First Long OCI Nightmares

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texasproud

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Dreams late at night about my engine tearing itself from the truck, waddling over and pizzing black motor oil all over my legs. Driving with the radio turned up so not to hear the odometer screaming each mile past the 3000 mark. The "Change your oil every 3 mo or 3000 miles" Jiffy Lube sticker is now a neon sign that requires sunglasses to avoid the glare. Unopened oil bottles on the garage shelf whispering provocative nuances when the truck is pulled in the garage.

How did you guys make it through your first long OCI without Valium ? Cold Turkey ??
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The cost of the oil change did it. The wife doesn't quite accept $75 every month or 3000 miles as the normal price of lubrication.

Unfortunately, I use to switch brands/types frequently, which led to changing faster to get "all fresh" of the new oil in. I have since settled on a brand/type of oil, and will stick with it, so I can let the oil go.

Just...let it go.
 
Keep reading posts from this web site and you'll soon kick yourself for not doing 5k+ OCI's a long time ago. I was a 3K lifer until coming here. Now I do Mobil1 5w30 year round with 5K OCI's and don't even break a sweat. Good luck with the nightmares...
 
The first OCI is the hardest. Before you know it you will be wondering what the fuss was all about. Hang tough you can quit the 3/3 habit.
 
quote:
Originally posted by texasproud:


How did you guys make it through your first long OCI without Valium ? Cold Turkey ??
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With pure, blind ignorance. Most of the cars I've owned over the past 10 years never really got their oil changed, and it didn't bother me a bit. They just got toppned up with whatever was cheap, and maybe got an oilchange whenever they had major work done to the engine. Of course, up until 4.5 years ago, I never really knew how important an oil change was to a car. Now I'm just nuts over changing oil in any engine. I've got BITOGism!
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I've been doing 5K oci's for the last 16 years but I commute 50 miles one way. If my trips were very short I would change sooner. I've been pleased so far for the last 600,000 miles on two cars.
 
Well, without doing UOA's like I'm not doing, then you may worry.

I may start doing them to some degree again just because you never know.

If you plan to do UOA then I would not sweat it.

If it bothers you too much, do the first at 4k and drain with a sample, then go to 5k and drain with a sample. Then 6K...

Someplace you have to start. Even if it is only 4K, think of the money you can save, think of the ecology of the water and all that.

The ooooonly way you will know is to pull a higher run and test it.
 
quote:
Originally posted by texasproud:
Dreams late at night about my engine tearing itself from the truck, waddling over and pizzing black motor oil all over my legs. Driving with the radio turned up so not to hear the odometer screaming each mile past the 3000 mark. The "Change your oil every 3 mo or 3000 miles" Jiffy Lube sticker is now a neon sign that requires sunglasses to avoid the glare. Unopened oil bottles on the garage shelf whispering provocative nuances when the truck is pulled in the garage.

How did you guys make it through your first long OCI without Valium ? Cold Turkey ??
fruit.gif

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When i got my truck i picked up those prepaid service coupons up to 55K. During this time ive been having the dealer change my oil that i bring in (redline for most the life of the truck and now amsoil) i know i wasted my money but now that i have one more service left then its up to me ill be pushing this oil at least 7500 im guessing or till next spring, currently 4K. Ive been having the oil changed every 4500-5K so this last batch is my first true test at least now the oil still looks really good for how many miles it has so im pretty confident that it will last that long. After that its every six months regardless of mileage with amsoil series 3000. I feel your pain but if your truck was properly maintained before then i dont see why you would have a problem.
 
I just finished my first 10k OCI. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because the M1 I was using still looked pretty good at that point. This second 10k OCI will be much easier on me.
 
Well...it is good to know there are others that have had the same experiences. My son (25 yrs old) has grown up with 5-7K OCIs. He looks at me and says "What's the problem here Dad ?"

I think I will do a UOA at 3200 !!

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My nightmares come on when I realize that I did 30 JiffyBoob oil changes on my first car at about $25 each(every 3K, total of 90K miles in 4 years) when I realistically could have done 6.

I have NO problem leaving the oil in there now...
 
quote:
Originally posted by Matt89:
My nightmares come on when I realize that I did 30 JiffyBoob oil changes on my first car at about $25 each(every 3K, total of 90K miles in 4 years) when I realistically could have done 6.

I have NO problem leaving the oil in there now...
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but for an oil hobbyiest to NOT change their own oil is like a baseball commentator that won't pick up a bat. Their opinions aren't worth much to me.
 
quote:
Originally posted by johnd:
I feel your pain. I'm up to over 4K on this batch of Mobil 1 and the anxiety is slowly driving me mad.
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Before finding BITOG, I used to be part of the 3/3 crowd.. I've learned that I don't need to worry so much! Rest easy.. you've still got 1000 miles to go!
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Run the oil until you can't stand it and then do a UOA with your change.

I ran Mobil 1 5w30 SL for 7200 miles in my GM 5.3, with about half the mileage cold starts and short trips through the winter. The UOA came back fine, and had more life according to the TBN number. I also opened the filter to make sure it held up.

I'm going to try for 8000 this time.

Think of it as an adrenaline rush as you wean yourself off 3k oil changes--but one that's safe, legal and actually saves money.
 
used to be 3/3 person, then i just read the Car Owner's Manual for severe service and it calls for 5k/4months miles oil change with dino. Normal service calls for 7.5k/6months mile change with dino.
 
quote:
Originally posted by kenw:

quote:
Originally posted by Matt89:
My nightmares come on when I realize that I did 30 JiffyBoob oil changes on my first car at about $25 each(every 3K, total of 90K miles in 4 years) when I realistically could have done 6.

I have NO problem leaving the oil in there now...
Click to expand...
but for an oil hobbyiest to NOT change their own oil is like a baseball commentator that won't pick up a bat. Their opinions aren't worth much to me.
Click to expand...
You make a poor assumption...it was my first car and I didn't know any better back then. I've done as much of my own auto maint/repair as physically possible for the past 10 years.

I put my money where my mouth is. Running SL M1 5w30 for 10K/1 year, going to 15K/1 year on the EP when my stash is gone. You couldn't pay me to go back to the old ways.
 
In May of 02 my wife and I bought an 03 Subaru Forester and in March of 03 we bought an 03 Ford Ranger. The Forester owner's manual recommended a 7,500 mi. oil change and the Ranger owner's manual recommended a 5,000 mile oil change. I figured that if I could go those distances with dino oil I could go 10,000 miles on each with Mobil 1. Since I do whatever maintenance I can and take good care of my vehicles (and swear by the informative power of the internet) I did a lot of research on oil, OCI's, oil filters, etc. I gave the most credence to info and opinions from neutral sources. I learned a lot, including that the 3 yr./3,000 mi. OCI is a thing of the past. So I switched to Mobil 1 at 9,000 mi. on the Ranger (I just changed the Mobil 1 at 19,000 mi.) and at 26,000 mi. on the Forester (I'll also change the Mobil 1 every 10,000 mi. in the Forester). It didn't bother me a bit to go to synthetic oil and 10,000 mi. OCI's.

I'm also changing the oil filters every 10,000 mi., when I change the oil. My research told me that the following oil filters are all good: AC Delco Duraguard, AC Delco Ultraguard Gold, Mobil 1, Motorcraft, Purolator Premium Plus, Purolator Pure One, and Wix. A year and a half ago I bought a few of each of the Purolators, enough to last me 3-5 years on each vehicle at the rate we drive.
 
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