Wasteful oil changes

[dogememe]

At work at the auto parts store there are things that bother me. Like the guy yesterday who paid $37 for Valvoline SynPower + $7 for Bosch Steeltech filter, when the oil was on sale for $34 WITH Wix filter included. I mentioned this to him and he's like no, I always use the Bosch filter. I think he had an 02 Montero?

Or when Mobil1 is on sale, they get Mobil1 Ex Perf with a Fram filter rated for 5K.

Or when they get the Mobil1 filter with conventional oil. WHY????

But you know what, as much as these little things annoy me, and I judge them, at the end of the day, it's their car, and their money. I used Royal Purple HPS and a Wix filter on my 92 Chevy 1500 with 240K+ miles, people thought that was stupid when I said it. $60 oil changes on a $2000 truck? But it's my truck and my money and that's what I put in it.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: NH73
And while your at it, I was at a garage for my job yesterday and did some google search on it. But I see people are still latched to the conventional oil should only go 3,000 miles, synthetic only goes 5,000 miles. Those 10,000 mile oil changes, they are for fleets and leases where you get rid of the vehicle after 3 years. The engines aren't going to make after 150,000 miles. If its a keeper, change it more often. Oils cheap, cheap insurance, compared to an engine replacement. Your engine not going to make it, even on synthetic oil, on a 10,000 mile OCI.


I think there is a difference between wasteful and cautious. 5k mile changes are cautious but dumping new oil is wasteful as in what the OP is suggesting. However I wont lie, I should probably go 7500 miles or even 10k miles.

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
I don't like it when people talk about changing something "because it's cheap insurance." A person could go broke maintaining a car with this attitude. One hears this kind of talk with oil changes, thermostats, O2 sensors, air filters, coolant, hoses, belts, and a whole collection of sensors under the hood. I change something because it needs it via testing or examination, or the maintenance schedule recommends it.


Unfortunately...... in aviation, good parts get tossed (ALL THE TIME) because they meet a certain time in service, calendar date, or hours of use. Expensive stuff, too - like TIT thermocouples.

 

[gfh77665]

Everyone needs to put this into broad perspective. I know people who buy a new, loaded out truck every 2-3 years. The depreciation hit is repetitive and immense. How does that compare with an extra oil change or two, even with (GASP!!!) SYNTHETIC??

Bottom line is they are self sufficient adults, who earn their own money. Who am I to try to critique their spending choices? They make it, they decide how its spent. Excessive oil changes? HA! That ain't even on the radar. Why would someone else doing an extra OC ever "get under someones skin"?

MYOB is a great philosophy in life management.

 

[HemiHawk]

Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Everyone needs to put this into broad perspective. I know people who buy a new, loaded out truck every 2-3 years. The depreciation hit is repetitive and immense. How does that compare with an extra oil change or two, even with (GASP!!!) SYNTHETIC??

Bottom line is they are self sufficient adults, who earn their own money. Who am I to try to critique their spending choices? They make it, they decide how its spent. Excessive oil changes? HA! That ain't even on the radar.

MYOB is a great philosophy in life management.


Exactly. the extra 5 quarts a year is bothering people, but not the EXTRA CAR THEY LET SIT ALL WINTER? which by the way doesn't bother me in the slightest. but I'd say that's the bigger waste of resources/money.

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted By: HemiHawk
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Everyone needs to put this into broad perspective. I know people who buy a new, loaded out truck every 2-3 years. The depreciation hit is repetitive and immense. How does that compare with an extra oil change or two, even with (GASP!!!) SYNTHETIC??

Bottom line is they are self sufficient adults, who earn their own money. Who am I to try to critique their spending choices? They make it, they decide how its spent. Excessive oil changes? HA! That ain't even on the radar.

MYOB is a great philosophy in life management.


