Super Short Commute OCI?

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Hello BITOG community,

My current one-way commute to work is about 20 miles, nearly all highway. Nice road to get the car fully warmed up.

I am looking to buy a house where I have a 1.8 mile commute to work! Great savings on fuel, tires, ect. During the spring, summer, and fall, I plan to ride my bike about 2-3 times a week to work. However, many days the car will see a 1.8 mile commute to work, and a 1.8 mile commute home. This can be especially hard on the car in winter when it is an everyday event.

The current OCI on the Accord is 7,500 or 12months (filter every 15,000 or 12 months)
The current OCI & filter on the Mercedes is 10,000 or 12 months.
The S2000 is a track toy that only sees summer usage.

What does BITOG suggest for summer & winter maintenance on these two vehicles that will see very short commutes on a daily basis?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Any chance you can take them on a longer run on weekends?

BTW, what happened to your 3-series? Replaced it with the glk?


Certainly stretch the legs on the weekends.

335i went away to buy this house and a track toy. When we get settled, looking at a B8.5 S4 as a replacement for the Accord.
 
my wife has a super short commute. We take her truck on the highway on the weekends. I jist change the oil and filter every 6 months and call it a day. Probably overkill, costs me na extra $45/year and I sleep better at night.
 
1.8 miles isn't super short. We proved long ago that 5 block commutes could still go full non severe oci if a good syn oil was used, and the vehicle was given a longer run on the highway every so often.
 
That's about the same as my commute (3.5km). I try to ride my pushbike as often as possible, but it seems I'm using the car most often these days. We used to use the wife's car for going places, but with both of us changing cars, we use mine now, so every few weeks it gets a good run. I like to look after my vehicles, but the Volvo is a $500 end of life car, so I'm not really shortening it's lifespan on my short commute...others have done that for me. It's going to get yearly oil changes.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
1.8 miles isn't super short. We proved long ago that 5 block commutes could still go full non severe oci if a good syn oil was used, and the vehicle was given a longer run on the highway every so often.




Yeah, but in north eastern winters?
 
Originally Posted By: randomhero439
Hello BITOG community,

My current one-way commute to work is about 20 miles, nearly all highway. Nice road to get the car fully warmed up.

I am looking to buy a house where I have a 1.8 mile commute to work! Great savings on fuel, tires, ect. During the spring, summer, and fall, I plan to ride my bike about 2-3 times a week to work. However, many days the car will see a 1.8 mile commute to work, and a 1.8 mile commute home. This can be especially hard on the car in winter when it is an everyday event.

The current OCI on the Accord is 7,500 or 12months (filter every 15,000 or 12 months)
The current OCI & filter on the Mercedes is 10,000 or 12 months.
The S2000 is a track toy that only sees summer usage.

What does BITOG suggest for summer & winter maintenance on these two vehicles that will see very short commutes on a daily basis?



I would carry on with the factory suggested OCI's seeing how you plan on taking them out for the weekends.

To keep track of things and if life allows, try to just short trip/ DD the Honda in the winter. One less car to take out on the highway.

Winters and cold starts can create excess moisture in the oil and make the filters wavy. If that bothers you, use a wire backed filter in the Honda. German Mann's don't seem to care about the weather and look great regardless.
 
Originally Posted By: randomhero439
What does BITOG suggest for summer & winter maintenance on these two vehicles that will see very short commutes on a daily basis?


Find a nice "long" route home. Take it every so often.

I have about a 4 mile commute. This is the longest car commute of my life. Normally it is between 1.5 miles or less. In DC I just used the Bus/Metro... but you have to do that if you work with a transit-oriented agency. So for my current commute, 2 miles are on 4 lane state road, 2 miles on a local limited access highway. Just enough to get it warm-ish. My winters may rival yours depending on your Ohio location (just without as much snowfall accumulation). My diesel fleet vehicles has some minor issue but you will note have that. Cold starts are not all that worrisome IMO unless you are further up in the Canadaland or Southern Canada (ie Minnesota)... or have a diesel.

My MR2 gets annual oil changes in the spring. I get about 3-4K on it on a good year. I probably get about 80% of my mileage from April-October. Still, most of the mileage is not commuting.
My old beater (sold) received about the same once a year change.
Now with the new Genesis, I am would be doing a 1 year OCI interval but to keep up with the Hyundai warranty, I will have to do it every 6 months. Meh. I would maybe get about 6k miles in a year.


Now, my wife's Outback will go the 6K Subaru interval which is about every 4-5 months as she drives more.
 
My commute is 1.9 miles each way. I use Magnatec and follow the severe OCI from Nissan. 3750 miles or 5 months. I usually hit the 5 months before the 3750.
 
Originally Posted By: tojo1968
My commute is 1.9 miles each way. I use Magnatec and follow the severe OCI from Nissan. 3750 miles or 5 months. I usually hit the 5 months before the 3750.


Which viscosity is your Magnatec ?
 
Use a full synthetic and change oil and filter spring and fall. Run it on the open road for about an hour once or twice a month. Follow OEM maintenance.
 
I think you are over thinking this.

200 round trips a year are less than 800 miles. Either you are going to end up with very few miles on it per year or most of the miles are likely going to be longer trips.
 
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