When do you change your oil?

[pitzel]

Originally Posted By: Chewie
Originally Posted By: pitzel
Some engines just don't really need oil changes.


Have any real evidence (ie. a UOA) to back up that statement? My guess is no.


Photos of sludge-free internals, and the engine getting just slightly under 8L/100km on ~62mph/100km/hour highway driving when I drove it on a longer trip last week not good enough for you?

Oil is Esso XD-3 0W-30 full synthetic.

 

[BeerCan]

I personally don't care if you change your oil or not. However your "proof" that it is working is meaningless. I suspect that others have already told you that and I am flatulating in the wind.

 

[pitzel]

Originally Posted By: BeerCan
I personally don't care if you change your oil or not. However your "proof" that it is working is meaningless. I suspect that others have already told you that and I am flatulating in the wind.


Meaningless? You mean a sludge-free engine and absolutely no detectable performance degradation is meaningless?

Leaving the theatrics aside, I'm interested in *why* you have doubts that an OCI can't be 40-50k miles or more? Is it because someone drilled that 3k/3 month nonsense into your brain at an early age? Did you have an experience with sludge that was caused by oil age, rather than inadequate oil quantity, a coolant leak, or other mechanical failure? Just trying to understand why so much dogma circulates around the topic, because I really don't understand why anyone would question longer OCI's coincident with otherwise full and proper maintenance.

 

[VeeDubb]

I change every 3k. But that is only because my VW FSI turbo engine is known to have excessive cam follower wear and carbon deposits. On the Toyota, I went between 5-7.5k.

 

[TiredTrucker]

I guess I never got into trying to do the extended drain thing on my personal vehicles because it is only a few quarts and a filter, there is no shortage of motor oil, and nothing is wasted as it is recycled or used in shop heaters. Could I go longer? Probably so. But 5000 miles fits well within my comfort zone and matches up to other maintenance I do on my pickup. Nothing much to do with 3mo/3000 mile marketing stuff, as I never really bought into that one even years ago. To just go ahead and change the oil for the price of a couple of large pizza's and a liter of soda pop every 5K miles doesn't seem like a terrible waste of anything. Not when I see folks spend hundreds / thousands of dollars on stuff for their vehicle that has no appreciable benefit. For my commercial stuff, yeah, I take the oil changes out about 50% longer than OEM recommended drains and do UOA's to confirm. But now were talking 10 gallons of oil and 3 large filters at an change every month and a half to 2 months.

 

[AuthorEditor]

Quote:
I guess I never got into trying to do the extended drain thing on my personal vehicles because it is only a few quarts and a filter, there is no shortage of motor oil, and nothing is wasted as it is recycled or used in shop heaters.

Part of the appeal of longer drain intervals to me was to avoid having to lie on my back in the driveway in the middle of the winter changing oil in between snow storms! Seriously, if you don't have a garage it is worthwhile to do it less often.

 

[SilverC6]

Originally Posted By: pitzel
Originally Posted By: BeerCan
I personally don't care if you change your oil or not. However your "proof" that it is working is meaningless. I suspect that others have already told you that and I am flatulating in the wind.


Meaningless? You mean a sludge-free engine and absolutely no detectable performance degradation is meaningless?

Leaving the theatrics aside, I'm interested in *why* you have doubts that an OCI can't be 40-50k miles or more? Is it because someone drilled that 3k/3 month nonsense into your brain at an early age? Did you have an experience with sludge that was caused by oil age, rather than inadequate oil quantity, a coolant leak, or other mechanical failure? Just trying to understand why so much dogma circulates around the topic, because I really don't understand why anyone would question longer OCI's coincident with otherwise full and proper maintenance.


Most folks here are into vehicle maintenance.

What you've got is a mission/crusade and a rolling science project.

If you shipped off a sample of your 50,000 mile ESSO for a UOA, you would likely find most of its additive package depleted.

If your okay with that, I am too.

But I'll be under the car this weekend dogmatically maintaining my vehicles. I do it because I enjoy it. Am I a slave to my machines, maybe.....

 

[NavyVet88]

Originally Posted By: Ifixyawata
If I'm not mistaken GTX HM is a blend, no? If I'm right then the consensus here (or at least as close as you can get to a consensus on this forum) is that you could probably run it all the way out to 7500. Then again i wouldn't be a part of that majority because I've been changing my syn blends at 5k but I enjoy changing oil for some dumb reason.

Now I have to figure out how I'm going to deal with the 20 quarts of synthetic 0w30's I have from the last AZ clearance. I will probably grit my teeth and try to run them 8k.

If I were going to invest in a UOA I would probably man up and run 10k+ but again I like laying under my vehicles watching the oil drain out. Also get some odd satisfaction from watching new clean oil glug-glug down through the fill hole.



+1 I'm so guilty of this too. I feel like I'm helping breathe new life into the engine

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: SilverC6
Originally Posted By: pitzel
Originally Posted By: BeerCan
I personally don't care if you change your oil or not. However your "proof" that it is working is meaningless. I suspect that others have already told you that and I am flatulating in the wind.


Meaningless? You mean a sludge-free engine and absolutely no detectable performance degradation is meaningless?

Leaving the theatrics aside, I'm interested in *why* you have doubts that an OCI can't be 40-50k miles or more? Is it because someone drilled that 3k/3 month nonsense into your brain at an early age? Did you have an experience with sludge that was caused by oil age, rather than inadequate oil quantity, a coolant leak, or other mechanical failure? Just trying to understand why so much dogma circulates around the topic, because I really don't understand why anyone would question longer OCI's coincident with otherwise full and proper maintenance.


Most folks here are into vehicle maintenance.

What you've got is a mission/crusade and a rolling science project.

If you shipped off a sample of your 50,000 mile ESSO for a UOA, you would likely find most of its additive package depleted.

If your okay with that, I am too.

But I'll be under the car this weekend dogmatically maintaining my vehicles. I do it because I enjoy it. Am I a slave to my machines, maybe.....


I'd definitely love to see a uoa of that!!