Exactly. the extra 5 quarts a year is bothering people, but not the EXTRA CAR THEY LET SIT ALL WINTER? which by the way doesn't bother me in the slightest. but I'd say that's the bigger waste of resources/money.


Excellent points. Agree 100%.

Scott

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Does anyone else run into these types of people and how do you respond to them? (yes, I may be over reacting but I figured this crowd probably sides with me on this annoying trend!)

Yes. Insurance from what? I can see putting a new oil change in before storage, but dumping it in the spring? Car magazines have even spouted that over the years.

 

[K23Turbo]

So they put perfectly good new oil in. Don’t drive it. Put it in storage. And when winter is over, they drain the un used oil and put in new oil? Sounds like a dumb [censored]. Screw em.

 

[IndyIan]

Ask them if you can have the unused oil they drain out in the spring? That would drive home the point that there is nothing wrong with it.
My tractor manual was a bit unclear on the break in oil changes and it looked like it had two 50 hr changes to start. The first 50hr change I disposed of, but the 2nd 50 hr change of RT6 went into my Neon and into the B&S rototiller.

 

[PalmSpringsSCal]

Follow the money. Who benefits from the spread of imformation that makes you spend mo money? People/Corps will mislead,exaggerate or outright lie to you to increase sales I think is well known. Hmmm should we even change oil based on that resoning? Would you be shocked...really if it was learned that oil could run much longer than weve been brainwashed all these years? Is there really a group that tests these things with no monetary bias. Its rare someone will spend their own money and time for accurate tests.Name me someone who will/has. The money is usually if not always tied directly or indirectly to someone who will profit from the results. The thing is you never really know unless youre willing to do the experiments yourself and your cost. Otherwise youre having a belief in someone elses integrity. At some point or situation you give in and "believe",hope assume bla bla
Im no exception...Just sayin

 

[kschachn]

You had quite a vacation there, over five years. What happened?

Originally Posted By: PalmSpringsSCal
Follow the money. Who benefits from the spread of imformation that makes you spend mo money? People/Corps will mislead,exaggerate or outright lie to you to increase sales I think is well known. Hmmm should we even change oil based on that resoning? Would you be shocked...really if it was learned that oil could run much longer than weve been brainwashed all these years? Is there really a group that tests these things with no monetary bias. Its rare someone will spend their own money and time for accurate tests.Name me someone who will/has. The money is usually if not always tied directly or indirectly to someone who will profit from the results. The thing is you never really know unless youre willing to do the experiments yourself and your cost. Otherwise youre having a belief in someone elses integrity. At some point or situation you give in and "believe",hope assume bla bla
Im no exception...Just sayin

 

[bigj_16]

Another annoying trend is someone with 4 cars, two of which are Corvettes, one of which is a brand new Corvette, posting about wasteful oil changes. Since you can only drive one car at a time, having more than one is wasteful. Therefore, EVERY oil change you do on those THREE extra cars is wasteful.
If someone wants to change their oil every ten miles or every ten million miles, it's not mine or anyone else's business.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: Patman
This is the time of year that I end up getting very frustrated with the habits of some car owners, it's the time of year where the topic of car storage comes up on all of the message boards. I don't know why I let it bother me but the biggest pet peeve I have is those people that give advice to others about how they should change their oil both before AND AFTER storage! When I ask these people why they feel the need to change that perfectly good, brand new oil again in the spring, it's always the same annoying answer: oil is cheap insurance. My comeback to them is this though, what they are saying is similar to saying "I just changed my oil yesterday but I'm going to change it again today just to be safe because oil is cheap insurance" (or I'll say they might as well just pour brand new oil straight into the garbage right out of the bottle)

Does anyone else run into these types of people and how do you respond to them? (yes, I may be over reacting but I figured this crowd probably sides with me on this annoying trend!)


Before AND after?

I'd think before is best, get all the acids etc out while it's not running for a few months.

