I recently purchased a 2004 Camry LE (4 cyl). The owner's manual and Toyota dealership tell me to change the oil every 5000 miles. However, I have always changed the oil in my vehicles every 3000 miles (even in previous Toyotas that I owned many years ago). When do you change the oil in your Camry?

 

i change my oil every 3k too......

 

If you honestly drive lightly you could get away with 5K.

If you dont drive really lightly or you drive with junk in the trunk, change 3K. check your oil at 3K and if it looks dirty, go get it changed.
Newer cars have extended drain intervals, but down the road 10 years from now, i dont think it's benificial to try to stretch regular oil 2k more miles.

If you are running synthetic blend or full synthetic you can definately get away with 5K or more.

 

I say every 3k. Theres nothing wrong with changing it that much better to be safe than sorry. The oil is the blood of the engine and I say whatever to do to keep it running at its best then changing it every 3k is doing something better for it and it does prolong engine life greatly, but anyway like all toyotas these things will be running forever way over 300,000 Miles if not more. Agree?

 

well with regular oil yes 3K. with synthetic...why?

 

Changing your oil every 3 or 5k is a complete waste of time. 5k with regular dino oil is absolutely fine, even if it's hard rush hour driving. With synthetic you can reach 10-15k. I normally change mine at the 10k mark using Amsoil. The best way to find out what the best oil change interval is for your car is to do oil analysis. It's cheap and you will know for certain how long you can go between oil changes. Check out bobistheoilguy.com. Without a doubt the best site for oil related questions. They have many oil analysis posted for tons of different vehicles.

 

if you have a sludge prone engine (as indicated by the manufacturer) dont even consider doing 5K intervals with dino oil. But of course by the time your engine is deemed sludge prone its already too late.
if you keep a record and follow what your manual says, at the very least you'll get re-imbursed for some repairs needed on your vehicle.
Historically there havent been many engines that surived past the 200K mark without more frequent oil changes (using regular dino oil).

 

The owner's manual of my previous car also said to change oil, using dino, every 5k miles. That car is now a paperweight due to infamous sludge (and yes, I did my maintenance per the schedule of the manual). I've got a new camry, and you can bet i'll be changing my oil every 3k miles with full premium synthetic. Why take a chance on saving a few bucks now when it can end up biting you in the rear later on? I feel like I could go to work for Bobtheoilguy practically with all the research I've done! Good luck with your new car!

 

how old was this manual?
Dino should never be changed at 5k intervals unless its in a newer designed engine. Even that is pushing it. 3K for dino. 3k for synthetic is just silly unless you drag race/track your car constantly.

5-10K for synthetic is fine. I do 5K because my 1mz is DIRTY.

Good luck.

 

The manual was for a 2003 car. Needless to say, they kinda blew it (and my engine as well for following what the manual stated like clockwork). To me now that I've educated myself far beyond what I ever wished to know about oils, I will go with better securely safe than sorry and being faced with putting a new engine in a car that's barely worth more than the engine replacement. So, every 3k with fully synthetic for me. I'll be buying my own and my face will be a regular in the service bay making sure what I provide is actually put in the car.

Edited to add that I don't now nor have I ever dragged or raced, just driven normally. I can't afford to buy another new car (nor really this one, but I had no choice) due to problems with oil sludge/coking/gel, so the investment in the oil is worth it for me. Additionally, going over 5k miles between recommended oil changes will void any powertrain warranties, so I'm not about to go there.

Thanks for the good luck wish.