I've been wavering about how often to change my PP HM synthetic 5w30 oil in my 98 toyota avalon I drive lots of short trips in the cold winters here. I drive one or two miles for many winter trips, and occasionally drive 5-10 miles. I drive about 1000 miles over the 6 months of "winter" that goes from October to April (that is how long it snows). I am unlikely to take a long drive just to warm up the car. After the winter ends I drive more and take longer trips (including a couple 1000 mile trips). Since I live in a cold climate, I probably get moisture in the oil during the winter. The long summer trips would "burn" that moisture off, but that might be "too little too late."
I've been driving like this for the last 10 years and my car runs fine on scheduled maintenance (the car has 205k miles now). It has never failed me on the 1000 miles trips after winter ends, but I usually changed the oil before the 1000 mi trips on a 6 months OCI with Maxlife 5w30 blend.
One thing I have noticed is that the PP synthetic does not produce "Winter Mayonnaise" in the cap as the Maxlife blend did. And the cold startups seem to be much less noisy with the synthetic PP. So there seem to be advantages to a synthetic in the extreme cold (-20 F is not uncommon).
I changed to PP HM oil in October. Should I change my PP 5w30 HM oil in April after about 6 months and 1000 miles, or should I leave it in for 12 months and 5000 miles???
Another thought is to change the oil one more time at 6 months, and then change the oil just after winter ends on a 12 month April-to-April OCI in the future.
I've been driving like this for the last 10 years and my car runs fine on scheduled maintenance (the car has 205k miles now). It has never failed me on the 1000 miles trips after winter ends, but I usually changed the oil before the 1000 mi trips on a 6 months OCI with Maxlife 5w30 blend.
One thing I have noticed is that the PP synthetic does not produce "Winter Mayonnaise" in the cap as the Maxlife blend did. And the cold startups seem to be much less noisy with the synthetic PP. So there seem to be advantages to a synthetic in the extreme cold (-20 F is not uncommon).
I changed to PP HM oil in October. Should I change my PP 5w30 HM oil in April after about 6 months and 1000 miles, or should I leave it in for 12 months and 5000 miles???
Another thought is to change the oil one more time at 6 months, and then change the oil just after winter ends on a 12 month April-to-April OCI in the future.