How often to change Mobil 1?

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I have a 04 Tacoma 6 cyl, 04 Camry 6 cyl and a '00 Corolla. All the cars get about 10,000 miles/year with mainly short distance, in city driving with maybe 1,000-2,000 mile highway trip. (Central Valley to Northern Oregon-actually 1200 miles round trip miles)

I have always used Mobil 1 and originally was changing the oil every 6 months or 5,000 miles, except for the last oil change where I went about a year and with 10,000-12,000 miles on the cars.

What is the oil change interval recommendation/opinion or consensus of the BITOG members for Mobil 1?

Thanks
 
I've been going 10,000 miles for 7 years on wifes Caravan per advice of a mechanic at work. Not sure I'm gonna keep doing that judging from some of the advice I've read here.
 
Depends on the driving and the climate etc. Best way to tell is to do a UOA and get a TBN & TAN done so that you can judge how well the oil is holding up under your climate and driving patterns etc. Then push it a little further and check again. Once you find the absolute limit, I would change at 2K miles less than that limit so you have a safe buffer.

Make sure to use a quality oil filter as this can make a huge difference on the oils insoluble levels.

It will cost you a bit in the beginning for the UOA's but will save you in the future in engine repairs from over extended OCI's and from un-necessary oil changes.
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Ok did you do a UOA when you went 12 months on it? That is what we need to make an intelligent decision. 6 month intervals are almost idiot proof it does not matter if you put 1000 miles on it 6 months or 15,000 mile sin 6 months you are good to go. When going longer then that you really have to have some idea of what is going on inside your engine. Some can do this safely without remote bypass filtration while others can not.

You best bet for going longer then 6 months is Mobil-1 0W40. Use a good filter and change the filter every 6 months and top off the oil. Thar would more then likely produce more then acceptable wear numbers and decent TBN. The Motorcraft 820 or Fram PH8A counter parts should fit that engine no problem and will give you an extra 1/2 quart of oil capacity which will help over the long haul. Normally I go for flow over filtration but for a 12 month OCI you need a bit of both so in this case filters like the Pureone,Donaldson,Baldwin,Motor Craft all int he PH*A equivalent size would be good choices! I would go with Donaldson Straphore(sp) as my first choice,followed by PureOne, then Baldwin then Motorcraft etc.....

A bypass filtration set up like Trasko's or Amsoils can be used with any brand of oil. I would not hesitate to use an Amsoil bypass system or dual remote bypass system along with Mobil-1 0W40. Their 0W40 is chemicaly their best oil they sell onthe shelfs in America in terms of TBN retension and good additive package for long duration use. It was designed for long oil change intervals for European Super Car's and such!
 
Originally Posted By: FZ1
6/5000 works with no uoa expense.


It's also good at wasting precious resources and might be very un-necessary.
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To each their own though...
 
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I think the old oil is recycled by the dealers. Uoa money is also a precious resource.
 
How but this idea, use the M1 EP oils that allow for 15k mile/1 year oil changes, but then change it at 10-12k miles/1 year. Then I would feel fairly confident that I was not over-extending the oil change interval.

+1 on the quality oil filter recommendation.

Type of driving and engine type and condition are huge factors for oil change frequency. If you do mostly short trips and rarely ever get the engine good and hot to where the contaminating fuel and condensate in the oil can be "boiled out", you need to change it more often.
 
Ive found that minimum is the non-severe service OCI from the manual. Beyond that, you really need to go with UOA.
 
I've used M1 oils of all sorts for 31 years and have done 10,000 mile OCIs as well with very good results. I know guys that go much futher than that with high mileage engines. At any rate M1 oils will produce very clean and long lived engines with 10,000 mile OCIs.
 
6 months/5000 because in city driving is severe service in most cases. As for the precious resources...take a trip to China and you will change your outlook.
 
Originally Posted By: PT1
6 months/5000 because in city driving is severe service in most cases. As for the precious resources...take a trip to China and you will change your outlook.


The 5-30EP can handle that.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: PT1
6 months/5000 because in city driving is severe service in most cases. As for the precious resources...take a trip to China and you will change your outlook.


The 5-30EP can handle that.


+1
 
Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Ok did you do a UOA when you went 12 months on it? That is what we need to make an intelligent decision. 6 month intervals are almost idiot proof it does not matter if you put 1000 miles on it 6 months or 15,000 mile sin 6 months you are good to go. When going longer then that you really have to have some idea of what is going on inside your engine. Some can do this safely without remote bypass filtration while others can not.

You best bet for going longer then 6 months is Mobil-1 0W40. Use a good filter and change the filter every 6 months and top off the oil. Thar would more then likely produce more then acceptable wear numbers and decent TBN. The Motorcraft 820 or Fram PH8A counter parts should fit that engine no problem and will give you an extra 1/2 quart of oil capacity which will help over the long haul. Normally I go for flow over filtration but for a 12 month OCI you need a bit of both so in this case filters like the Pureone,Donaldson,Baldwin,Motor Craft all int he PH*A equivalent size would be good choices! I would go with Donaldson Straphore(sp) as my first choice,followed by PureOne, then Baldwin then Motorcraft etc.....

A bypass filtration set up like Trasko's or Amsoils can be used with any brand of oil. I would not hesitate to use an Amsoil bypass system or dual remote bypass system along with Mobil-1 0W40. Their 0W40 is chemicaly their best oil they sell onthe shelfs in America in terms of TBN retension and good additive package for long duration use. It was designed for long oil change intervals for European Super Car's and such!


JB: Just a note: The Donaldson filters have the Synteq media, whilst the Fleetguard filters have the Stratapore media.
 
I've got the other Cav's OCI of M1 up to 6/4600


The car mostly does city driving, and I could go a bit longer, but the car runs so well, I'm just taking my time...


Next up will be M1 EP....
 
Hi,
mulepacker - I use M1 0W-40 and Delvac 1 5W-40 and I typically change these at around 20kkms (12miles) or up to two years whichever comes first

UOAs have always suggested that the lubricants could have remained in use much longer. UOAs have always been posted here since around 2003

In the case on the Benz the ASSYST system advises but I normally run over. MB in OZ show a 17kkms (10.5k miles) average OCI with time up to two years

My use is a mixture of rural and town - long and high speed long distance use too. I live in the hot Tropics on the Coast of the Great Barrier Reef
 
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