Oil Changes

imoldernu

imoldernu

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Interesting, maybe controversial article about frequency of oil changes.

Are you changing your oil too often? - Chicago Tribune

If you're still changing your engine oil every 5,000 miles, or even 3,000 miles, then you may be just be flushing money.

Most new vehicles sold today can go at least 7,500 miles between oil changes, and sometimes more than 10,000, says Mike Calkins, technical services director for the AAA travel services organization.
Click to expand...
more...

Another question... If the last oil change was synthetic oil, is there a problem with adding a quart of non synthetic, when it's called for?
Have a case of regular oil, so it's not just a single $5 item.
 
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I usually change oil when the oil life monitor is between 10 - 20%, but I haven't paid much attention to what that translates to in miles between changes.
 
On my old car, I used to flush money with the recommended change oil every 3,000 miles. Funny how one day, the place I went to suddenly decided that around every 5,000 or 6,000 miles is fine (same car, same type of oil).

With my current car, that has a maintenance minder that shows the percent of oil life and I just follow that as the guide and no longer fuss around with keeping track of how many miles. The car uses synthetic and I won't mix non-synthetic with that.
 
imoldernu said:
Another question... If the last oil change was synthetic oil, is there a problem with adding a quart of non synthetic, when it's called for?
Have a case of regular oil, so it's not just a single $5 item.
Click to expand...

Probably not, but only as a stop-gap measure. I don't like to mix synth and dino oil.

I use eneos full synthetic on my 09 fxt and go about 5K between changes, fwiw.


I also try and change the oil myself.
 
Many years ago, I started changing the oil (and filter) every 5k thousand miles in my daily drivers. It's super easy to keep track of when to change the oil. 5, 10, 15k miles etc. Some cars are driven less than 5k miles in a year, so they get a annual oil/filter change in December regardless of how few miles they may have been driven.

I only use Mobil 1 these days. (and I prefer different viscosity ranges for different engines)
 
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IMO if you plan to keep a car a long time, like I do, changing the oil relatively often is a cheap way to reduce engine wear. For me when using synthetic that means every 7500 miles of typical driving.

My current puzzle is my new ride advises, "Your new car comes with special additives to the oil. DON'T CHANGE THE OIL BEFORE 6000 MILES!". Well, I drive so little now it's going to take me about 4 years to reach 6000, and leaving the same (dino?) oil in that long worries me. Opinions? I trust the intelligence level here more than I do the dealer or random person at the manufacturer.
 
For my German car, I use Motul or another European brand synthetic that meets the specification in the owner's manual. Newer cars need low ash oils to keep the emission control system clean. Change frequency for my car is 10,000 miles.

For the Korean car, we use Mobil 1 or equivalent synthetic oil as per the spec. Change frequency is 7,500 miles.

If you have a car with a turbocharger, MAKE SURE you follow the manufacturer's specification for the type, grade and numerical spec of the oil. You don't want to fry a $3,000+ turbo by using the wrong oil.
 
I change the oil every 5k miles and use synthetic oil. I picked this number since it's easy to remember if the oil needs to be changed. If I tried to do it every 3k/7.5k, I'd never be able to remember if the oil needs changing.

Maybe every 10k would be sufficient?
 
My daily driver is a '95 BMW 540i. The sump holds eight quarts, so I feel justified in changing the oil at 10,000-mile intervals. The odometer is about to turn 265,000 miles, so that formula seems to work.

DW's Prius has a crankcase capacity of only 3.5 quarts, so I follow the manufacturer's specs and change it every 5,000 miles or so. As a rule, though, I put in only 3 quarts, leaving it half a quart below "full" (but also half a quart above "add"). Priuses have a habit of accumulating oil in the intake through the PCV system, which can affect the "quick start" function. I've found that keeping the oil level a bit low tends to minimize that effect.
 
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GrayHare said:
IMO if you plan to keep a car a long time, like I do, changing the oil relatively often is a cheap way to reduce engine wear. For me when using synthetic that means every 7500 miles of typical driving.

My current puzzle is my new ride advises, "Your new car comes with special additives to the oil. DON'T CHANGE THE OIL BEFORE 6000 MILES!". Well, I drive so little now it's going to take me about 4 years to reach 6000, and leaving the same (dino?) oil in that long worries me. Opinions? I trust the intelligence level here more than I do the dealer or random person at the manufacturer.
Click to expand...


I do not think that an annual oil change is required now.... oil does not pick up water or dirt like it used too....


