[Sofrieta]

No i don't watch him I'll have to check it out but I've been living by that for 36 years and had luck and those were mostly American made I believe paying $30 for oil and filter and doing it myself is well worth it instead of blowing up an engine or making a car burn oil by not changing it Nice Duster by the way

 

[Dusty]

I don't do a lot of miles. So, I'll wait for the annual oil change.

My engine doesn't have a turbo that requires clean oil.

 

[alabeer]

I don't do a lot of miles. So, I'll wait for the annual oil change.

My engine doesn't have a turbo that requires clean oil.

It is not just a turbo that needs clean oil. An engine has a multitude of bearings and wear surfaces that need clean, good oil as well. And, it is not just dirt that is the problem. Oil, even synthetic, has additives to make the oil compatible with the heat and pressures of internal combustion engines. Those additives break down over time, more so with heat. In other words, the oil wears out! While 5,000 miles seems soon compared to the owner's manual, that manual was written by engineers that want a car to last 100k. Most owners trade their cars by then or every 4 years. If that is your situation, no worries.

 

[Dusty]

It is not just a turbo that needs clean oil. An engine has a multitude of bearings and wear surfaces that need clean, good oil as well. And, it is not just dirt that is the problem. Oil, even synthetic, has additives to make the oil compatible with the heat and pressures of internal combustion engines. Those additives break down over time, more so with heat. In other words, the oil wears out! While 5,000 miles seems soon compared to the owner's manual, that manual was written by engineers that want a car to last 100k. Most owners trade their cars by then or every 4 years. If that is your situation, no worries.

My owner's book recommends oil, oil filter, air conditioning (pollen?) filter replacement and hybrid battery cooling intake filter inspection / cleaning at 12 months or 15,000 kms (about 9,317 miles). Go figure

 

[nofearmfd2]

Yeah, I also follow manufacturer's recommendations, change the filter every time, and have never had an issue with several engines I've run well over 100k mi. When I started driving back in the late 60s engines (and oil) were relatively primitive so we changed oil every 3k mi. For the last 30+ years, unless I'm driving in extreme conditions (rare) changing oil (especially modern synthetic formulations) every 5K miles gains absolutely nothing (as in zero benefit) and feels like throwing money away. YMMV

My 1 year old CCH just reached 10,000 miles and got its first oil change (full synthetic) at the local Toyota dealership. However, they did do a filter change at 5,000 miles per the manual. FYI, I also have a 2006 Audi A3 turbo and it only needs a full synthetic oil change every 15,000 miles.

 

[scolegate]

I've only owned my CCH for 3 months, but my oil change rule of thumb has been 6 months/5000 miles. However, if after 6 months I have fewer than 2000 miles on that oil change, I will stretch the time interval to maybe 7 or 8 months, never a year. And so far I've always put at least 2000 miles on an oil change before 8 months. Using that rule, my 1986 Nissan had over 250,000 miles on it before I gave it away, and the engine still ran fine (everything else failed).

I saw this earlier elsewhere and thought I would share it:
I’m an engineer who worked for Petronas back in 2016 in the lubricants division. One thing I can tell you is that 99.9% of the population (including mechanics) have no knowledge about lubricants. Everyone has guesses. My first advice is: Don’t trust other people’s guesses. My division had one of the 5 main labs of the company around the world. You could check every single thing related to the fluids we produced. Now going back to you question: If you put a 5W30 instead of 5W20, you won’t notice anything instantly, but it will speed up the wear and tear of the engine system. It will also overload the oil pump, as it was designed to work with the 5W20 oil. The pump will have to work around 40% more to move the oil around. As I said, you wouldn’t see anything catastrophic happening, but it’s far from ideal. It’s like inflation. If you print tons of money now, you will start to see the consequences in a few years and you might not be able to tell where the problem started. If this was my car, I would replace the oil, specially if you like the car. Just a few more things for people who are interested. If your car asks for 5W20 and you get 0W20, this is completely fine, as the number before the W refers to the viscosity of the oil before the engine heats up. The lower the number, the less will its viscosity be and therefore, the quicker the oil will fill all the necessary areas in the engine, reducing the friction. But this will be a more expensive oil. The other thing is that at the time, I had a Honda Civic 2008 and used it as an experiment to see if I really needed to change the oil like the manufacturer said (every 10k km or 1 year). Every oil change I would collect the oil and take it to the lab to analyse it. The oil is like the blood of the car. The tests show a range of important information such as if the oil still maintains its original characteristics based on a large number of parameters and detection of small metal particles coming from the engine. I started testing it at 10,000km. The car was already 8 years old. The oil was still in spec and no metal particles detected. Tested again at 12,500. Same result. Tested again at 15,000. The oil went to the lower range of the acceptable characteristics but was still within spec. With 17,500 the oil finally showed characteristics of an oil that needed to be changed, but was still in working condition. Keep in mind that lots of factors can influence these results, specially the car brand and it’s engine syatem quality. Japanese cars tend to be a lot more reliable. One last thing: if the oil is black, that tells you nothing.

