Hey y'all, I have a specific dilemma regarding fully synthetic oil changes and I'm trying to figure out what's best for my vehicle and if I've already ruined the engine.

I have a CT200h with 47,000 miles currently that I've been servicing once a year at the dealership for the past 2.5 years. Mistakenly, I assumed that each year they were changing the engine oil/filter but after looking at the scheduled maintenance, I fear that may not have been the case. Here were my services since we purchased the car CPO:

Aug 2018 - purchased CPO with ~28000 miles
Jan 2019 - actual mileage 32994 - 30,000 mile service (oil/filter change)
Aug 2019 - actual mileage 37877 - 35,000 mile service (no oil change presumably)
Aug 2020 - actual mileage 41199 - 40,000 mile service (oil/filter change)
Aug 2021 - actual mileage 44582 - 45000 mile service (no oil change presumably)
Current (Feb 2022) - 47,000 miles

As you can see, we don't drive a lot so my concern isn't the lack of oil changes based on miles, but rather based on date. If I'm correct in my assumptions that the dealership did not change the oil at the 5000 mile intervals, then we'll have gone a year and half between oil changes each time. That's really bad, right? I was originally planning to wait til Aug 2022 for my next oil change (because I thought this would be 5000 miles and 1 year later), but now I'm thinking I need to do it ASAP. Thoughts? Thanks so much!

edit: adding photo of current oil level and cleanliness

 

I think in 2015, your model 200H got an oil life monitor (OLM) sensor, and takes full synthetic oil, either 0w/20 or 5w/20. Your center display will alert you when to change the oil. But check your owners manual for max mileage and/or time delay. It may be a year but the oil will not go bad, so, dont worry about that. My sister a 2016 NX200T with OLM and I do her oil changes. Her last one went to 12K but I always tell her to bring it over by 10K. The important thing is to top off the oil level as needed.

 

thank you! I guess what my question is ultimately, when it comes to synthetic oil, why does everyone say you must change it at either 10k miles or 1 year whatever comes first? In my case I thought it would be 1 year, but it’s actually looking more like 1.5-2 years.

 

Many oil manufacturers will say to replace their oil after a year regardless of mileage. I see it as a marketing ploy. Project Farm tested this claim with an oil analysis at one and one point five years and found the oil had not deteriorated with age. However, if you want to preserve any claims made by an oil manufacturer, you’ll have to follow their directions, as well as the recommendations in your owner’s manual. And I believe 10K is the max recommended for your model.

 

10k is "fine," but 5k is "finer." Put it that way.

Just change it 5k from now on.

Nothing more to discuss here.

 

I've booked an appointment at Firestone for a full synthetic 0W-20 oil change. $75 after tax, very cheap maintenance IMO. Better to be safe than sorry. I'm going to stick to 5000 miles/1 year, which I'm technically past for both. I just wish the dealership had told me they weren't doing an oil change (or I had remembered). But I feel like they should've done it since they knew my last service was a year ago, and they should've gone off of that rather than the fact that it was my 45k mile service which has no oil change.

 

Again it's not the miles I was concerned about, but the time. Do you think 5k/1.5 years is ok? How about 7.5k/2 years? It's not so black and white when you don't drive a lot. By going to the dealership each year I thought I was getting 5k/1year, but I wasn't..

 

My understanding is that synthetic oil doesn't go bad as much as conventional oil did. That was like the whole point of synthetic oil. It doesn't degrade. It lasts. Oil just sitting in the car does nothing. The oil could sit in the bottle on a shelf for years and it would be fine.

 

I think oil makers say replace synthetic oil at least once a year. so once a year or 5k miles which ever comes first.

if it goes 1.5 yrs is it the end of the world? probably not. but oil is cheap so just do it on time.

 

Been doing 10K when I had my 2016 and now with my 2017 coming up. No issues.

 

From what I’ve read up on, you will want to change your oil every 10000 miles or 1 year IF your car doesn’t fall under severe conditions.

Most people won’t qualify for the 10k intervals.
I would recommend going 5k miles/6 months. The reason being is that a little bit of gasoline does get into your engine and mixes with the oil and breaks it down. It is worse when the car is sitting for long periods.

 

I've also heard/read that for long time intervals regardless of miles, that it's moisture that is the culprit. Not sure if that is true or not since it seems like the engine is fairly well sealed. But I do know moisture gets into the gas tank somehow which seems fairly well sealed also. Probably worse in high humidity climates and dramatic temperature fluctuation.