3 months vs 3000 miles

see317

So, oil changes. Easy enough to do, but still a pain in the ass.
I don't know how much you guys drive, but I don't really put that many miles on my car, 3000 miles takes me about 5 months to roll up.

So, for the gearheads on the forum, do it every 3 months, wait for 3000 miles, or wait even longer for my car's oil life monitor to get under 50%?

OnTheLastCastle

It took me 10 months to hit 3,000 miles. Uh, I should probably get that changed tomorrow.

tehmarken

It's hard to say really. Changing your oil is a preventative maintenance (good oil keeps other things from breaking).

It really matters more how regularly you drive and not the distance. If you only do a few miles a day but still drive everyday or every other day, change at 3-4 months. If you're driving once a week, you can hold off longer.

Midshipman

The vast majority of cars don't need oil changes that frequently. Consult your maintenance schedule for your car, it's probably something like 4500 miles according to the manufacturer. If you aren't pushing your car very hard or driving in extremely dirty/dusty conditions, you can get away with even a bit longer than the manufacturer recommended interval. Just be sure to check your level every month or so. Running low on oil is much worse than stretching the time between changes.

Cabezone

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/10/19/9-top-ways-we-waste-money-2010/

See no 5

Cycophant

What kind of conditions are you driving in? Very dusty/dirty, very hot, overly taxing your engine (towing, for example), numerous short drives that don't get the oil up to temperature, etc? Then change it earlier, perhaps at the 3 months. But even that's a bit extreme, really.

The oil life indicator in your vehicle may or may not be worth rely on, it really depends on the vehicle. Some are actually getting fairly accurate, and can prevent you from unnecessarily changing the oil before it's required. Others are simply glorified odometer-counters.

In my eyes, unless you're taxing your engine like in one of the above scenarios, just wait until the 3000 miles comes up. 5 months is hardly that long at all. I change the oil in my truck once a year, drive much less than 3k miles, and likely punish my engine oil more than most folks. And I feel pretty confident I'm not damaging or ruining anything by changing the oil as infrequently as I do. Then again I lump folks who change their oil much more than necessary into the same camp as those that put premium gas in their cars for no reason. It doesn't do any harm, but it's completely unnecessary and quite wasteful.

BlochWave

Yah, I think the number in my Civic manual actually says 5000 miles. Don't trust the sticker from a QuickLube like place, of course they want you changing it more frequently than necessary.

Bartholamue

Yeah, I always thought it was around 5000 miles or so for each oil change.

cabsy

The easiest way to decide is to check your oil yourself on a semi-regular basis. Is it low, is it cloudy, is it getting dark? There's no magic number where suddenly the oil goes bad and your engine will freeze up. Just check it manually on occasion, which you should do anyway, and go from there.

RadicalTurnip

Of course, if your engine starts sounding like it's running a little rougher, it's time to get the oil changed. You can always switch to the more-expensive synthetic oils, they have higher miles before a change, but they also have a longer life in the vehicle. My grandfather was an Ams-Oil dealer, so that's the one I know most about, but they have an oil that you only change every 20,000 miles or every year (whichever is first). The oil itself is pretty pricey, but if you're having someone else change it, it may well be worth the investment. There have been reports that even after 20,000 miles, they checked the oil, and it would have been fine to go another 10k or so...but that's anecdotal evidence.

mts

my forester recomends every 7500 or something like that.

see317

Cabezone wrote: »

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/10/19/9-top-ways-we-waste-money-2010/

See no 5

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. It's one of those old bits of knowledge that gets continually passed around without anyone actually stopping and looking at it and saying "That's stupid".

Ruckus

My 2010 GMC Terrain (I4 2.4L, AWD) supposedly calculates the oil life degradation based on Engine RPM vs Speed vs Gear (electronic 6-speed automatic) vs engine temp and probably a few other things too. So far I've only changed it once, at about 8,000km, and the Oil Life was down to 10% at the time. Right now I'm close to 15,000km and the Oil Life is only down to about 50%. I might change it again near the end of November just so I don't have to deal with it during the coldest winter months.

[edit] note: I primarily drive it in the city during the week, with weekends heading out onto the highway, so about 1/2 the total Kms for each.

IronKnuckle

When I was learning to ride, one of the things they drilled into us was "always talk to MOM," meaning Motorcycle Owner's Manual. Of course the same is true of a car owner's manual, though it doesn't lend itself to as catchy an acronym. Point being, all of the service intervals in the manual for your specific vehicle should be followed, rather than conventional wisdom. Check the dipstick once a week when you're doing your standard inspections (tire pressure, coolant/antifreeze level, et al), and add as needed. Every engine burns off a bit of oil, so keep a quart at your house and add as needed until you need to change.

