Best oil for Buick 3.8 that sees low miles.

[road1will]

Thanks everyone for the reccomendations for oil for my XC90. My other car is a 2002 Buick Lesabre 3.8L. I was bought the car super cheap 2 years ago from a little old lady who drove it very little - it only had 34,000 miles on it at the time. Two years later, and I've only put another 12,000 miles on it. The car is mostly used for around town driving and driven to work maybe 2x a week. Its also used when I go on road trips without my wife and kid.

Here is my concern - the lady who I bought it from changed the oil every 3k miles, which based off the miles on the car, is pretty much only once a year. She always took it to firestone and got the cheapest oil they offered. (Kendall Syn Blend)

I've been doing about the same thing, with whatever conventional oil has been on sale. I'm due for an oil change according to the 3000 mile OCI i've been doing, but my OLM still says i'm at 40%. However, the last time I changed the oil was last July. Should I go ahead and change the oil? 7 months seems like a long time to go on oil, especially when it does sometime sit for a week or two at a time.

My thought is to switch it over to Mobil 1 10W-30 and start running it to 5k mile OCI's, which should be around 12-14 months for me. Any thought?

 

[dparm]

That would be fine. If you want a 5k interval, any good synthetic or even synthetic blend can handle it. If the car doesn't see hard use (lots of WOT, etc) then it won't be too hard on the oil.

For the next change, I'd just go for whatever the current change special at your local auto parts store is. Typically they'll do something like 5qt of Mobil 1/Pennzoil Platinum/Castrol Syntec plus a good filter for under $30. Any of them can easily hit 5k.

 

[Boss302fan]

I currently have Mobil 1 5W30 HM oil in two cars with the 3.8 engine. With the history of your car this oil would work really well for you and also provide a really good cleaning of your engine.

The cars are an 03 Monte Carlo SS(53K miles) and a 04 Impala SS(8K miles)... Both love this oil and are running very smooth with it. Gas mileage is great and this oil would last for a yearly change.

May want to change it at 3K miles the first OCI because this oil cleans very well and will clean out your engine if it has any varnish/sludge from the limited driving from the prior lady/owner.

 

[sciphi]

Good plan. The 3800 should like the M1.

You've changed the lower intake gaskets on this gem, right? If the Dex-Cool hasn't been changed since 2002, it's eating away at those gaskets right now.

 

[eljefino]

It sounds like you're driving it when you're driving it, eg you let it get warmed up all the way.

Most of the "months" in the "or months" maintenance schedule is intended for those who make lots of short trips IMO. Letting it sit is fine as long as the anti corrosion additives aren't all used up-- and they aren't.

My dakota ran fine with 18 month changes at about the 2k mile mark.

The manual says if the OLM never goes off to change once a year, FWIW.

 

[road1will]

No, they have not been replaced as far as I know. It does not have Dexcool in it anymore, but I do smell coolant from time to time. I figure im going to have to do it sooner or later.

 

[Merkava_4]

The Buick 3.8L V6 and MaxLife 10W-30 are a perfect match.