How long on your oil changes?

[RootBreaker]

08 silverado driven minimal 120 miles a day... my service manual says to not change it until the light comes on the dash.. so i get from 10k-12kish miles per change... hell i have to add oil before the oil change.. and it doesnt leak.. the 5.3 is notorious for burning in cylinder 7 as it runs hot....

while i was having a recall done.. they asked if they should do the oil change as the light was on. i said sure... so they did and put the 3 month 3k mile sticker on it... i laughed.. took it off... went over to the service manager and said they screwed up and needed this back. Service manager said no they didnt mess up.. I went in my glove box, went to the page (in front of every other customer in the room and said their techs should read page x of the manual where it reads ONLY WHEN THE LIGHT COMES ON!.. so many people were questioning their oil change.. hahahahaha

 

[EeePee]

My Hondas manual says 10k on oil and 20k for oil filter. Cost of ownership goes down considerably.

Parrafin wax hasn't been in pennzoil in a very long time, it's not your dad's oil anymore. Sludge build up these days is due to engine design. I can point my finger to a particular Toyota motor that is/was notorious for it despite oil brand, type or viscosity.

You guys saying no long OCIs must not know about chem labs testing oils for various metals and chemicals? They can more or less tell you exactly how long you can go based on their findings. They can even tell you about a blown head gasket before anything happens. Silica in the oil? Over oiled your K&N air filter. All kinds of cool things.

 

[WHITE-TRASH]

My Hondas manual says 10k on oil and 20k for oil filter. Cost of ownership goes down considerably.

Parrafin wax hasn't been in pennzoil in a very long time, it's not your dad's oil anymore. Sludge build up these days is due to engine design. I can point my finger to a particular Toyota motor that is/was notorious for it despite oil brand, type or viscosity.

You guys saying no long OCIs must not know about chem labs testing oils for various metals and chemicals? They can more or less tell you exactly how long you can go based on their findings. They can even tell you about a blown head gasket before anything happens. Silica in the oil? Over oiled your K&N air filter. All kinds of cool things.

I don't care if paraffin wax hasn't been in pissoil since WWII opening up a virgin '74 360 with 140k on the clock while the owner stood there bragging about his service records and pennzoil usage since it rolled off the lot to find a solid block under each valvecover and under the valley pan left a bad taste in my mouth.

R series Toyota engines will last 300k easily as long as they have fluid in the cooling system and oil pumping to the bearings. I'm really hard on mine since its a mildly built hybrid in a 2500lb go kart it see's 6k every time I drive it. It gets the oil changed much sooner than my wifes rig. :lol:


Until oil analysis is cheaper than a jug of valvoline from wallymart and a wix filter I'll stick with the regular oil changes thanks.

 

[EeePee]

One of the more popular places, Blackstone Labs is only $25.00

That might be cheaper than a jug and filter these days.

 

[helhedded]

My Hondas manual says 10k on oil and 20k for oil filter. Cost of ownership goes down considerably.

Parrafin wax hasn't been in pennzoil in a very long time, it's not your dad's oil anymore. Sludge build up these days is due to engine design. I can point my finger to a particular Toyota motor that is/was notorious for it despite oil brand, type or viscosity.

You guys saying no long OCIs must not know about chem labs testing oils for various metals and chemicals? They can more or less tell you exactly how long you can go based on their findings. They can even tell you about a blown head gasket before anything happens. Silica in the oil? Over oiled your K&N air filter. All kinds of cool things.

I had a 4A-FE that had a Labrea Tar pit in the pan :ror:

also had a car with a 4A-GE ...mmmm much better. Both were in Prizms.

 

[dkf]

One of the more popular places, Blackstone Labs is only $25.00

That might be cheaper than a jug and filter these days.

Last UOA with TBN I got from Blackstone was a little over $30. You don't have to get the TBN done though.

I agree with Pennzoil, a lot has changed since the 70s. Their "Platinum" is very good and the "Ultra" is factory fill in some expensive vehicles.

 

[EeePee]

and the "Ultra" is factory fill in some expensive vehicles.

Ultra is getting better reports than Mobil 1 on BITOG. "thumbsup"

 

[Draggermirage]

I apologize ahead of time for the small book here, but this is my take on the intervals.

I, personally do not go more than 3k miles on any of my vehicles or more than one riding season on any of my ATV's. Is the oil good for longer intervals? Probably. Do I want to risk wear, deposits, sludge, sticky check valves, orfices and such due to a lack of oil changes? Never.

This is a list of my vehicles or vehicles I take care of that this pertains to:
2009 Volvo S80 T6 AWD 3.0L
2001 Volvo V70 turbo 5 (x2) 2.4L and 2.5L
1998 Volvo C70 turbo 5 2.3L
2002 F350 with 7.3 diesel
1992 Chevy 3500 w/ 454
1994 Toyota Landcruiser 4.0L(?)
1997 Mitsu Eclipse GSX 2.3L
2003 Yamaha Raptor 660
2008 Yamaha Grizzly 700
etc.

I run a 2002 F350 with the 7.3 diesel with 210k miles currently on it. I purchased it in late 2006 with 86k miles on it and a relatively clean crankcase. I moved to 5-7.5k oil changes with Rotella T or Motorcraft 15w-40 for about 1.5 years. Towards the end of that I noticed the truck ran rougher, less overall power, fuel mileage decrease and MUCH darker crankcase color (deposits). For the next straight 3 oil changes (3k interval) I ran BG 109 cleaners and BG DOC through it while gaining back everything I lost and some.

About 5-10k miles after these cleaners my stock HPOP blew out a plug and required replacement. There was about 3/8" of sludge buildup in the HPOP reservoir. Cleaned all that out, moved to 3k oil changes and 80k+ miles later I removed the HPOP reservoir again to find it spotlessly clean.

