Oil Change

It depends on how the miles are put on. If only a few miles at a time you may want to change it more often,but if like me, you are in the car for 20 or so minuits at a time and the engine gets good and warm then longer is ok. All my milage is put on by a few long trips at a time.

Manuals normally say so many miles or so many months. My last car which said 7,000 miles or 3 months, I did every 6 months.

Car now uses synthetic oil so I'm changing annually. Now the newer cars will tell you when. It was funny that car gave me a year on the first oil change but went to 6 months for the second. Dealer has a nasty habit of recommending half what the manual does and had set the computer at 6 months. So, I reset it to a year.

Not sure the dealer can change the interval in that fashion, but with a computer involved I won't discount it. Those mileage minders generally work on different principle (see below).

1. Read & follow the instructions in the owner's manual.
2. Many (most?) newer cars have a DIC (Driver's Information Center) with that calculates the proper oil change interval based not only on the type of driving, but the total miles driven and time line (?) between changes.

FWIW, there was quite a bit of chatter a few years back on the auto forums about a bit of a dustup with General Motors and their dealers where GM was strongly suggesting that the dealers follow the recommendation that motorist's heed the oil change recommendations provided by the DIC rather than the old "Every 3,000 miles).

I've seen pretty much the same recommendation in recent years with GM, MOPAR and HONDA cars we've owned. I think that ALL also state that regardless of the info provided by the DIC, oil should be changed every year. Depending on which car, I see an oil change required anywhere from 6,500 to 8,500 miles on the daily driver. The Corvette gets an oil change every Fall with, < 5,000 miles use during the year.

I take relatively short trips but at least once or twice a month take a long one. I know that if I only used the car for short trips, that would be bad for it.

Just heard from a buddy of mine who lives in northern Wisconsin and he uses synthetic and changes his oil every 7 -8000 miles.

He hits deer from time to time and if his vehicle has over 180k he'll junk it.

He said he pulled the heads on a few and there was zero detectable wear.

That said, I will probably stay with just regular oil.

Actually it may take ten months to go that far so will be sure no matter what to get the oil changed at least twice a year regardless of the mileage.

You folks are certainly fanatic about oil. If mine gets changed every

Yep, change my oil every 7500 miles as recommended by manufacturer. Sometimes takes 2 years, only 49K on a 2006. Not a fanatic.

Reminds me of a couple of cars I had years ago. It was an automatic oil change, just add a quart a week and it was always fresh.

No, the dealer can do it.

When I went in for the first oil change, other reminder lights had come on and when I went to leave one was still on so I told the dealer to correct it which he did. That means he set it. It was not hard for me to look up how to change it from 6 months to a year. In fact I could have made it longer or shorter.

I recall several years ago when a friend changed his own oil on a new Toyota but the light still came on. He needed to go to the dealer to have it reset.

Some you just push a button. Others, you put it in neutral, get out and run around the car, counterclockwise, push a button twice while putting down the passenger window. That'll teach you to go to the dealer for changes.

My employer has us pull an oil sample and send it in for analysis.

We change oil on the vehicle when the test says it needs it.

The RIGHT way to do it.

I BUY my cars with 100,000 miles on them

I believe you forgot about hopping on your left foot while tugging on your right earlobe while baying at a 3/4 moon! ;)

Sounds like a Chevy V-8. I had several of them.

Both of you disregard all the decades of actual experience and test data on synthetic oils. They didn't start using it in cars, it was first used in e ngines in demanding applications, severe service, eg trucks and industrial equipment, starting many decades ago. It holds its properties much longer t han conventional oil and the filter takes care of any harmful particles. If it wasn't performing with all the cars out there, it would be widely known .

I'm running 10k mile oil changes with synthetic, consistent with what the m anufacturer recommends and the best data.

Another money pit waste. That's a Jiffy Lube and similar racket. They show you a white towel and how your tranny fluid is tan, while new it's red. I had the GM shop manual and they tell you that the tan color is normal, not an indication of anything. It's a dye that easily loses its color. Shops ha ve made billions of that scam.

Typical, the recession ended in 2009. More jobs were created in 2016, the last year of Obama, than last year under Trump. But you have your own belie f system, whether it's oil or economics. Neither is based on facts.

And what does the manual, (not the dealer), say?

Same here with BMW using synthetic.

It does use the synthetic

Yup, had a '66 VW Beetle that developed that same condition after many years and many miles. Had to add a quart at every gas tank fill up.

I told that to the woman I sold it too but she didn't believe me and seized-up the engine the second week she had the car.