I have 2011 Rav 4 Auto with 253000 kms on it. Is Toyota recommendation to change oil & filter every 6 months or 12 months? Also OEM oil ($ 60) & filter ($25) , air filter ($80) and normal auto parts shops sell oil for $25 & filter for $15, air filter ($ 45). If it is every 6 month service should I use OEM oil & filters? I normally drives 8000kms an year.
Toyota doesn't make their own oil or filters. Just use good quality oil and filters that meet Toyota's specifications.
@chucktobias so what does toyota dealer sells under Toyota OEM oil?
They get it from one or more of the major motor oil producers, I have no idea which.
Don't use Toyota's recommendations for oil change intervals. It's based on warranty requirements and not what's best for your engine. Scotty recommends every 5K miles(8K km) or once a year, whichever occurs first.Is Toyota recommendation to change oil & filter every 6 months or 12 months
As mentioned above Toyota doesn't make oil or filters so as long as you use quality filters and a full synthetic GF-6 oil you've done your best.
According to independent oil filter testing. Toyota oil filters have some of the worst filtering performance. I'm not sure where Brand Ranks bought their Toyota oil filter from. If they bought it off Amazon there's a high probability it's a counterfeit part which would explain the oil filter's poor filtering performance.
https://youtu.be/RLcfBG9yUmg?t=309
I like to buy premium oil filters. I'll spend an extra $5 on a premium oil filter that I change once a year. It seems silly not to. The latest oil filter I bought is the Purolator Boss. I might try out the Frame Ultra Synthetic oil filter next since it's available at Walmart and scored well in filtration testing.
I also change the oil filter and motor oil every 5,000 miles or once a year, even though on the oil filter box it states the oil filter can go 20,000 miles. If I had a turbo charged vehicle I'd change them both at 3,000 miles due to turbo charged engines having high in-cylinder pressure which wears the piston rings out faster. The turbo charger spins at 20,000+ RPM which wears the motor oil out faster too.
For my next oil change I'm switching to Valvoline Restore and Protect full synthetic. The motor oil appears to do a good job keeping the inside of engines clean. Which helps prevent piston rings from sticking.
Recently I've learned about certain gas stations selling Top Tier fuel with detergent and fuel injector cleaning additives above the EPA minimum requirements. Toyota recommends running Top Tier fuel in their vehicles, as do other automotive manufacturers. It's important to note that Top Tier fuel is available in all octane levels, including Regular 87 octane.
I've come to learn the fuel in a vehicle is just as important as the oil. If the fuel injectors become clogged, the fuel can't atomize and it won't burn. Which leads to what's called cylinder washdown. The unburnt fuel washes all the oil off the cylinder walls which causes the piston rings and cylinder walls to wear down. Once that happens blowby starts to occure, leading to a loss of power. Along with fuel and exhaust gases blowing by the piston rings and going into the oil pan and contaminating thr oil. Leads to accelerated engine wear.
When it comes to transmission, transfer case, differential fluid, and coolant. I'll only buy OEM fluid. Transmission fluid has the most complex additives package out of all vehicle fluids. Plus only half the fluid comes out during a drain and fill on transmissions and I don't think mixing two types of transmission fluid together is a good idea. I also don't want to risk something going wrong with the transfer case, differentials, or coolant system because it's very expensive and time consuming to replace them, so I just buy the OEM fluid and do 50,000 mile or 5 year drain and fill intervals for those fluids.
with a high km vehicle that, you may want to shorten your service interval to squeeze out as much life as you can. Just use high quality oil and filters (check specs in manual). You don't need OEM.