 

[metrovan3]

I don't do a lot of miles. So, I'll wait for the annual oil change.

My engine doesn't have a turbo that requires clean oil.

Don’t wait, every six months or 5k. Get that factory break in oil out of there. Whether or not you have 100 miles up to 5K. I changed the oil at 900 miles after six months, don’t rely on that 10k or one year nonsense. Nevertheless take the 2 year fee oil changes on top of any you do.
Toyota will not do the free oil service before the one year period. With the advent of soft piston rings , change the oil more often then not.

 

[Jerry101]

According to Toyota and two out of four dealer service departments that I've asked, the "recommended" oil change interval for the Corolla Cross is 10,000 miles or one year. This is based, I'm told, on the advancements in the quality of the current generation of synthetic motor oils and the studies performed by Toyota. I assume that to come to this conclusion, the Toyota engineers drive a vehicle for 10,000 miles, teardown the engine and measure each moving part for wear. More than likely, they run an engine on a test block in a lab for a calculated number of hours and if it hasn't failed, the oil must be good for 10,000 miles. It doesn't take rocket science to realize that this just ain't the same as actually driving a car for 10,000 miles under real world conditions of start/stop, accelerate/decelerate, full throttle acceleration, periods of extended idol, varying climate conditions, etc., etc. and so on.

If you buy into this, fine. It's your car. But I just don't buy into this theory. First, the 10,000 mile interval is based on "optimum driving conditions". What exactly are optimum driving conditions? Toyota doesn't explain that in the owner's manual. None of the dealer's that I asked could provide a definitive answer. If you have an explanation, I'd like to hear it. Second, why the specification of "10,000 miles OR one year?" Consider this. Which is harder on oil over a period of one year: driving 10,000 miles or 1,000 miles? So if you only drive 1,000 miles in one year, why not just change the oil every ten years? You all are at least smart enough to come up with the answer, so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why.

Call me old school, tell me that I'm wasting money, I'm contributing to pollution, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, but I firmly believe in the 5,000 mile/6 month oil change interval. I do this based on my driving habits. 90% of the trips that we make with our 2023 AWD Corolla Cross is five miles or less in mostly stop/go traffic. This is very tough on a cars engine. Much tougher than if we drove it on, oh say, a 40 mile round trip daily commute. To put this into an even clearer prospective, we took deliver in October, 2023. In February, 2024, we reached 1,000 miles. At that time we changed the oil because this is the widely accepted break in period. It is now approaching the end of July, six months from the 1,000 mile break in oil change. The car has about 3,750 miles and I will change the oil even though we still have one Toyota new car "freebie" oil change remaining.

Now you're probably asking if I would do the same if I did indeed drove a 40 mile daily commute. My answer is yes, I would. Engines like three things: clean oil, clean air and top tier gasoline. Changing oil myself costs a bit over thirty bucks for high grade oil and an OEM filter and only takes about 30 minutes. The going rate at my local dealer is $64.95. 30 minutes to/from the dealer and a 1 to 1.5 hour wait. Either way, oil changes are cheap. Engine rebuilds are VERY expensive. But like I said, it's your car.

Anyway, I'd like to at least get a straw poll count of forum members who do 5,000mi./6 mo. as opposed to 10,000 mi./1 yr.

Happy Motoring

Have you had the oil tested. If so please post the oil slips. I've used Blackstone and tend to follow their advice.

 

[Dusty]

I do add fuel injector cleaner to my tank every 5,000 kms (about 3,100 miles).

 

[MHunst]

According to Toyota and two out of four dealer service departments that I've asked, the "recommended" oil change interval for the Corolla Cross is 10,000 miles or one year. This is based, I'm told, on the advancements in the quality of the current generation of synthetic motor oils and the studies performed by Toyota. I assume that to come to this conclusion, the Toyota engineers drive a vehicle for 10,000 miles, teardown the engine and measure each moving part for wear. More than likely, they run an engine on a test block in a lab for a calculated number of hours and if it hasn't failed, the oil must be good for 10,000 miles. It doesn't take rocket science to realize that this just ain't the same as actually driving a car for 10,000 miles under real world conditions of start/stop, accelerate/decelerate, full throttle acceleration, periods of extended idol, varying climate conditions, etc., etc. and so on.

If you buy into this, fine. It's your car. But I just don't buy into this theory. First, the 10,000 mile interval is based on "optimum driving conditions". What exactly are optimum driving conditions? Toyota doesn't explain that in the owner's manual. None of the dealer's that I asked could provide a definitive answer. If you have an explanation, I'd like to hear it. Second, why the specification of "10,000 miles OR one year?" Consider this. Which is harder on oil over a period of one year: driving 10,000 miles or 1,000 miles? So if you only drive 1,000 miles in one year, why not just change the oil every ten years? You all are at least smart enough to come up with the answer, so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why.

