Interesting reading about oil cahnge intervals.

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black95

black95

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Interesting reading about oil change intervals.

Pulled this from the Rising Sun forum, thought it was interesting because I see way too many people freak out if their oil goes over 3,000 miles (like my :princess:). I have always changed mine around 5,000, but I'm going to start using better oil and going longer because with all the vehicles I have, I'm constantly changing oil. Pretty sure the whole 3,000 mile/ 3 months thing was brought on by marketing from the burgeoning oil change shack businesses in the 90's.

State hopes to break car owners' habit of changing oil too often - latimes.com

Rising sun discussion.
Blackstone Report... - Rising Sun Member Forums
 
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I go longer than 3k. Generally about 5k on dino oil and longer on full synthetic, in the Cruiser and Mustang. When I was running the Mustang hard on road courses I would change it once a season, regardless of miles, generally 2k or less with most of that highway miles.

I have heard of people going really long with synthetics but then there are acids that I have heard build up, but I have never researched that.
 
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It wasn't Jiffy Lube marketing - my dad drilled 3K change intervals into me in the 80s. I've heard that the longer change intervals are due to better oil and better engine design, but I'm not sure how much is due to which factor. So I'm not sure I'd run much longer then 3K on older engines... but then I don't see my 2F putting on 3K miles very quickly.
 
My Honda owners manual specifies 10,000 miles for oil changes. I change oil on 5000 mile intervals.
 
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The 80 has been doing 7500 miles on dino 15-40 when i lived in tx. Now its been switched to 5-40 and will be doing 10-12k oci. Some used analysis gives great piece of mind for extended oil change intervals.
 
I just bought Valvoline full sythetic for the wife's cherokee, and strangely, the change intervals were not listed on the bottle. Mobile one had theirs listed as 15,000, so I figure the valvoline has to be similar. It's going to be really hard to watch and see that oil get that black over that amount of time, I figure i'll change it at 7,500 or 10,000. What the hey, the Cherokee is getting old anyway. :D
 
My wife's mercedes ML500 is only suppose to get an oil change every 15,000 miles using Mobil 1 0W40. It is so hard for me to let it go that long, but the head tech said not to worry.
 
I have used Blackstone labs (http://www.blackstone-labs.com/) to do an oil analysis on every "new vehicle that I buy. When I first get the vehicle I change all fluids to know that I have a good baseline. At 2/3 of the manufactures oil change interval I change the oil and send out a sample to the lab. You have to tell them the make and model of the vehicle, how many miles are on it, brand and amount of oil that you put in the vehicle and the mileage on the oil. It is amazing to see one of their reports. They test for around 50 different things in your oil. I was concerned when I saw I was loosing cooland and had no indications where it went (bad head gasket?) The oil analysis told me there was no antifreeze in the oil. (I found a pinhole leak in the PHH that would not drip on the driveway, only leak when I was driving). When you get your test results it will tell you a recommended oil change interval for THAT vehicle based on the wear of the oil. $25 buck per test well worth the money. You don't need to do it very often but it may save your engine or reassure you to go longer on your oil changes. I do 6 to 8 thousand mile oil changes based on their information.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/
 
I'm pretty much on a twice-a-year schedule now. Once in the fall to put in a lighter winter oil, and once in the spring for a heavier summer oil. That works out to about a 5K interval for the Matrix and a 2.5K interval for the 80. Though the concept of changing oil weights for the summer & winter may be OBE now as well.
 
Oils are much better than they used to be, back when 3k was the mantra. I think the reason the car manufacturers recommend 3k is to protect themselves from excessive warranty claims due to engine abuse by knuckleheads.

Oil changes are expensive these days. I think the best value, for me at least, is 10W-30 Rotella synthetic blend, $16/gal at WallyWorld. I run this heavy duty diesel oil in my 350-powered 40 and it pretty much stopped oil consumption and lasts a long time, plus has additives to reduce bearing wear which is important to me because my Cruiser engine gets lugged down a lot. 5W-40 synthetic Rotella is priced at $21.36 but I prefer not to run 40 weight.

I like the cold start properties of a synthetic but you have to shop around to get the best deal. For example, Mobil 1 at WW is less expensive than Advance Auto's branded full synthetic (mfg. by Shell). The best price deal is Motorcraft, a semi-synthetic typically manufactured by Conoco. I've tried several synthetics in my Windstars and Mobil 1 has the least oil consumption, especially in my high mileage Windstar (I have two - a '98 with 180k and a '98 with 53k). After all experimentation was said and done over the years, I use Mobil 1 in my cars and Rotella in my 40 and in my 7.3l diesel and run them way past 3k, all with negligible oil consumption.
 
black95 said:
Alright, I googled OBE and got "Out of Body Experience" or "Order of the British Empire"... So, which is it??? :hillbilly:
Click to expand...

Overcome By Events :D
 
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