Consensus on 12 month interval oil changes

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New to being a member but have known about this site for years. I do not see a Search function but I know it exists so excuse the repeat question.

I have a 2009 Tacoma that I put between 9,000 and 10,000 miles on per year. Although the manual states I should change the oil every 5,000 I typically push it to the 9,000 to 10,000 since I always run a quality synthetic (such as Mobil 1) and a quality Mobil 1 or K & N filer.

My concern is the degradation of the oil from forming of condensation. I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and we have quite harsh, long cold winters. By the time spring comes the motor has been through many cold starts obviously.

Am I pushing my luck only changing the oil every November? Rather should I be changing it every 6 months?

Just as a note, no severe duty. All trips are 20 minutes or more into town so the car does have time to warm up properly on each trip.
 
You could do a UOA to verify, but my guess is you're fine doing annual achanges. Thats what I do, too.

How large is your sump?
 
20 minutes might not be an adequate trip for warmup, especially if that's a lot of stop and go, low speed driving. If you're getting 10-12 miles or more per trip that's ok, though 15-20 would be best. I do 8,000 miles per year in a cold climate and do 2 OCI's with a top synthetic per year. My typical winter trips tend to be anywhere from 6-14 miles. I'm not convinced the numerous shorter trips are long enough to get things fully warmed up.
 
I would just change it every 6 months or 5,000 miles like the manual suggests. I'd also use conventional oil.

If you really want to push for a year and 10,000 miles I'd do the change after the long hard winter (not before) and do an oil analysis to make sure the oil is holding up.
 
Hi, former Michi-goner here. (Flint)

Other than doing trending with VOA's and UOA's, change oil according to the severe service schedule.
 
I'd follow the severe service interval, or 6 months or 5K miles which ever comes first. Or get a UOA and see how your oil is holding up and base your OCI on that data.
 
Yearly is no problem. My dad has an FJ Cruiser 4.0L and has gone almost 10k on Pennzoil Ultra and a Fram Ultra oil filter.

Also, K&N filters are garbage, I wouldn't call them quality.
 
I'd agree... 20 miles isn't really a warm up and I'd consider that short-tripping. To compromise I'd average the regular service interval & severe, I'd double that and divide by Pi and I'd continue to use synthetic.
 
Send me a Dobbers Pasties or a Hilltop cinnamon bun and I will answer your question.

Everyone above has already addressed your concerns. The only way to know is to do a UOA. The Yooper climate has dramatic differences from one area to another and its tough to guess if your driving style is "oil easy". Unless you live in the slightly more temperate Escanaba banana belt area, I would be inclined to do 6 month OCIs myself.
 
The moisture stuff is a bit exagerated. Much less in fuel and in oil, nowadays. Not that much air vapors coming in modern, long pcv pipes. There have to get a big spread of temperature to fresh air getting inside the valve cover. Just from expansion and retraction of air volume isn't enough. Had a car that I satarted once a semester and run for more than 20 miles each time, and never got the yellow mayo on the filler cap. Now, from a combustion standpoint, the ring pack sealing is of foremost importance. That's why a clean engine is on advantage. And a hot blowby will travell off all the pcv/induction cycle pretty quickly. It's a hard possibility to ruin the oil with that little water contact in a low infinity medium (warm oil). Some overreaction. Imagine, we burn ethanol with 8 - 10% water on it and I never see the mayo. Our oils are better? Maybe on the contrary.
 
Aircraft piston engines and motorcycles have short pcv tubes, in big sumps, so moisture is more prone in those kind of engines.
 
I have a 2010 tacoma and do 6-7k a year, I've decided either twice a year oci with conventional oil or yearly with syn. PYB or PPPP for me.
 
Yearly at less than 15-20k miles with name brand synthetic in a Toyota engine is okay. I did yearly oil changes in my LS400 with up to 15-20k miles and it lasted 380+k miles without any engine work. With dino I did 6 mo up to 9-10k miles.
 
Thank you everyone. I am going to run it till this fall like I have every other year and get a UOA at that time. Point taken that is the only way to know for sure.
 
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