Are you changing your oil too many times ?

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I have heard this before and I have to agree that unless your rings are shot and you are gas soaking the oil, there is no reason to be changing it so often. Of course if your rings are that shot then you have much bigger problems than an oil change.
 
I would agree on the newer engines 5,000mi is OK. I would never do that on our old carbureted engines though!
As far as quick lube places, they use inferior oil filters and I would not go for long oil changes either if it was one of my engines, not that I ever use them!!!

I do however take my Cummins pick-up out to 7,500mi each oil change and use only Premiun Blue oil in it.
 
I try to stick to the 3 months or 3000mile/ 5000km rule , there is never any harm to removing abrasive deposits from your engine ,your motor may not need it but by the time it does it will be too late . I can tell you for a fact that 10,000km was too much for the mobil1 synthetic I run because you could smell the dirty oil { I call it that varsol smell } the last couple of hundred kms on my trip , I now make sure I change it somewhere mid trip because it's cheaper than changing engines .
 
with efi going longer between changes may be the thing to do...just dumped the oil in our Explorer, has 195k on it. 2500 miles it is thinned to water,10w40, and very black. If I let it go any longer it will start to burn it. When I drove the diesel a lot I was changing it at 5k, using Rotella non-synthetic. Perhaps it is excessive, but when I change the oil I also rotate the rubber and give everything a quick once over...which provides me a piece of mind.
While longer intervals may be "allowable" I simply can not afford to replace the motor in the diesel...oil is the life blood, keep it fresh. Now I only put 3k miles a year, if that on the diesel. Change it every November....along with the spin on trans filter and fuel filter...
 
i have always gone 8 - 10,000 km on my daily drivers (Hondas or Toyotas) with a filter every second change.
..all have gone 250,000km + and although down on power none smoked.
..i wouldn't stretch the mileage that far with my old muscle cars,but at 2000 km or so a year i' don't change it every year.
 
I had an 84 Daytona turbo Z that I ran 250,000 miles without a problem changing the oil every 10,000 Mile with Mobil 1 synthetic.

At 250k it blew a head gasket, and was pretty much toast at that time.

Taking the engine apart there was about 1/10 inch wear on the cam lobs.
 
Was in the Air Force 20 years. All of our vehicles were scheduled for oil changes at 6000 mile intervals. Safety inspections on next 6 month/6000 miles. Never any major failures due to oil problems. Low useage, high heat, high moisture, short stop and go trips, still no failures. Vehicles that were parked for long periods, had oil samples taken. Changing oils on shorter intervals, created enormous amounts of un neccessary hazardous waste, with no definable benefits. Vehicles with no odometers were set up for 600 hours of use, or 6 months.

If I owned a quick oil change facility, I'd love people to put (more) money in my pocket. :•)
 
Been changing my oil every 5000 miles on all my vehicles for my whole life.
Never a problem, and I keep my vehicles forever if I like them. Synthetic should allow even longer intervals I bet.
 
I have 3 different intervals for 3 different vehicles. However, I change the filter halfway through the interval and top it off with a fresh quart or whatever it needs. Real cheap insurance against a dirty filter hindering my bottom end!
 
I think the 3 month or 3K miles thing is a myth generated by
the oil industry to make us buy more oil.

I change the oil on my daily driver (Nissan pu) about once a year, weather it needs it or not...lol.
Been driving this truck for 13 years and its still going strong. Did the same thing with the Nissan truck I had before this one, over 13 years on that one and still ran great when I sold it.
I go about a year on my Dart too, but I only drive it a couple thousand miles a year.
 
Ford says 5000 for severe service and 7500 normally. That's what I do. GM and Chrysler say the same. It was the Jiffy Lube type places that started the 3K mile 3 month myth.
 
Next time you change your oil pull a sample and send it into Blackstone lab or any other oil analysis laboratory. Adjust from there.

You can smell it, rub it, lick it but there is only one way to find out if the oil is still good and if your motor still is too
 
At work we change the cruisers every 9000 miles with Mobil 1. We have cruisers with 160-180,000 miles on them.

Todays oil are so much more advanced then years ago, plus the motors are built much better.
I've seen people push cars with no or little oil in them and have no problems.
 
The 318 in my daily '73 Dart just burns the (dirty) oil through the valveseals so I just have to top it off every once in a while.
Cool feature. :)
 
I change oil at 5 thousand miles at which time
I balance and rotate the tires on all my road vehicles.
Transmissions and diffs at every 50k.

All other equipment oil and filters once per year in the spring.
 
i do the classic cars once a year in the spring. if i do some crazy amounts of driving i may do it a second time..


the daily driver toyotas i do when the owners manual say to do them. if i remember its about 5000 miles.. never an issue..

oil is way better these days then it was in the 50's and 60's. cars and machine work on the engines are way better. no more need to do it at 3000 miles unless you just like to throw good money away.
 
If you only change the oil once a year in your classic limited driver do it in the fall before storage. Doing this vs spring oil change removes contaminates sitting in the oil all winter.
 
I run synthetic oil and a good filter. On the wife's old Ford, it was changed twice a year with a oil filter at every change and mid way through to the next change. The car seen approx. 15 - 18 miles per year.
The car totaled 175,000 miles before the original trans gave up a bit. No burning of the oil.
Did this for 142,000 miles over 9 years of ownership.

Same for my 2003 V6 Dakota. 215,000+ miles. Burns about a quart in 6 months.
Ownership of this ride is since 10/09.
Same for the wife's truck, 1998 Durango, 285,000+ miles, burns slightly more in 6 months.

As long as the engine doesn't leak or burn much more than a quart between oil filter changes, synthetic is used. If it burns more than that, Dino oil is used.
 
mderoy340 said:
If you only change the oil once a year in your classic limited driver do it in the fall before storage. Doing this vs spring oil change removes contaminates sitting in the oil all winter.
Click to expand...

But you now contaminate clean new oil with condensation. I really don't see the difference. Fall or spring. I'll take spring. :)
 
The Mopar manual says (back when synthetics were still considered new) that synthetic would last 50K miles except that it gets dirty. I bet you would be better off using the time/distance method as a general guideline- AND CHECKING how dirty/viscosity of your oil is would be the best bet to determine when to change it.

The manual swore by Mobil 1 and others here say that Mobil 1 is not the same oil (quality) that it once was-something about gov mandate allowing synthetic labeled oils to be a % of blends...

I think if you ran a cheap oil & filter (for whatever reason) you would be safer to change your oil too frequently. my two cents
 
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