When do you get an Oil Change?

[FSUsmartboi]

Do you wait until you reached 3,000 miles even if it takes 5 months, or do you get on every 3 months regardless fo whether you've done the 3,000 miles or not. Just curious, i am debating this same question right now.

[rone]

My wife's Honda just got a B16 on the dashboard, whatever that means. I'm taking it in Friday to have them clear it off. In my experience it will cost $???, and who knows what they do.

[Qikdraw]

I wait until the milage calls for it. When I got my first oil change with my '06 Honda CRV, it was only a few weeks after we got the car, but then I was driving 300+ miles per day to and from work. Then when I started working 5 minutes from my home I needed it a lot less. Honda actually just send a card reminding me of my 40,000 mile oil change, but I still have about 8,000 miles to go to get that. lol

[Naked in SATX]

I do it on mileage.

[Sigmund]

3000 miles whether it needs it or not.

[NudeTopher]

Do you wait until you reached 3,000 miles even if it takes 5 months, or do you get on every 3 months regardless fo whether you've done the 3,000 miles or not. Just curious, i am debating this same question right now.

The answer is "it depends". It depends on the type of car, type of oil, type of driving, etc. If it's a new car it will probably tell you in the owner's manual x miles OR y months whichever comes first.

Older cars used to have a 3,000 mile oil change interval. But, a lot of the new cars, particularly those that take synthetic oil have a much longer oil change interval.

I know that on our Cadillacs (I work at a Cadillac dealership) the car's computer will determine when you need an oil change. If you drive like that proverbial little old lady you might not need to change your oil and filte for 7,000 or 7,500 miles. If you beat the same car it might require an oil and filter change at 2,500 miles. The computer keeps track of the average RPM, SPEED, and how many times the car has been started to help determine the correct inverval.

Check your owner's manual :-)

[Edmontonnudist]

Running Ams 5-40 European Formula Synthetic with a 1 Micron Bypass Filter. I change oil and filter every 10,000km's(6000miles).

I am a little leery of these extended oil change intervals(25,000miles) by the Manufacturers.

Another way to look at it is by how much fuel is burned between oil change intervals.

My VW takes 5.5L with the bypass filter. In an interval,I would burn about 110 gallons of Diesel.

[RalphVa]

I'm using Mobil 1 in all my engines, both gas and diesel, including 2 gas vehicles, 1 diesel car, 1 diesel tractor, a lawn mower and a generator engine.

I change them all once/year. This year, one was at 5k and the other two at 6k and tractor at only 40 hours. With these mileages, I feel it's okay to use the regular oil filter. I could probably go to every 2 years, changing the oil filter every year though.

I worked as a chemical engineer in the lube oil industry for 31 years and was privy to the research tests on the various oils. I knew that Mobil 1 was the best, and it'll pay for itself if you get the 3-4% mileage improvement and at least double the oil change interval. Think I'm getting about 3% on all 3 vehicles.

Latest best from Mobil 1 is 0w30. That's what's in all them now, except the 1983 Benz cuz I had some leftover 5w40 for it but only about half what it takes.

[atalanta]

Any modern car (at least a European or Japanese one) with a half-way decent spec (i.e. not a cheap rental vehicle) will have an engine control system which will alert the driver when a service is needed, and this is determined by style of driving as well as distance covered.

[Christian]

I've got an '07 VW Jetta and the manual says do it every 5,000 miles. Go online and use Google to find your manufacturer's recommended changing cycle. If you don't drive really hard or in dry, dusty areas you can go on the long-side but if you drive hard or live in that type of area you might change the oil more often.

Oil can get really hot so it is not recommended to change oil naked. :-)
:D

[Dolby]

Given that I commute around 90 miles every workday, I usually change the oil somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 miles. I never have used time to determine when to change it. A couple times I have exceeded even that.

Is that bad? Not sure. My car has 235,000 on it. Although I do plan to replace it soon, it still runs. Seems like it's often enough.

[Naturist Mark]

Modern engines do not need such frequent oil changes, doing it more frequently does not help the engine, extend its life, or improve mileage and it costs unnecessary money and creates unnecessary refuse to be disposed of (but you make sure yours is recycled - right?).

According to the supreme authorities on all things automotive, and relationship advice, Click & Clack (http://cars.cartalk.com/content/advice/oilchanges.html) the CarTalk brothers; 5000 miles is perfectly adequate, and even longer if you are using synthetic, with the following exceptions <blockquote>You may want to consider changing your oil more frequently if:

* You drive like a knucklehead: jackrabbit starts, heavy acceleration or high-speed driving
* You live where the climate is extremely hot or cold
* You often drive on dirt roads
* Your engine is old and burns oil
* You frequently carry heavy loads (several mothers-in-law or other cargo)</blockquote>

-Mark

[NudeAl]

I change my own oil and I rarely let it go past 3,000 miles and yes I do recycle it. I live by the axiom that my dad taught me, oil is cheap, engines are expensive. In my truck I run synthetic or blended synthetic and a heavy duty filter. No matter how good the filter there are microscopic amounts of metal shavings in every engine and normal filters can not filter that out. I have looked at an after market add on filter that will take care of these but the added expense did not seem justified I just change the oil.

