High milage vehicles

[jdb]

I just purchased an older toyota pickup. It has a lot of miles buts been very well maintained. Im wondering about things like high milage motor oil, and also different additives, are they worth it? What's everyone recommend?

[Johnb317]

High mileage oil has additives in it to soften and hopefully swell old seals.
It does work to a degree, and I recommend it for high mileage vehicles.

Techron is a proven gas additive...
Heard not happy things about Arco gas.

[Bean Counter]

I buy Mobil 1 synthetic when it's on sale at costco. Our toyotas  have almost 500,000 between the two of em and I don't have any leak or over Consumption problems.

[fish vacuum]

I drive high mileage rigs. When it comes to synthetic vs dino, stick to the oil they're used to. If they've run dino oil all their lives, then don't switch to synthetic. I've run "high mileage" dino formulas and haven't noticed a difference, but I don't think it can hurt either. If you have oil consumption issues, try different brands. For some reason, they seem to consume less with certain brands.
All my vehicles have over 200k. One of them uses some oil. I tried a couple of additives and it made zero difference. For whatever reason, it seems to use less oil when I use NAPA oil.
I only use synthetic in one of my vehicles, and I've run synthetic in it since I purchases it with low miles. The others get regular dino oil.
I'm more picky about the oil filters I use than the oil. NAPA Gold or OEM Toyota. Nothing else.

[jdb]

What about fuel treatments?

[DoubleJ]

What about fuel treatments?

Redline si-1 fuel system cleaner.  Swear by the stuff.  Once a year for me.  I get 2mpg more in my 1992 F-150 after treatment.  After a year or so, my mileage goes back to 15mpg or so and I'll put another bottle in.  $11/bottle on Amazon.  Pays for itself in about 4 fill ups.

[coachcw]

So just get a baseline first . look at all the fluids , diff , brake , coolant . I'd look to see what kind of oil they have been running and look to see if it leaks at all . If she's dry I'd continue to run what it's been running . There is plenty of good supplements on the market . I really like BG products and some 44k in the tank wont hurt a thing . Techron injector cleaner is a good product and isnt a bad play every few tanks . you may run a bottle wait a week and through a new fuel filter in .

[jdb]

Thanks guys!!

[b23]

Biggest thing to remember about any of that stuff, is none of it is a miracle worker.  It can, maybe, help prevent issues down the road but it's doubtful they can cure already existing problems.  If it could, it would cost a lot more than $19.99 

Preventative routine maintenance, IMO, is the "real" miracle worker.  Best of luck on your new purchase and some of the older Toyotas sometimes last forever.

[Buzz2401]

I have a Toyota with 290000 just got a oil analysis done. Oil had 5000 miles on it.  I use vavline high mileage.  They said oil had a ton of life left and that motor had no sign of wear.  Gonna start doing 10k oil changes now and see what oil looks like

[Stein]

I run Arco gas and Walmart oil in all of our vehicles.  The car has 225k and the truck has 190k.  Last truck had 200k and last car had 230k.  Never had a problem with any of them that could even remotely be blamed on the fuel or oil.

I have seen several reports where different oils were used and they all did just about exactly the same thing.  Get one that has the API seal and change it regularly.

Every once in a while I do a double change, change it once then drive for a day or two and change again.  It is amazing what comes out the second time.

[Jonathan_S]

I have a Toyota with 290000 just got a oil analysis done. Oil had 5000 miles on it.  I use vavline high mileage.  They said oil had a ton of life left and that motor had no sign of wear.  Gonna start doing 10k oil changes now and see what oil looks like

Why?   

[DRobnsn]

I have a Toyota with 290000 just got a oil analysis done. Oil had 5000 miles on it.  I use vavline high mileage.  They said oil had a ton of life left and that motor had no sign of wear.  Gonna start doing 10k oil changes now and see what oil looks like

Why?   

Why get more life out of an oil change? Is that what your asking? If I did an analysis and all looked good at 5k i'd try 7500 on the next one, not sure I'd jump up to 10k first though.

[Buzz2401]

Well I figure I have nothing to lose.  I will save on less oil changes and after 300k I figure I have gotten my money out of it.

[Johnb317]

Interesting thought process, don't forget possible loss of reliability, gas mileage etc.
some cars had problems with oil gelling with the longer oil change schedules.
Btw did you check if this is a timing belt or chain?  That's one piece of maintenance that should always be done.   Unless you want to risk having no engine.