Is it ok to go with a yearly OCI on conventional oil if I'm only driving the car 6000 miles a year? The car a 1999.5 pathfinder with the 3.3L with 111,xxx miles.
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
OK to go with 1 year OCI with conventional oil?
- Thread starter 90Notch
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What does the owner's manual say?
I think so. Syn would hold up a little better but a quality dino oil will be fine. My mother's car gets about that many miles a year, or less, I change the oil with Max Life every December when they leave for FL for the winter, it sits in the garage for 4 months, then she drives it on mostly short trips the rest of the year. It would still be good to give your SUV a good 20 mile run once in a while to warm the oil up fully. That's part of the issue. Does your Pathfinder do a lot of short trips or does it get driven a fair bit WHEN it gets driven and it's just not driven very often?
Schedule 1 (severe service) interval is 3,750 miles/3 months. Schedule 2 (normal service) interval is 7,500 miles/6 months. See Maintenance 9-5 of the owner's manual to see which schedule you fall in.
Not having owned a VG33E, I don't really have any anecdotal data to offer. It probably depends on your choice of oil. But as JohnnyO said, driving habits is also a big factor. Many short trips will rarely get the oil to operating temperature and not allow the oil to boil off any accumulated moisture.
Not having owned a VG33E, I don't really have any anecdotal data to offer. It probably depends on your choice of oil. But as JohnnyO said, driving habits is also a big factor. Many short trips will rarely get the oil to operating temperature and not allow the oil to boil off any accumulated moisture.
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It generally goes on 30 mile round trip commute to/from work and sometimes goes on short trips under 5 miles.
The manual says 3750 miles or 3 months for schedule 1 (frequent trip of less than 5 miles, sitting idle, taxiing, etc), whichever comes first. I think this is a bit wasteful to change the oil at this interval.
Schedule 2 says 7500 miles or 6 months whichever comes first.
The manual says 3750 miles or 3 months for schedule 1 (frequent trip of less than 5 miles, sitting idle, taxiing, etc), whichever comes first. I think this is a bit wasteful to change the oil at this interval.
Schedule 2 says 7500 miles or 6 months whichever comes first.
I'd have no issue with running 6k intervals with a quality conventional and filter in that case. Your commute is plenty of time to get the oil to temp, and the short trips should be inconsequential due to that I think. Are you the original owner of the PF? Does it consume any oil?
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I figure conventional oil these days are pretty good (I use Castrol GTX for the most part, sometimes Valvoline) and should be able to handle 4-5000 miles intervals just fine. Correct me if I'm wrong?
Thanks!!!
Thanks!!!
I'd say so, yes. In my PF, I'd be a little bit more wary of running an oil around 5k as I've read that the VQ35DE shears oil out of spec rather quickly, but I'm not sure about the VG33E. Perhaps an HDEO which is more shear-stable would be a safer choice, at least in my case.
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I'm sure it'd be fine, one reason the VG33 is not picky. It will run for a thousand years or more on pretty much anything.
Why not? I do. Most cars I have get very few miles except for 2 daily drivers. Those 2 get between 3-5k per year and I change in November.
I figure I could go like 5,000 and then send the oil to Blackstone and get an analysis done to see if the oil is still good.
Originally Posted By: 90Notch
Is it ok to go with a yearly OCI on conventional oil if I'm only driving the car 6000 miles a year? The car a 1999.5 pathfinder with the 3.3L with 111,xxx miles.
Thanks in advance!
I would ask myself how meaningful is the difference in cost between syn and dino with one oil change per year. If you are a do it yourselfer, the difference between 5 qts of dino and 5 qts of M1 at Wally World is like $10.
Is it ok to go with a yearly OCI on conventional oil if I'm only driving the car 6000 miles a year? The car a 1999.5 pathfinder with the 3.3L with 111,xxx miles.
Thanks in advance!
I would ask myself how meaningful is the difference in cost between syn and dino with one oil change per year. If you are a do it yourselfer, the difference between 5 qts of dino and 5 qts of M1 at Wally World is like $10.
I have a beater SUV, that gets a yearly oil change. I leave it overnight for it's annual safety inspection and have the shop change it's oil then. Sometimes it goes 2k miles during the year, and some times I'll go closer to that 6-7k mile range. I've never had any oil related issue with it....actually I've got a valve cover leak, so maybe I'm not a good example to follow
Originally Posted By: teddyboy
Originally Posted By: 90Notch
Is it ok to go with a yearly OCI on conventional oil if I'm only driving the car 6000 miles a year? The car a 1999.5 pathfinder with the 3.3L with 111,xxx miles.
Thanks in advance!
I would ask myself how meaningful is the difference in cost between syn and dino with one oil change per year. If you are a do it yourselfer, the difference between 5 qts of dino and 5 qts of M1 at Wally World is like $10.
Yeah, I'm a DIY'er.
Well the thing is I have about 15 quarts of oil which is enough for 3 more oil changes. However, 3 of those quarts are Mobil 1 synthetic and I've mixed conventional with synthetic before with no issues. So I guess on my next change(whenever that is) I'm going to throw in a bottle of Mobil 1 with the dino.
Originally Posted By: 90Notch
Is it ok to go with a yearly OCI on conventional oil if I'm only driving the car 6000 miles a year? The car a 1999.5 pathfinder with the 3.3L with 111,xxx miles.
Thanks in advance!
I would ask myself how meaningful is the difference in cost between syn and dino with one oil change per year. If you are a do it yourselfer, the difference between 5 qts of dino and 5 qts of M1 at Wally World is like $10.
Yeah, I'm a DIY'er.
Well the thing is I have about 15 quarts of oil which is enough for 3 more oil changes. However, 3 of those quarts are Mobil 1 synthetic and I've mixed conventional with synthetic before with no issues. So I guess on my next change(whenever that is) I'm going to throw in a bottle of Mobil 1 with the dino.
once per year seems fine- especially in the temperate SF area.
I have been making my own syn blend with 2.5 PYB with 2 PP for years
I have been making my own syn blend with 2.5 PYB with 2 PP for years
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