Call me old school, tell me that I'm wasting money, I'm contributing to pollution, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, but I firmly believe in the 5,000 mile/6 month oil change interval. I do this based on my driving habits. 90% of the trips that we make with our 2023 AWD Corolla Cross is five miles or less in mostly stop/go traffic. This is very tough on a cars engine. Much tougher than if we drove it on, oh say, a 40 mile round trip daily commute. To put this into an even clearer prospective, we took deliver in October, 2023. In February, 2024, we reached 1,000 miles. At that time we changed the oil because this is the widely accepted break in period. It is now approaching the end of July, six months from the 1,000 mile break in oil change. The car has about 3,750 miles and I will change the oil even though we still have one Toyota new car "freebie" oil change remaining.

Now you're probably asking if I would do the same if I did indeed drove a 40 mile daily commute. My answer is yes, I would. Engines like three things: clean oil, clean air and top tier gasoline. Changing oil myself costs a bit over thirty bucks for high grade oil and an OEM filter and only takes about 30 minutes. The going rate at my local dealer is $64.95. 30 minutes to/from the dealer and a 1 to 1.5 hour wait. Either way, oil changes are cheap. Engine rebuilds are VERY expensive. But like I said, it's your car.

Anyway, I'd like to at least get a straw poll count of forum members who do 5,000mi./6 mo. as opposed to 10,000 mi./1 yr.

Happy Motoring

Yes I Do !
Love my CCross'23 and will Always chg. Synthetic Amsoil OW-16 every 5,000. I am generally doing 12,000 miles a year or more, I work in Home Health PT so I get around. I also did the Early Oil chg before 2,000 Miles. Such a simple thing for the Long Life of my Motor!
Marian
Duluth, Mn

 

[lekaido]

Do you watch THE CAR CARE NUT on you tube. He is strictly a Lexus and Toyota certified technician. He has years of experience. He can't say it enough. Oil changes every 5,000 miles or 6 months. The

Yup. Every 6 months. Spring and autumn, as the winter is the worst period for everything on the car. The Car Care Nut highly recommended, he has some pretty interesting things to show of Toyotas.
Btw, I kept my last car (a Mitsubishi Outlander) for 10 years, and the one thing I got wrong on that one, was the oil changes - also followed the official schedule. But I think that it was a big mistake to do so and yes the engine did start consuming oil at some point, which I think could have been avoided. Lets see how it goes with the CCH.

 

[Traci]

According to Toyota and two out of four dealer service departments that I've asked, the "recommended" oil change interval for the Corolla Cross is 10,000 miles or one year. This is based, I'm told, on the advancements in the quality of the current generation of synthetic motor oils and the studies performed by Toyota. I assume that to come to this conclusion, the Toyota engineers drive a vehicle for 10,000 miles, teardown the engine and measure each moving part for wear. More than likely, they run an engine on a test block in a lab for a calculated number of hours and if it hasn't failed, the oil must be good for 10,000 miles. It doesn't take rocket science to realize that this just ain't the same as actually driving a car for 10,000 miles under real world conditions of start/stop, accelerate/decelerate, full throttle acceleration, periods of extended idol, varying climate conditions, etc., etc. and so on.

If you buy into this, fine. It's your car. But I just don't buy into this theory. First, the 10,000 mile interval is based on "optimum driving conditions". What exactly are optimum driving conditions? Toyota doesn't explain that in the owner's manual. None of the dealer's that I asked could provide a definitive answer. If you have an explanation, I'd like to hear it. Second, why the specification of "10,000 miles OR one year?" Consider this. Which is harder on oil over a period of one year: driving 10,000 miles or 1,000 miles? So if you only drive 1,000 miles in one year, why not just change the oil every ten years? You all are at least smart enough to come up with the answer, so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why.

Call me old school, tell me that I'm wasting money, I'm contributing to pollution, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, but I firmly believe in the 5,000 mile/6 month oil change interval. I do this based on my driving habits. 90% of the trips that we make with our 2023 AWD Corolla Cross is five miles or less in mostly stop/go traffic. This is very tough on a cars engine. Much tougher than if we drove it on, oh say, a 40 mile round trip daily commute. To put this into an even clearer prospective, we took deliver in October, 2023. In February, 2024, we reached 1,000 miles. At that time we changed the oil because this is the widely accepted break in period. It is now approaching the end of July, six months from the 1,000 mile break in oil change. The car has about 3,750 miles and I will change the oil even though we still have one Toyota new car "freebie" oil change remaining.