I also recommend using full synthetic due to it standing up to use better. I keep it in my bike, and since I was a fool who bought a car that requires synthetic oil and premium gas, I now use nothing but synthetic fluids in my vehicles.

Six

My manufacturer recommends 15,000 intervals with full synthetic oil. That's a bit excessive, so I do my own changes about every 5 or 6k, or once a year, whichever comes first (since I live in a city, that's about what I drive in a year).

As everyone has said, check your manual. In most cases, 3,000 miles is total overkill.

ransim

Changing your oil that often is actually quite wasteful.

http://3000milemyth.org

Basically this, if your car is manufactured in 2002 or prior, 3,000 miles / 3 months is probably ok, though you should check your manual to be sure. But really at 3,000 miles /3 months you should check your oil level and the consistency before deciding to get a change.

Most newer cars are more like 5,000-10,000 and every 6 months - 1 year. Your car manual should tell you exactly how often. But still you should be checking the level and consistency on your own every 3 months 3,000 miles.

http://www.ehow.com/how_103_check-oil.html

To test the consistency I always just wipe some off the dip stick onto my fingers, rub it between them and smell it. If it smells like oil and still feels slick and not sticky its probably still good. It should also have a fairly consistent lighter color and shouldn't have a grainy quality to it. If the color is very dark or it feels too thick or grainy, get it changed.

Edit: When starting out you can also get a bottle of oil for comparing the consistency, smell, color (Use the same type/weight of motor oil! Mixing types isn't recommended!) Eventually though you'll get a fairly good idea of how the oil in your car should look/smell/feel.

IronKnuckle

Also this should go without saying but the oil filter should be changed every time the oil is changed. Dirty filter with clean oil only makes more dirty oil!

Spudge

There's a pretty simple answer to this; the same type of answer as "what grade of gas do I use?"

Follow your manufacturer's recommended intervals based on climate and driving habits. Feel free however to add some miles if you run full synthetic if the manufacturer's recommendations are based on dino oil

(also please do not put full synthetic in a high mileage engine that's been running dino oil all its life. You will have REGRETS)

IronKnuckle

Spudge wrote: »

(also please do not put full synthetic in a high mileage engine that's been running dino oil all its life. You will have REGRETS)

Ok, curiosity got me. Why? Blows seals?

Spudge

IronKnuckle's Ghost wrote: »

Spudge wrote: »

(also please do not put full synthetic in a high mileage engine that's been running dino oil all its life. You will have REGRETS)

Ok, curiosity got me. Why? Blows seals?

As your engine gets older, your seals and gaskets weaken

Oil deposits get attached to these weak spots and help to keep the fluids from leaking, gaskets blowing, etc

Synthetic oil molecules are much smaller than conventional and do a better job at cleaning

So these deposits that the dino oil made - scabs, if you will - get eaten away by the synthetic molecules and those leaks that the scabs were holding back become ever so evident

IronKnuckle

Interesting. Wouldn't the synthetic oil eventually plug the gaps, or do you posit that the smaller molecules of lubricant wouldn't dry and adhere to the lines?

Spudge

Eventually, maybe. But is switching to synthetic on a high mileage engine worth the months/years of leaking oil all over the place?

Also I've done many gasket jobs for people who switch to synthetic on a high mileage engine. It's not pretty. And a lot of people who make that switch don't realize what leaks have been brought to life until it's too late and they run dry

If you really REALLY want to run your high-mileage engine on some sort of synthetic, you can with minimal damage. If you gradually move to blended synthetic like you change a dog's brand of food. You can mix dino with blended at increasing amounts per change and run less risk of unclogging all your clogs. I however cannot recommend running full synthetic in any engine that's run on dino for 75k or more

IronKnuckle

Good to know, thanks! My old car was dino oil for all eleven years of its short life, and my current ride is all synth, but all car intel is good intel.

Raneados

look in your owners' manual, they'll tell you when to change

often it's closer to 8k miles

Diomedes240z

http://www.yarchive.com/car/oil_facts1_2.html


Lots of good info here. The short answer is that you can do well over 3000 if you drive long trips in clean air. If you're doing lots of short trips, then you might have to change it that often due to oxide and hydrocarbon formation and other bad stuff I don't know enough about to talk authoritatively.

MyDcmbr

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

After you hit 3k miles do the test kit and find out if you should be changing it sooner or not. That is really the best way to find out.