# PHEV oil change intervals?



## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

raylo32 said:


> And, of course, there are infinite combinations of EV and ICE mileage mixes depending on how much and how you drive. So, when do you change the engine oil? Do these things have engine hour meters or does the system keep tabs of how many miles are EV and how many use the ICE?


I figure it depends on the model and manufacturer. You would think that it would be easy for any the car to keep track of your driving pattern and adapt the oil change interval to your specific driving pattern. I used to have a 1998 ICE car that did that. But I have not seen that on any car I have owned since.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Many cars do that, like my Corvette. It uses an algorithm to determine oil life... and also a timer that times out in 1 year. This is a low mileage vehicle, so I change it once a year. It would be better for a PHEV to provide more than just a light that comes on telling you when you need to change the oil. I like to know ahead of time so I can plan for it... like if it is about to be due before a road trip go ahead and change it early, etc. Again, on the Corvette there is an "oil life % remaining" readout in the menus so you can see where you stand. Hoping PHEVs at least have something like that?



SPS-1 said:


> I figure it depends on the model and manufacturer. You would think that it would be easy for any the car to keep track of your driving pattern and adapt the oil change interval to your specific driving pattern. I used to have a 1998 ICE car that did that. But I have not seen that on any car I have owned since.


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## ukrkoz (Dec 31, 2010)

Toyota WILL tell you that you need to plan oil change. It starts with "change oil soon" message, that disappears after some time, and then goes into perma message, blocking MFD data, until you reset it.
If you like planning ahead, you should not be worried and if you go long haul trip, it's America, oil change places everywhere. Don't overthink this.


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## Brainbucket (Mar 30, 2015)

3000 miles or 6 months. Chevy says 7500 miles. No way would I go that long. It's not the oil life I'm worried about but the debris in the oil that's churning around. Synthetic oil washes your engine. Think about it. People that goes by the manufacture oil change rule doesn't have good engine life that I've seen.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Brainbucket said:


> People that goes by the manufacture oil change rule doesn't have good engine life that I've seen.


I have a few vehicles with over 200,000 miles, and I change the oil about every 6000 to 7000 miles, or 6 months.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Too funny how any thread with "oil" in the subject ends up beating the same old dead horses. My only question is how in actual practice does a PHEV account for engine miles vs EV miles since you don't want to count EV miles towards oil changes. Of course, Toyota is probably smart about it, but I am guessing no one here has one to report.


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## ukrkoz (Dec 31, 2010)

As I said, Toyota WILL tell you, when to but, if you so much want first hand opinions, or a bunch of dead horses, you can go to toyotanation plug in hybrids section and ask there. I have consolidated oil threads there, have at it.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

LOL... more dead horses and already known info. Par for the course in a forum, I suppose. But it still puzzles me why folks feel like they have to post irrelevant answers that don't even go to the question. Got the same nonsense results at ToyotaNation. There just aren't enough of these out there yet to get a response from someone that has one.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Here is a great youtube video from across the pond. Harry here is giving a report of driving a PHEV BMW X5 45e for a good long test of over a month. In it he mentions that the car gives him a running total of overall miles and pure EV miles, so one can easily determine how many miles the gas engine has accumulated. This is what I would have expected and how I would design it. I would make it with 2 levels, one from inception and one resettable like a trip meter. He didn't cover it in that much detail, however, but I suspect it was resettable because he said it was for the time they were driving it.... so unless he got it brand new it had to be resettable.

Anyway, this is a great video that touches on many EV subjects and voices my main concern with pure BEVs, which is charging whilst away from home. Plus, his understated British approach is so refreshing as compared to many US youtubers who just have to try to be over the top about everything. Enjoy.


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