Now you're probably asking if I would do the same if I did indeed drove a 40 mile daily commute. My answer is yes, I would. Engines like three things: clean oil, clean air and top tier gasoline. Changing oil myself costs a bit over thirty bucks for high grade oil and an OEM filter and only takes about 30 minutes. The going rate at my local dealer is $64.95. 30 minutes to/from the dealer and a 1 to 1.5 hour wait. Either way, oil changes are cheap. Engine rebuilds are VERY expensive. But like I said, it's your car.

Anyway, I'd like to at least get a straw poll count of forum members who do 5,000mi./6 mo. as opposed to 10,000 mi./1 yr.

Happy Motoring

I'm purchasing the 2026. I was told 1x a yr/10,000 miles. I plan to do it 5,000 miles. What weight of oil are you using?

 

[Pvilleskier]

I did my first oil change in our hybrid Cross at 1,000 miles, which I always do with new cars. Since then I have changed the oil between 4k and 5k miles. This is my 6th Toyota vehicle going back to 1986 and I have pretty much always followed this schedule. None of my Toyotas have ever used oil. Everything I have read tells me 10k oil change intervals are only OK under perfect conditions - nearly all highway driving with almost no short trips, especially in cold weather. IMO, cars are just too expensive to risk over something as easy and cheap as an oil change.

 

[lekaido]

I tried TWICE to schedule an earlier oil change than 15000km/1 year interval with my regular dealer-service.
They talked me out of this both times.

Now I'm going to have to find a non-dealer shop to do the change more often.
Previous experience with another Japanese car (Mitsubishi Outlander 2.0) over 10 years showed that at one point
the regular maintenance interval will result in cylinder wall damage.

I too drive short distances mostly, on a cold engine in a city.
Looking at the service manual they(almost) say there as well that this driving style is hard for the engine.
And yes, I too have watched the Car Care Nut on Youtube.

 

[alabeer]

I tried TWICE to schedule an earlier oil change than 15000km/1 year interval with my regular dealer-service.
They talked me out of this both times.

Now I'm going to have to find a non-dealer shop to do the change more often.
Previous experience with another Japanese car (Mitsubishi Outlander 2.0) over 10 years showed that at one point
the regular maintenance interval will result in cylinder wall damage.

I too drive short distances mostly, on a cold engine in a city.
Looking at the service manual they(almost) say there as well that this driving style is hard for the engine.
And yes, I too have watched the Car Care Nut on Youtube.

I've done my own oil changes since I started driving in 1969! It used to be every 2,500 - 3,000 miles. As I drove longer distances because of college, then work, I let it go to 3,500 to 4,000 miles. Every car went over 170,000 miles (and never used oil) until I parted ways due to divorce or just to upgrade to nicer stuff. Now, I have '02 Civic, '22 RAV4, and '23 Cross. The Civic has 185,000 miles and gets an oil change every 3,500 miles - non-synthetic. The two Toyotas get one every 5,000 miles at the dealer. I got some free oil changes there because of dealer problems when I ordered both cars. When I am out of them, I'm going to a local oil change shop.
My dealer charges $110 for oil, filter, and tire rotation and it takes 2 hours! Plus, he's an hour away! Being free is barely worth the time.
We do not drive the Toyota's daily, we are retired. We do drive them weekly and 20 miles or more on those trips. Short trips are killers for engines. I've never had an oil burner since I started driving.

 

[Strandskogen]

2024 CCH owner here. We are at 11,000 miles now. The 5k maintenance mentioned, from Toyota, is only for tire rotation. Recently we just had Toyota perform the tire balance again at 10K plus the 'first' oil change...I personally 'augment' Toyota's free two-year maintenance by changing the oil myself in between their free maintenance intervals. So far, I changed the oil at 1,500 and 5k miles (As others have mentioned, about $30 in oil / filter per change, doing it myself). Too many manufacturers including Toyota, Audi, etc. that claim the 10k oil changes are only trying to keep the vehicle running until the warranty expires. And far too many modern cars will need engine work shortly after 100k miles if you stick with 10k mile oil changes.

 

[Dusty]

I'm purchasing the 2026. I was told 1x a yr/10,000 miles. I plan to do it 5,000 miles. What weight of oil are you using?

First post Traci - welcome to the forum.

 

[jonigro]

I'm purchasing the 2026. I was told 1x a yr/10,000 miles. I plan to do it 5,000 miles. What weight of oil are you using?

Use the weight recommended by Toyota: 0W-16. And the oil grade should be ILSAC GF-6B. When bearing (and other) clearances were designed, the engineers had to consider the oil weight. Thicker oil may cause the bearings not to get as much lubrication as they need, causing excess wear. The correct weight oil provides proper lubrication. Thicker oil increases engine wear and reduces gas mileage. All synthetic oil costs about the same, so there's no reason to use anything other than what's recommended.