My Father-in-law drives his Murano a little bit more than you do (about 4500 miles/year), and I just do his on an annual basis. Even that's overkill, but it's easy to remember that he's due every April.

You're totally fine.

 

Looks like this topic gets as many responses as the ones involving regular versus premium fuel!

Oil is drastically improved over a few decades ago. Once a year if you're on synthetic, along with oil filter. But like Marshall says, because the intervals are so much longer, you need to check perhaps quarterly to see if there's a drop on the dipstick due to consumption. Wife's car drops a quart every few months, my RX--zero.

 

Oil selection & change intervals is a very important decision for your vehicle. If you really want to make a informed decision search for Bob the oil guy.

For my Lexus 3.5L V-6's I use Castrol Syntex 5w-30, change it myself every 7,000 miles. If you don't change it yourself how much old oil gets left in the pan due to slow drainage?

 

All my vehicles see only about 4-5000 miles a year so I change the oil about every 12-15 months.

 

Jill, I change my recent cars' oil (includes the Stinger) every 12-14 months, on synthetic, regardless of the lower mileage just to rule out any minute risk of oil degredation over time. I did the same with the RC F despite only 3k km per year as it mostly sat in my garage.

If it's conventional oil in your 4Runner, I'd change it, but nothing to panic about if you wait another month or 2 and agree with the rest of the comments above.

Other factors though to keep in mind from a fellow GTA resident.

- short commutes
- colder winter temps
- dusty roads

all do play a role in increasing the strain on the engine. Our RX drives daily 2 km to work with the occasional longer trip, so despite doing only half of the 16k km oil change interval, we still change the oil approx yearly. It's our personal preference and "peace of mind" for a relatively low yearly maintenance cost.

 

Short trips is key. My wife used to work 2.2 miles from home. Her GM has a OLM. It had me change the oil in a mere 3,700 under those conditions. Then a period came where that car got a lot of highway driving. Now, the OLM had me change it in 7,100. Short trips, never fully warming up, does lead to more frequent changes--great point.

 

The worst is starting the engine & turning it off before it warms up to operating temperature.

 

Just discovered my Corolla is being filled with synthetic from the dealer. 4Runner the same, I think (will check) So I might just change to 16,000 km for both

 

At least once a year if it sits, but most of the time every 10K miles.