I have a boat... the last time the oil was changed was 4 years ago... since then I think I have about 80 or so hours on the engine... they recommend changing every 100 hours... I might get it changed at the end of this year....
 
I use the oil life monitor on DW's caddy. Typically it gets to 5% around 7 to 8 K miles.
Thus my three sets of wheels get changed around 8K miles.
 
I change my own oil, typically at 5500 or so miles, IAW the owner's manual. The oil looks like it needs changed at that point but still flows well, so I stick with it. The people telling us to change our oil ever 3,000 miles are the ones selling us engine oil and oil changes!
 
Short trips with the car not warming up fully each time (less than 5 miles) needs much more frequent oil changes than consistent longer trips (more than 10 miles). Short trip oil change interval could be as little as 3,000 miles, long trip interval could be 10,000 miles. How well the crankcase "breathes" also has a lot to do with how clean the oil stays. And yes, you can mix conventional with synthetic with no issues. They do make synthetic blends. Also, no problem mixing viscositys as long as it meets manufacturers recommendations. The bottom line is to utilize your oil monitor or manufacturer's recommendation as outlined in your manual for your specific vehicle.
 
Engine damage because of oil issues are really not going to kill any car built in the last 10 years. You will have computer/electronic issues that make owning the car too expensive...not from oil issues. In our Infiniti, I change it every 5K and in our Highlander, I change it every 10K...as recommended by the manufacturer.
 
imoldernu said:
Interesting, maybe controversial article about frequency of oil changes.

Are you changing your oil too often? - Chicago Tribune

more...

Another question... If the last oil change was synthetic oil, is there a problem with adding a quart of non synthetic, when it's called for?
Have a case of regular oil, so it's not just a single $5 item.
Click to expand...

It should not be controversial - just follow the manual for your car. I don't know about mixing synthetic oil, does the manual address that?

GrayHare said:
IMO if you plan to keep a car a long time, like I do, changing the oil relatively often is a cheap way to reduce engine wear. ... .
Click to expand...
I think a statement like that needs some back up! Is there data to say that exceeding the manufacturer's schedule will actually reduce wear?

freedomatlast said:
Short trips with the car not warming up fully each time (less than 5 miles) needs much more frequent oil changes than consistent longer trips (more than 10 miles). Short trip oil change interval could be as little as 3,000 miles, long trip interval could be 10,000 miles. ....
Click to expand...

Our 2011 Honda CR-V is almost all short trips (DW drives < 4 miles to her job, it's < 4 miles to most shopping). The oil monitor is still reporting ~ 30% remaining life after a year (and the recc annual changes), ~ 7,000 miles on the oil.

-ERD50
 
freedomatlast said:
Short trips with the car not warming up fully each time (less than 5 miles) needs much more frequent oil changes than consistent longer trips (more than 10 miles). Short trip oil change interval could be as little as 3,000 miles, long trip interval could be 10,000 miles. How well the crankcase "breathes" also has a lot to do with how clean the oil stays. And yes, you can mix conventional with synthetic with no issues. They do make synthetic blends. Also, no problem mixing viscositys as long as it meets manufacturers recommendations. The bottom line is to utilize your oil monitor or manufacturer's recommendation as outlined in your manual for your specific vehicle.
Click to expand...

Ah...warming up oil. Perhaps if you have a '70 Camaro. Today's cars? Not so much. And almost all newer cars use at least a synthetic blend.

Warm the Engine First? Debunking More of Dad's Myths
 
also, look up "mobil 1 Subaru spun rod bearing"


mobil 1 has also killed a lot of turbo scoobs
 
I change synthetic oil every 10K miles, conventional oil every 5K miles. I've never changed oil at 3K miles.
 
Synthetic. Every 12,000 miles (which is what my Fit's monitor indicates m/l)

We had a 1992 Toyota van that we ran for 360,000 miles after purchasing new. Recollection is that we changed conventional oil every 7500 or so on that one, per the manual. (of course, in the last years, we were topping it off too)
 
ERD50 said:
It should not be controversial - just follow the manual for your car. I don't know about mixing synthetic oil, does the manual address that?

-ERD50
Click to expand...

:LOL: My '96 SLS manual doesn't address synthetic oil. Up until that time, Synthetics were used mostly in race cars, BMW's, Porche's and like that. I don't think it became common for US passenger cars until a little later, but maybe I'm wrong...
 
My 2006 car I changed at 5000 miles with conventional, and my 2015 car I do 7500.
 
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