The Obscenity of Motor Oil Change Intervals

S

Shandon

Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
50
I gotta ask this one:

With the best modern grades of motor oil, SAE SM or so, how much mileage do you all go between changes? I like in a very high traffic area with a lot of fine dust. I take the standard oils for about 5000 miles and stretch the synthetics to about 8000 miles. It works pretty well. I am asking this question about post-1990 cars that do not have turbochargers.

Some people I hear will just change the filters and stetch the synthetics way past 15,000 miles but I think this is taking a serious chance with one's engine.

I know some of the newer cars are of tight tolerances; and the manufacturers say you can go for about 10,000 miles.

I'd also like to hear from the turbocharge people as turbos can cook even a synthetic oil, and how often do you change it?

If you have some real old car like a 1952 MGTD that might use non-detergent oil let me know too.
 
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I still change about every 3000 miles and use regular 5w30. I tend to actually change my oil about 3 times a year regardless of miles. So sometimes I go a bit over 3000 others under. If I used synthetics then I would change about 2 times a year.
 
It costs about $100 to change the oil in my car, so I try to stretch it to about every 5000 miles. Which for me is about once a year, since I don't drive my car in the winter. -Don't think I would be comfortable going much past 5K though.
 
In the Florida heat I try to change about every 4000 miles and use 20w-50 GTX (after warranty expired) in the Explorer. I got 210K in the 280ZX and 285K on the Bronco II and have been pleased with Castrol. Before adding an oil cooler to the HD Sportster (air cooled 1200cc V twin) I did a little temperature test using synthetic Mobil 1 V-twin SAE40 IIRC... after a 72 mile ride in 85+ air temp (black asphalt) at about 65mph the oil temp got to 160F. With the cooler it stayed bout 145F. I use Mobil 1 4T in the Yamaha FJR and the John Deere rider with good results. Turn key reliability is important to me. regards Les
 
Shandon said:
I gotta ask this one:

With the best modern grades of motor oil, SAE SM o so, how much mileage do you all go between changes? I like in a very high traffic area with a lot of fine dust. I take the standard oils for about 5000 miles and stretch the synthetics to about 8000 miles. It works pretty well. I am asking this question about post-1990 cars that do not have turbochargers.

Some people I hear will just change the filters and stetch the synthetics way past 15,000 miles but I think this is taking a serious chance with one's engine.

I know some of the newer cars are of tight tolerances; and the manufacturers say you can go for about 10,000 miles.

I'd also like to hear from the turbocharge people as turbos can cook even a synthetic oil, and how often do you change it?

If you have some real old car like a 1952 MGTD that might use non-detergent oil let me know too.
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I had one of the first generation Nissan fuel injected pickups (1992?) with 2.4L engine and 5 speed manual. Ran dino-oil for the the 10K miles changing at 2K intervals. Then I put on an Amsoil constant bypass filter and ran Amsoil 100% synthetic engine oil which I changed ONCE PER YEAR. At about 140K miles it still burned no oil but, required its annual oil change prior to the annual smog test :o (engine oil that is ~12 months old with 15K to 25K miles apparently is a SMOG problem .... :p).

The key for me was a very good break in procedure AND a constant flow by-pass filter that filtered 100% of time in addition to the normal oil filter. You can pull oil samples and have them tested (which I did) to monitor any contaminant build up or perceived engine damage. I never did have high readings except for the gasoline related combustion by-products.

Make sure you use the good filters that catch the particulates too. The cheap Frams aren't worth the trip to the store to buy them IMHO. Wix a is better alternative if you need something easy to find (available at any NAPA store).
 
I don't know what BMW does different, but my 330i usually tells me it needs to be changed around 15K miles. supposedly the system monitors the oil and how the car was driven. Mine was a lot of freeway miles.

I still change the oil in the Tacoma every 5K though.
 
Les Snyder said:
Before adding an oil cooler to the HD Sportster (air cooled 1200cc V twin) I did a little temperature test using synthetic Mobil 1 V-twin SAE40 IIRC... after a 72 mile ride in 85+ air temp (black asphalt) at about 65mph the oil temp got to 160F. With the cooler it stayed bout 145F.
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Why so cold? Should be about 190-220 on a good running scoot. Oil temps that low after that amount of time on the road would give me a little pause. Before remapping my TwinCams FI system- I would see 240ish in heavy traffic. Now I run 200-215 with a conservative "mileage" tune and synthetic oil. How do your plugs look?
 
Dino oil gets changed every 3000-4000. If I am running a synthetic, I stretch it to 5000. This is a motorcycle though. An oil filter and three quarts of oil is $50. Thats cheap peace of mind in my opinion. and I rev the snot out of my bike
 
m1marty said:
Why so cold? Should be about 190-220 on a good running scoot. Oil temps that low after that amount of time on the road would give me a little pause. Before remapping my TwinCams FI system- I would see 240ish in heavy traffic. Now I run 200-215 with a conservative "mileage" tune and synthetic oil. How do your plugs look?
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that an oil temp of around 200-210 was the ideal range. Hot enough to get any moisture that has found its way in there out of the oil system. Anything less is not good.
 
