And that is probably a good idea, i definitely would not go 30000km or 24 months if i did lots of city driving, i would cut that in half, 15k or 12 months, or less even.
Is it true European service intervals run as high as 20k miles?
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I can recall in the early 2000s in the European market Porsche and BMW were already doing "oil life" metered intervals which tends to work out to around 18k miles or so for most people I knew. In the US some of the vehicles were specced for 10k mile intervals at that time. Some also went by the oil life meter like the Porsche Cayenne
They’re fanatics about being energy conscious and conserving in Europe and the uk they dont care how long your engine lasts. Oil manufacturers probably get themselves some green carbon tax credits sticking unsurpassed protection up to 20,000 miles on the label.
Yes, i suppose part of the reason for these super long intervals is to reduce the amount of waste oil that is generated, but longer intervals are also possible because in the EU both Gasoline and Diesel are now ultra low suplhur, so the TBN of the oil doesn't deplete so quickly.
If i had a modern car that specs 30.000km intervals, i wouldn't go that long for sure, but 15-20k i would.
Engine oil prices are also quite a bit higher here, Mobil 1 of any flavor costs over 10€ / litre, although that is mostly due to taxes, at least here in Spain on top of the Value added Tax or Sales tax which is 21% , there is also another tax that is i believe 6 or 7 cents per liter on engine oils.
If i had a modern car that specs 30.000km intervals, i wouldn't go that long for sure, but 15-20k i would.
Engine oil prices are also quite a bit higher here, Mobil 1 of any flavor costs over 10€ / litre, although that is mostly due to taxes, at least here in Spain on top of the Value added Tax or Sales tax which is 21% , there is also another tax that is i believe 6 or 7 cents per liter on engine oils.
They don’t get any credits for label.
20k miles or 32-36k km (there are some with 36k km) is based strictly on engines and markets. Some markets have shorter intervals, mostly Southern Europe due to more dust, different environmental factors. If those ultra long intervals are recommended, it is usually North Europe.
Europe uses ULSG since 2009 and ULSD since 2004. But those engines outside of I would say 15 EU (STRICTLY EU) countries plus Switzerland, usually have OCI 15,000km.
There were some issues with it. Both VW and Toyota had to cut on some diesels OCI after recommending 36,000km OCI.
What does this mean for us who don’t know the lingo?? I have all older vehicles 1990 Toyota 22RE, 94 E150 van 5.8l and my only diesel 88 kubota l2850. What oil should I be running??? Are the new oils better for my vehicles too?? I’ve researched quite a bit here and have been running mobile 1 0w40 and Quaker state 5w30 in my cars and really don’t know what I should put in my tractor. It specs a 10w30.
Post a new thread and we can discuss it there and other people can chime in.
According to some people yes, because of the super low sulphur content modern diesel doesn't quite lubricate the way the old stuff did, and i guess that can cause more wear of old diesel pumps etc.
Waste Oil. They make money on that too. Napa gets paid to take it from us by the state, that oil is picked up from a company, that oil is filtered out of dirt, an add pack is put in and sold as fuel oil. All your ships out in US Waters 10 miles off shore burn fuel oil. They switch to diesel within 10 miles of port. So be it. I change my oil every 5k miles owning GDI engines.
Afaik, long oil change intervals on Euro cars are somewhat limited to cars with large oil sump, in addition to better oil specs.
Actually not. Numerous European cars that had increased OCI have same sump compared to previous models. Generally, European cars always had bit larger sumps, especially Inline 6 engines compared to V6. But, that is expected from I6.
Those sump capacities are same as when OCI was conservative.
Specifications on other hand are tougher and better oils are utilized. But there are other reasons for that too.
European manufacturers went to 2 year 20K intervals mainly for sales reasons. The majority of new cars were being bought by fleet operators who are only concerned with overall operating costs so longer intervals were attractive. Some manufacturers went to 2 years and have now gone back to 1 year/15K, Mercedes being an example. Porsche are still 2 years/20K although they do have the best oil spec.
My personal view is 2 years is fine for low mileage use but I'm less comfortable with the 20k miles unless there is little or no short tripping.
My personal view is 2 years is fine for low mileage use but I'm less comfortable with the 20k miles unless there is little or no short tripping.
Are Europeans more diligent about checking / maintaining oil levels? Because my view is that most failures happen because of low oil rather than old oil.
Yes we totally do think that
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