sciontc_mich

yeah mobil makes toyota's brand of oil so i agree, check out mobil's offerings

LostCause

Alrighty i saw some posts about it being mobil also. Ill head down to napa later see what they have.

10gxiong

i just changed my ATF about 100 miiles ago. i used Castrol Import Multi–Vehicle ATF.

alltracman78

Perfect example.
Here's the thing that you [plural] don't seem to understand; the recommended change interval is while the "parts" are still good. Have you ever taken a look at your spark plugs at 30 or 60 K? Even at 90K they're normally fine. You could probably run your iridium plugs to 200K or further with no issues. I've seen copper plugs used for over 100,000 miles and platinums ran well over 100,000 miles; the recommended interval for coppers is 30K and platinums is 60k. This isn't to say that you should run them for that long, but it certainly shows that the plugs last far beyond their recommended replacement interval.
The same goes for your fluids.
Your oil isn't worn out at 5k, nor is it worn out at 7.5K. Neither is your transmission or power steering fluid at 60K, nor your coolant at 100K. I can tell you from experience that engine/transmission problems aren't normally caused by the condition of the fluid, they're caused by a lack of fluid.
Have you ever bothered to send a sample of your fluid out to be checked? If you're that worried about taking care of your vehicle, you might want to think about that.
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/gas_engines.html
http://www.oaitesting.com/
http://www.analystsinc.com/
http://www.polarislabs1.com/

Those are a small fraction of what's out there.

Do you change your tires when they're only halfway worn? How about your brake pads and rotors? What about your radiator hoses and vacuum lines? And your engine seals? If you're that concerned about keeping your engine running at "optimal performance" all the time, why don't you keep up on everything?
You know what probably could use to be changed that you don't? Your brake fluid. It absorbs moisture from the air and through your soft brake lines, as well as debris/decay from your metal and rubber lines.

Is your engine air filter always pure white? ANY debris/dust will effect how much air the filter will flow. ANY wearing and heating of your tires degrades wet and dry performance. The thinner your brake pads are the less heat they can absorb. Same goes for the rotors. If you have over 20,000 miles on your engine the oil pan is probably seeping oil out the rear of the seal. But you can probably drive it that way for another 60K+, even as it gets worse, your engine isn't going even notice. Why not change your oil every 500 miles? The fluid does degrade with time and wear, if you need optimal, you shouldn't wait til 3K. The point being something doesn't have to be perfect to work just fine AND give "optimal" results.

The same goes for synthetic fluids. Yes they'll last longer than regular ones, but if you change it that early it doesn't make a difference, and the vast majority of you don't run your engine hard enough to make a difference. 6500 RPMs, 10 drag races on the track a month and a few stop lights to stop lights are NOT running your engine hard. Synthetic doesn't perform better than regular right away, it just tends to last longer.

It's not "bad" for your engine to change these things super early, but it is a waste of money and resources. You can do what you want with your car, but it WON'T make a difference in the longevity or performance of the car, what ever you want to think.
The exception being if you have a specific problem with something.

kuo34

It's not really about keeping my fluids fresh. It's a good excuse to crawl under the car and look around. It's a lot easier to tell the wife "I'm going to change the oil." Of course then it's suspicious when I don't.

It seems to me that folks that do maintenance often tend to be those that are paying attention to their vehicles, which leads to finding little problems sooner.

78 has excellent points about the condition of fluids in the vehicle and the fact that you will probably have less problems keeping fluids topped off than fresh and running low.

That being said, you'll probably find me underneath my car at least once a month, changing fluids and making sure nothing's gone loose or fallen off.

LostCause

Well its a good wright up

I know that these fuids last loger then at the intervalls im changing them at but i guess im being paranoid. Its just i dont think changing those minor things are very expensive, but from what your saying i might be overdoing it lol.