M1Marty, x in 415.... can't really answer your question, but probably because it was running pretty rich... the motor was an 04 Sportster 1200R with a set of D&D "fat cat" pipes, SE air cleaner (no K& N available then) dyno tuned by Wes Brown at CycleRama in Largo, Fla. with a 200 main jet (later dropped to a 190)... we got 79 hp and 81 ft lbs of torque out of it (IIRC). Bought a Suzuki DL1000 VStrom, crashed it, collapsed a lung, took insurance money and sportster and bought a Yamaha FJR.... a rocket ship... regards Les
 
My 2.3 fuel injected engine wants a change at 3,000 miles. The oil is so dirty at this point, the 5,000 mile interval for "light duty" is a joke.

I pay $17.50 for 5 qts. of synthetic and use a $3 OE filter.
 
The 3000 mile oil change rule is nothing but a method of extracting cash out of your pocket. There are verified studies of people running 25k on a clean change (with a few filter changes along the way) with no discernible change in the structure of the oil (per UOA's).

The people that run the Jiffy Lubes hate this, but here is everything you need to know (and some stuff you probably don't want to know) about motor oil, filters, additives, etc...

Bob Is The Oil Guy!
 
Shandon said:
I gotta ask this one:

With the best modern grades of motor oil, SAE SM o so, how much mileage do you all go between changes? I like in a very high traffic area with a lot of fine dust. I take the standard oils for about 5000 miles and stretch the synthetics to about 8000 miles. It works pretty well. I am asking this question about post-1990 cars that do not have turbochargers.

Some people I hear will just change the filters and stetch the synthetics way past 15,000 miles but I think this is taking a serious chance with one's engine.

I know some of the newer cars are of tight tolerances; and the manufacturers say you can go for about 10,000 miles.

I'd also like to hear from the turbocharge people as turbos can cook even a synthetic oil, and how often do you change it?

If you have some real old car like a 1952 MGTD that might use non-detergent oil let me know too.
Click to expand...

1st off what kind of car/truck is in question? some vehicles are tough on oil, some are not.. some do not have a good air filtration system and some do. do you drive mainly highway or bad city traffic?? thats the first question.

2nd. are you keeping your air filters clean? regular maintencance (other than oil changes)

those are key factors in extending oil drain intervals (OCI's)

i use penzoil syn in my taco. i drive it 7-7500 miles (75% highway 25% city) and even if the oil will go further i will not. oil is cheap insurance. you could get a particle in the side of your pistion wall and scratch the snot out if it. the only wayt to get that out (supposedly) is an oil change.


my advise to you is to stick with one quality brand (penzoil, mobil, whatever) and get a cheap test done by blackstone (i think thats right) and see where you stand. its 20 bucks and it will answer most if not all of your questions.

without knowing what kind of car you drive its hard for me to tell you if they are good with oil or not
 
BryFry said:
It costs about $100 to change the oil in my car, so I try to stretch it to about every 5000 miles. Which for me is about once a year, since I don't drive my car in the winter. -Don't think I would be comfortable going much past 5K though.
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WTH do you drive?
 
SPXTrader said:
The 3000 mile oil change rule is nothing but a method of extracting cash out of your pocket. There are verified studies of people running 25k on a clean change (with a few filter changes along the way) with no discernible change in the structure of the oil (per UOA's).

The people that run the Jiffy Lubes hate this, but here is everything you need to know (and some stuff you probably don't want to know) about motor oil, filters, additives, etc...

Bob Is The Oil Guy!
Click to expand...

BITOG as a ton of info on there. its a good website once you learn to kick aside the BS
 
full synthetic and filter change every 4000k keeps my cars going up into the 3's :D and even if its a bit overkill it makes me feel better that the oil still looks new when i change it!!
 
softrockrenegade said:
full synthetic and filter change every 4000k keeps my cars going up into the 3's :D and even if its a bit overkill it makes me feel better that the oil still looks new when i change it!!
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thats oil abuse and $$ abuse. LOL.. to each their own.. why dont you just use the dino oil and save yourself $$?? if your motor is built well (toyota, honda, subaru, etc) it will last 300k miles or longer
 
We try to change it every 3500-4000 miles on our DD Honda Pilot. We rotate tires every other change and it works out well for us. We get 40-50 days a year over 100 F, seems prudent to keep up on maintainence.

We just sold our 2004 Pilot and the buyer ran a Carfax, the fact that we serviced regularly resulted in a quick sale at a very good price.

My Corvette gets less than 5000 miles a year and I have the oil changed every Spring.

Win
 
08 Hyundai Accent 1.6L manual shift--has 55,000 miles on it now.

Owners manual says to change at 6500---I change it at 5000- oil and filter.

Use Mobil 5000 or Valvoline----5w-20 per the owners manual

90% hiway miles--all I've done to the car is change the oil and replaced the front tires(2) the back tires are original(screw rotating them)---even the wipers are original.

Runs like a champ.
 
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