I have a Toyota Land Cruiser station wagon with the 4,2-litre diesel engine.
The manufacturer still requires an oil change every 5 000 km. This engine requires 10 litres of oil each time and, if only for environmental reasons, I would like to extend this. Can you advise what you would do if you owned one.
PAUL VAN TICHELEN – By e-mail
A few months ago I would have advised you to increase the mileage between oil changes because modern oils are so much better than the oils of five years ago.
Now I’m not sure any more because I have lately been getting feedback from the trade that three or four brands of modern engines (NOT Toyota) don’t last much past the 100 000 km mark. Nobody really seems to know why, but the latest oil formulation is one of the suspects.
The ideal way to find out what to do in your case is to have the oil analysed after 5 000 km by a company such as Wearcheck in Pinetown, KZN.
They will tell you how dirty the oil is and whether it needs changing. It may well be expensive, so an alternative would be to give an oil sample to an oil company representative and ask his opinion.