When to service/oil change?

[darthpuppy]

Okay I did the oil change today. Prior, it said service was due in 16 days, which would put the car at 6.5 months of ownership and right about 7,500 miles driven (3,000 on gas engine). After reset, it says next maintenance is due in 6 months, so it might be time based, except I've always heard that for low mileage vehicles, the oil change should be annual.

I had no problems with the underside panel connectors using a normal flathead screw driver. However, I will get a better matching one next time I'm at the store so I don't risk messing those slots up.

This was a pretty easy oil change. Far easier than my Highlander Hybrid where the oil filter is hard to reach and the oil dribbles over a couple parts on the way to the catch basin. And doing it myself, there is no concern about it not getting the proper 0w-20 oil, which has somehow stumped multiple Toyota dealers.

[jzchen]

That's terrible that Toyota dealers are using the wrong oil weight. I guess they want you to change oil every 5k miles/6 months, because if you don't use 0W-20, that's what is noted in the Maintenance Manual. I did not have trouble with Pasadena in the past with a Prius v.

With regards to the air filter, looks like it's somewhat involved. I haven't sorted out the interval I'm afraid.....

[darthpuppy]

The air filter looks fairly straight forward. I haven't seen any videos for changing this filter on the Clarity yet, but I do see videos for current era Accords and it looks very similar. While it is different than the other cars I've done, having seen the video for the Accord, I think I can change the air filter without damaging the tabs that slide into a specific place. Had I not watched the video, I probably would have undone the clamps and pulled up and probably messed up those tabs.

[jzchen]

At roughly 6700 miles, the service indicator is saying "Soon A 0 1". We are 4 weeks out it also notes. Have a Fram Ultra XG7317 filter I purchased from Walmart. Going to see if I have a filter wrench that fits, before sourcing another one. Interested in using the torque setting I noted. My best estimate is the 7500 miles as darthpuppy/you noted!

[jzchen]

4 weeks out progressed to 10 days 2 days ago, then yesterday all of a sudden became due, at 72xx miles. Gonna try to change the oil, have tires rotated, and inspect the inspection items today....

[jzchen]

A 0 1 was due as of yesterday, so today I dropped off my son at school and went directly to America's Tire in Pasadena for a tire rotation. Once done, I decided to reset just the "1". I went to the Maintenance reset mode and selected item "1". Once reset, it displayed "A 0", and then displayed a new due time frame of 4 Months. I guess I'll wait for it to show A 0 due before I do the oil change and inspections.

[darthpuppy]

Oh that is very interesting! So that first maintenance reminder is probably driven by the tire rotation targeting 7,500 miles, and just lumps in the oil change as part of that. Good discovery!

I was thinking the oil change was being prompted rather early given that these have synthetic oil. Given how little the gas engine runs, it probably should be done annually. I will likely finish my first year at about 16,000 miles, which should be roughly 6,400 miles on the gas engine. So an annual oil change should be good.

[jzchen]

It was definitely by accident that I found the interval for tire rotation to be 7250 miles. I am somewhat OC so as I left the tire shop I wanted to try to reset the rotation before I drove home to do the oil change. Then the due date changed on me. It still says 4 months to this day for A 0.