I know this has been discussed before but today I read an article stating the opinion that you should do the first change at around 1000 miles. Theory is that there are contaminates from the manufacture of the engine that accumulate during this time that can harm the engine, hence the early change. I would be interested in other opinions and/or facts regarding the first change.

 

I changed mine at the 2,500 and 5,000 mark. Since then, I just follow the 5,000 factory OCI.

 

This is less of a critical issue than it used to be, at least with makes like Toyota, and especially with aluminum engines. The machining and manufacturing processes are so much cleaner and done with much more care than they used to be, that the engines typically come out much, much cleaner, and generating much less break-in wear than engines of days gone by. Some engines still generate a lot of junk when new, but many more modern engines read almost as clean as a well worn-in engine.

Check our our UOA database at BITOG and look for factory fill results. Just in the last couple days, a guy posted a UOA on a new BMW X5, and it's very clean except for slightly elevated aluminum.

Also keep in mind that the filter will take out the vast majority of break in particles in a damaging size range. The stuff that shows up in a UOA is way, waaaaaaay to small to have a serious added impact on abrasive wear (though it may be a result of abrasive wear).