 

[NH73]

Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: NH73
And while your at it, I was at a garage for my job yesterday and did some google search on it. But I see people are still latched to the conventional oil should only go 3,000 miles, synthetic only goes 5,000 miles. Those 10,000 mile oil changes, they are for fleets and leases where you get rid of the vehicle after 3 years. The engines aren't going to make after 150,000 miles. If its a keeper, change it more often. Oils cheap, cheap insurance, compared to an engine replacement. Your engine not going to make it, even on synthetic oil, on a 10,000 mile OCI.


I think there is a difference between wasteful and cautious. 5k mile changes are cautious but dumping new oil is wasteful as in what the OP is suggesting. However I wont lie, I should probably go 7500 miles or even 10k miles.
So if the oil is capable to go to 10,000 miles, why change it at 5,000 miles? So by saying cautious makes a person feel better over someone else wastefulness? Rather than stick to an old school rule, because of two times manufacturers shortened there OCI, why not encourage UOA's instead?

 

[FZ1]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
How often I change my oil is my business. The compulsion to judge others is altogether too common today.
This^^^^^^

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: bigj_16
Another annoying trend is someone with 4 cars, two of which are Corvettes, one of which is a brand new Corvette, posting about wasteful oil changes. Since you can only drive one car at a time, having more than one is wasteful. Therefore, EVERY oil change you do on those THREE extra cars is wasteful.
If someone wants to change their oil every ten miles or every ten million miles, it's not mine or anyone else's business.


First of all, you can't read very well because one of my Corvettes isn't even built yet, and when it is, I will be trading the other one. And having 3 cars is not a waste, one is my wife's, one is my bad weather car and the Corvette is for good weather only. Not a waste. But thanks for your idiotic comment.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: bigj_16
Another annoying trend is someone with 4 cars, two of which are Corvettes, one of which is a brand new Corvette, posting about wasteful oil changes. Since you can only drive one car at a time, having more than one is wasteful.


I agree 100%. I end up getting very frustrated with the habits of some car owners.

 

[FZ1]

Originally Posted By: bigj_16
Another annoying trend is someone with 4 cars, two of which are Corvettes, one of which is a brand new Corvette, posting about wasteful oil changes. Since you can only drive one car at a time, having more than one is wasteful. Therefore, EVERY oil change you do on those THREE extra cars is wasteful.
If someone wants to change their oil every ten miles or every ten million miles, it's not mine or anyone else's business.
And This ^^^^^^

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Pajero,
I will disagree mostly with that statement and line of thinking. There ARE some impacts that man has made, but the thing nobody ever remembers is that we CANNOT create anything; we can change it's state (gas/liquid/solid), physical form, and usage, but everything was already here before man came along. This goes for radiation as well... uranium has been around on and in the Earth for a very long time. Those submarines lost at the bottom of the ocean have extremely little to zero impact in the environment they currently inhabit. Even places like Chernobyl prove that the majority of man's great gaffes generally affect man himself the most. A good portion of the wildlife and vegetation still grow within the exclusion zone at Chernobyl even though the radiation can quickly have lethal effects on man.

It's the disregard that rich men have for less-rich people's lives in cases like this (or the Union Carbide incident, etc etc etc.) that I think is the real problem in this world.

 

[blupupher]

Originally Posted By: Patman

First of all, you can't read very well because one of my Corvettes isn't even built yet, and when it is, I will be trading the other one. And having 3 cars is not a waste, one is my wife's, one is my bad weather car and the Corvette is for good weather only. Not a waste. But thanks for your idiotic comment.

LOL, some people have a hard time with comprehension.
Weird I still remember when you got that Vette, you got a good deal on it from what I remember.

But it does go back to the point of why judges other on what they spend their money on?
Some will see (as apparent above) that having more than one vehicle is a waste (even if it is justifiable). Why do you need a bad weather car (rhetorical)? Just buy a car you can drive year round.
If somebody wants to "waste" their money on an un-needed oil change, let them.