5,000 Miles OCI For Older Cars???

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I always here 5,000 miles for an oil change w/ a good oil/filter combo. However, what about older automobiles? I have a 2000 Honda Civic with 170,000 miles on it and currently have 4,200 miles with Valvoline Max Life and a Fram Tough Guard filter on it. I plan on putting in some 5 30 Quaker State that I got at Menards for like 2.50 a quart. I'm a bit scared to run it to 5,000 miles. It seems to lose about a half a quart of oil per 3,000 miles but otherwise seems to run extremely well. This has been one of my most reliable "beater" cars I have ever owned.
 
What scares you? 1/2 qt on a car with 170,000 is nothing, just keep it topped up.
 
Go for it. I ran 5,000 mile ocis on my 1995 Integra and it had 217k on it when I sold it and it was still running. The first owner ran it for 120k on 5k conventional oil changes (and this was with lesser oils from the 90s, too) and the valvetrain was still nice and clean as well. The owners manual actually suggested 7500 mile oil change intervals, with 1994 quality conventionals. Oils today are better than they were in 1994.
 
Agreed..I'd just add the quart if needed.


Not counting the upcoming oil changes ( which will get done a bit earlier than normal due to this winter), all of my older cars go at least 5k on their changes....
 
Those engines can probably handle 10k on dino if doing it in less than a year.

The oil consumption adds life to the oil because topping off replenishes the additive package.
 
1/2 quart per 3,000 miles isn't bad. I have a '99 Civic EX and the engine isn't very hard on the oil. Unless you're doing severe service, 5,000 is likely OK. You could always send off for a UOA if you're concerned and want to try 5,000.
 
Thanks everyone. But I do stop and go inner city Chicago driving. I rarely run it on the highway. I'm forced to change it in this brutal Feb winter. I wish I could just go to Jiffy Lube but I dont trust them. A friend of mine was a manger there years ago and he was always drinking on the job.
 
That's not an older car. That is a modern car with a modern engine with low fuel dilution that is easy on oil.

An older car would be a 440 six pack Chrysler from the sixties with three 2-barrel carburetors that dumps fuel into engine, and therefor the engine oil.

Since you are not driving a 60's muscle car or even a carburetor car, your 5K mile OCI will be fine.

If I was in your situation, I would run synthetic and change twice yearly (if mileage allows), once in the spring and once in the fall so you dont get stuck doing an oil change in the winter.
 
If this is any consolation...

I used to do[MOSTLY] 5K mile OCI's on my '88 Honda Accord(YES, 1988)! But, we put on 340K miles in a hurry so changing the oil/filter every 3K was out of the question.

These OCI's were originally done using SE/SF conventional motor oils(5W30/10W30), all the way to SL/GF-3 in 2006 when we sold the car.

When I replace the valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket in the early 2000's(w/over 200K+ miles), the engine was impressively clean on the inside...top & bottom of the engine!

Again, using only conventional oil(never synthetic), often the oils were W*M's Super Tech and other parts store brands. Although, I did use lots of name brand oils as well and some OCI's were @ ~3K and other OCI's were >5K miles.

In addition, the last year of ownership of this '88 Accord, the OCI's were with a case of NAPA 5W20(YES, 5W20) that I got from a friend who sold his 2001 Civic for another vehicle calling for different oil.

This engine's oil filter were nothing more than a FRAM OCOD or Puro Prem Plus(a.k.a. Classic), ProLine from PB's or W*M's ST!

This engine was just fine @ 340K!
smile.gif
 
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OMG, I've never run less than 5k since before the days of synthetics (other than the fledgling Amsoil) and never had
an oil related issue. Never did subscribe to the idea of "change your oil every 3000 miles" .
 
Hmm: 1/2 quart in ~ 3,000 miles. I would not add but let the engine go the full 5,000 miles and change it without adding oil. You should still be in the "Safe Zone" on the dipstick. Ed
 
Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
I always here 5,000 miles for an oil change w/ a good oil/filter combo. However, what about older automobiles? I have a 2000 Honda Civic with 170,000 miles on it and currently have 4,200 miles with Valvoline Max Life and a Fram Tough Guard filter on it. I plan on putting in some 5 30 Quaker State that I got at Menards for like 2.50 a quart. I'm a bit scared to run it to 5,000 miles. It seems to lose about a half a quart of oil per 3,000 miles but otherwise seems to run extremely well. This has been one of my most reliable "beater" cars I have ever owned.


My brother has a 1997 Civic. He bought it in 2006 with 92,000 miles on it. It now has 275,000 on it. He lets me change the oil on the car, along with the other maintenance, because he knows I love working on our vehicles.
The Civic has used oil since he bought it, and it has been consistent, we tried PP, then Ultra for the majority of the miles, a couple of intervals with Amsoil.

Now, the current oil in the sump is Mobil 1. What is interesting, is that the consumption is decreasing and slowing down.
I know for some other people, they have experienced more consumption with Mobil 1, but in this case, it is the opposite for us, Mobil 1 is slowing down/almost stopping the Civic's oil consumption.

The oil usage with PP, Ultra, and Amsoil was almost the same as yours. My brother runs the oils out to roughly 7,000 - 7,500 intervals.

The Mobil 1 fill is around 5,500 miles right now, and I've only had to add a few ounces to keep it topped off.
 
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Originally Posted By: qwerty1234
I always here 5,000 miles for an oil change w/ a good oil/filter combo. However, what about older automobiles? I have a 2000 Honda Civic with 170,000 miles on it and currently have 4,200 miles with Valvoline Max Life and a Fram Tough Guard filter on it. I plan on putting in some 5 30 Quaker State that I got at Menards for like 2.50 a quart. I'm a bit scared to run it to 5,000 miles. It seems to lose about a half a quart of oil per 3,000 miles but otherwise seems to run extremely well. This has been one of my most reliable "beater" cars I have ever owned.



Easy to speculate. Perform a UOA and you will know if it's ok or not.
 
Myself and friends have used M1 oils in engines with 200-300-400K at extended OCIs, some out to 20K, with excellent results. None of use have ever done UOAs.
 
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About the only thing to worry about is coolant contamination or a leaky injector. If you aren't using coolant, I wouldn't sweat it. I've got M1 HM in my 97 EX right now with 157k. I'm currently doing one run of ~7k to get me to an even mileage number then start into 10k intervals. Conventional I'd do 5k-7.5k without blinking. More than that I might do a UOA to confirm.
 
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I have a 92 Cavalier that is my daily driver with 205,500 miles on it and I do 5,000 mile oil changes with 5W-30 Trop Artic. I'm within 600 miles until my next oil change and the engine has only used about 1/2 a quart. Oil still looks pretty clear on the dipstick.

I've had the car since 2006 and 76,600 miles and have used many different brands of oil in it.

I wouldn't hesitate to do 5,000 mile oil changes on your car unless the engine has issues.

Wayne
 
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