[usuallylurk]

... and if your car should happen to boil over for some reason -- CHANGE THE OIL ASAP.

[bernardc]

When i have the money:(

[Connude]

Consumer Reports did a report a few years back, where they tested oil in NYC cabs. Their recommendation: 7,500 miles was plenty often enough even in NYC cabs!

I change my oil about every 5000 miles in my '05 Dodge Ram 1500, and I don't drive like a maniac either.

RalphVa: what did you find in terms of standard petroleum based lubricants?

[narod]

I have a 2006 C6 Corvette Coupe which requires Mobil 1, and we have a 2002 Jeep Liberty. I use Mobil 1 in both vehicles. I change the Corvette once a year, since we don't get 10,000 miles on it in a year. The Jeep, I change once a year, or every 7,000 miles which ever we hit first. The Corvette has an oil life system in it. This last time, I had 4000 miles on it, and it said I still had 75% oil life left. I changed it anyway. We mostly drive the Corvette on the open roads. So, the oil life holds up longer. The Jeep gets all the grocery runs, and cold weather running, so it has the short trips on it. However since the Corvette gets much better gas mileage (Average 28 MPG) than the Jeep (18 MPG average), the Corvette has seen numorous trips to Lowe's, etc to pick up lawn fertilize, and other stuff this past summer.

[tiger79]

Modern synthetic oils last much longer than in olden days. My cars have computerised service indicators which tell me when an oil change is needed - usually around 15000 miles. I think that's too long, so I change the oil myself at about 8000-10000 miles. Interestingly, this extends the computer's idea of when the next service is needed (due, I think, to an oil opacity sensor in the engine), so I end up getting a service about every 20000 miles.

[squatch]

Modern engines do not need such frequent oil changes, doing it more frequently does not help the engine, extend its life, or improve mileage and it costs unnecessary money and creates unnecessary refuse to be disposed of (but you make sure yours is recycled - right?).

According to the supreme authorities on all things automotive, and relationship advice, Click & Clack (http://cars.cartalk.com/content/advice/oilchanges.html) the CarTalk brothers; 5000 miles is perfectly adequate, and even longer if you are using synthetic, with the following exceptions <blockquote>You may want to consider changing your oil more frequently if:

* You drive like a knucklehead: jackrabbit starts, heavy acceleration or high-speed driving
* You live where the climate is extremely hot or cold
* You often drive on dirt roads
* Your engine is old and burns oil
* You frequently carry heavy loads (several mothers-in-law or other cargo)</blockquote>

-Mark

i used to work for chrysler, and as an employee we could lease vehicles directly from the company. the lease included EVERYTHING except gas. we were required to get an oil change every 6000 miles. that is what the company deemed safe for the equipment despite the manuals recommending an oils change every 3000 miles.

i haven't worked there for a while, but i have decided (all by myself) that 4000-5000 (of mostly city-driving) miles is in the safe zone. it takes me around six months to get to 5000 miles. i live in a city with good public transit.

as an aside, if you keep up with 'scheduled maintenance', then your new, modern engine is capable of lasting a long time.

[Ken Palmer]

That's about what I do too! When it reaches the posted mileage, I take it in!

Ken Palmer




I do it on mileage.

[Baretodabone]

I drive older cars, a 91 pick up and a 96 toyota... since retiring, I don't drive as much as I used to, so I go on mileage every 3-5000 miles. All the pundits for fuel economy and engine effeciency and cost effectiveness that I've read say the every 3000 or 3 month rule is a myth in today's cars...

[DSailing]

I change the oil in the car somewhere between 3000 and 5000 miles.

In the boat, every 100 hours.

[Meeee]

I usually change mine every 5-6,000 Kms. Acura recommends every 8,000 but I try to do it sooner (I do it myself so it's pretty cheap). Although I am currently approaching 10,000Kms so I should change it this weekend.

Unless it takes you a really long time to reach the mileage recommendations, I wouldn't worry about the # of months.

[sliver]

I'm a City/Country driver. Oil change every spring and fall. Works very well. 197,000 miles and still working fine. Sliver

[ki4kxq]

For most cars and trucks, if you use a good synthetic oil, you should really only need to change the oil once every 6 months to 1 year. However, if your warranty depends on oil changes at certain intervals, you will definately need to do what keeps the warranty in play.

In our semi truck, we now have an oil bypass/purification system that we installed in Sept of 07. We use only synthetic oil and change the bypass filter every 15k miles. We went from Sept 07 to July 08 without needing to change the oil. That is over 225k miles! We used to have to change the oil every 15k miles which for a team is about every 3 weeks. Love the bypass filter!!

[Triker]

Do you wait until you reached 3,000 miles even if it takes 5 months, or do you get on every 3 months regardless fo whether you've done the 3,000 miles or not. Just curious, i am debating this same question right now.

Every 3,000 miles.

[missouriboy]

...the every 3000 or 3 month rule is a myth in today's cars...That's true, and it's not only wasting your money, but also wasting the valuable resource, "oil". I just changed mine at 6,400 miles and the GM DIC index said I still had 55% oil life remaining. It usually says between 30% & 40% though, at around 6,000 miles. I change it then, to coincide with my wheel balance and rotation contract. That works out to twice a year for this car, which we don't use for our 2-block butt-buggy (shopping trips).