probably fine, regardless, but that could give you some peace of mind.
Cheers!
