I decided to drain the factory fill early around 3,000 kms to help clear out any manufacturing contaminates and put in a high quality Signature Series ASM 0W-20 oil. I was also excited to have a look under the vehicle and see how difficult it will be to service in the future.
Update: AMSOIL has released a new oil specifically for hybrid engine applications which is API certified!
It’s an easy oil change to do once the belly panel is removed. I have the updated belly pan with the extra holes and vents in it. I ended up marking the holes the Torx30 screws went into on the belly pan with a paint marker. No consumable gasket is required for the plug, just drain and replace – the gasket is built into the plug.
Oil drained out pretty dark for the mileage – some of which would be electric only so not a true 3,000 kms on the oil. The oil also had a tinge of green colour from the factory – as mentioned on the forums.
Oil filter was on pretty tight as expected and the plug wasn’t as nearly as tight as I expected – seemed about right for torque. The filter looked to be fairly high quality but shorter than the suggested replacement. I compared to the WIX filter in the photo and installed an AMSOIL EA15K51.
I will be following the maintenance minder computer from this point forward for oil changes. I’m planning to do an early drain and fill on the transmission in late fall. I’m also going to see if I can show an improvement in the warm up performance of the engine in future posts – an important feature for a hybrid vehicle in the Canadian winter.