Volvos All aluminum 4, 5, 6 and 8 cylinder engines are notorious for plugging up crankcase ventilation systems, creating oil leaks and overall failed engines from carbon and sludge buildup due to religious long intervals (5k+). I work as an independent Volvo tech and see this on a daily basis. Based on what I see, I would NEVER recommend 5k+ intervals simply because of this.

Do you start the vehicle and drive with it at operating temperature at least 15 minutes? Do you start it and drive 2 miles not letting it warm up completely?

The short trips is what degrades the oil quality faster. Moisture (condensation) forms in the crankcase when it cools and does not burn off when

How well maintained is the vehicle? Is it carbureted or injected? Is it misfiring? The richer a car runs, the more fuel gets into the oil, the more it dilutes it, the more wear it will allow.

I want to stress this like others have already.

Be sure to buy quality filters and fluids. I will never use a Fram, Napa Silver, STP or most store brand filters. Filter construction or materials lack on most lesser brands. The filters I tend to use most (application specific obviously) are Denso, Mann, Full, Wix (rarely) Honeywell and Filtech.

I consider Oil changes basic maintenance and cheap insurance. I've seen too many failures due to oil quality to buy into the longer intervals.

I buy my vehicles for the long haul. If you lease or trade out vehicles frequently, then maintenance probably isn't a high priority for you.
To each their own.

Again, sorry for the book, but Some will get lucky with the long intervals (some vehicles hold up to abuse better), where others get the short end of the stick.

I'm off to change my 3,400 mile oil in my truck.

Marcus

 

[Draggermirage]

By the way too.

Most "performance" synthetic oils do not protect against wear as well as they used to. The vast majority of them are formulated not to chemically damage cats. This means lower than optimal levels of zinc and phosphorus among other ingredients.

Mobil 1, Redline, Royal Purple, Enos, Idemitsu and several other shelf oils fall into this category.

The only ones that do have the proper Zinc and phosphorus levels are considered race oils and do not have detergents to help keep the crankcase clean. Valvoline ZR1 and Schaffers Oil come to mind for this.

Do NOT put in synthetic thinking it's a magic oil that will gain you interval life. You still need to get the contaminates out of the engine.

Marcus
Marcus

 

[C*H*U*D]

Dang it Marcus!! Now I have to change my oil this weekend!

And I never knew you had so many vehicles :shock:

 

[89lxmorepower]

I run oriellys brand synthetic in my 89 ford probe gt and change it about every 5-6 k and my heads still spotless and in the wifes 98 corrolla i run castro full synthetic and every 5-7500 miles in between. Also oil changes are only as good as the filter you use.

 

[73bronco]

3k with full synthetic on my WRX, 5k in my wife's tc with full synthetic, 5k in my mother in laws Subaru with full synthetic, 3k in my truck with cheap stuff, once a year in my bronco (about 500 miles a year) and between 10k and 15k in my sister in laws focus.

All cars, including the sister in laws focus, are really clean internally. I just switched my sister in law to synthetic as I couldn't handle her going 12k on traditional oil! I know the synthetic will handle the higher mileage better. She just doesn't pay any attention to her car. 125k on it and it is still going strong, somehow!! Mobil 1 or K&N filters on all based on my own research by cutting open hundreds of filters at my shop.

 

[JeremyH]

Wix (rarely)

Why rarely?

 

[Draggermirage]

Why rarely?

Primarily because I have access to a wholesale parts warehouse that delivers these other brands 5 times a day to me. The only people I deal with that carries Wix is Napa and I dislike dealing with them. Too many effed up transactions. Otherwise I'd probably use Wix more often.

Marcus

 

[GySgt Hartman]

How much oil does it hold? BMW usually puts a good size oil pan on so it holds a good amount of oil vs engine size. Plus their oil monitoring system is quite good on the BMW.

2007 (S54 3.2L) 5.5 liters of Castrol TWS 10W60
2011 (N53 2.8L) 6.5 liters of ??? 5W30

Oh and the monitoring system only involves a level sensor down on the pan and the PSI switch on the block.

Not true.

The oil light on the dash uses the level and PSI, yellow if it's low/red if there's no pressure.

The monitoring system uses driving style, trip duration, overall mileage, and ambient temp as well as engine temp to compute the interval.

 

[EeePee]

2007 (S54 3.2L) 5.5 liters of Castrol TWS 10W60

60 weight! Holy what the heck? Got clearances? Jeez.

 

[GySgt Hartman]

60 weight! Holy what the heck? Got clearances? Jeez.

That's why it cost $13,500 to turn the check engine light off... :shock:

Well it would have if it wasn't under warranty at the time.

 

[EeePee]

Goofy.

What kind of gas mileage were you getting after an oil change?

Valves tick or not? Probably not because you couldn't heard them over the almost liquid state of 60 weight oil syrup.

 

[GySgt Hartman]

Goofy.

What kind of gas mileage were you getting after an oil change?

Valves tick or not? Probably not because you couldn't heard them over the almost liquid state of 60 weight oil syrup.

Fuel economy on a ///M... :lmao:
Never paid much attention to before/after, but it was always under 20 (under 10 if I was angry).

Mechanical valves, they always ticked.

 

[Devil Inc]

Not true.

The oil light on the dash uses the level and PSI, yellow if it's low/red if there's no pressure.

The monitoring system uses driving style, trip duration, overall mileage, and ambient temp as well as engine temp to compute the interval.

There's a light on the dash panel for the PSI and there's a seperate level check light up on the check panel where the sunroof is. There is a SI gauge (series of indicator bulbs) that lights up when it thinks serivce is needed.