What;s the consensus on short trip OCI driving?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Messages
466
Location
Ohio
My wife's 06 Saturn Vue 2.2l sees barely 8k per year. She drive 2 miles each way to work twice a day (split shift), and other than that the car rarely sees a trip beyond 10 miles each way max to truck the kids around. So long story short the oil rarely get's to full temp to burn off fuel, etc.

So I figure my options are to run a good dino and change twice a year, or an extended drain synthetic and change once a year. Any opinions on what might be best in this situation?
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman
So I figure my options are to run a good dino and change twice a year, or an extended drain synthetic and change once a year. Any opinions on what might be best in this situation?


I would say every 3 or 4 months would be a better bet w/ dino.

I wouldnt run syn. given the operational stats given (extremely hard on oil). Not worth the added $$$ unless you live in a very cold climate. Even then, its questionable.

Best bet - skip the car and have her ride a bicylce (or walk) instead.
 
Last edited:
use your favorite brand dino with the cheapest filter you can get and change it out every 4-6 months or 4k miles
 
Last edited:
I do only 2,000 miles a year as I walk whenever I can. My policy is to use a full synthetic and change it every 9-12 months.
 
My Saturn used to see that type of service. 10 miles isn't short trip IMO. Short trip is 1-2 miles.

I simply followed the normal service interval of 6 months or 6,000 miles, whichever came first. And I was rarely on time with the oil changes either, but still, no problems after 140k.

Your Vue should have an OLM so I would follow that.
 
Originally Posted By: heathenbrewing
Best bet - skip the car and have her ride a bicylce (or walk) instead.


I thought about that, but she get's up pretty early and would look funny with our two kids on the handlebars at 6:30 am every day.
 
I seldom do long trips on my car. A few times a week I go to a gym that's 8+ miles away. I use Pennzoil Platinum 5-30 and Purolator Classic oil filter [about $3.49], and I plan to run this a full year. Got the PP on sale cheap [about $1/quart].
 
My cars see about the same type of driving and call me old school but I will not go longer than 3 months. I can smell the fuel dilution in winter and have even had my oil level go up from the fuel and water over a 9 month OCI.
 
I don't know why you couldn't do once a year with a good synthetic. Sure it's a bit severe, but despite how some folks feel there is no reason an engine in good running order will have problems with this OCI.

The real key in the situation, IMHO is a GOOD thermostat. Yes, the lowly stat. If you have a cheapie or old, weak or even partially dysfunctional with even the slightest sticking open - the engine, and the oil never get up to temp properly or quickly.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
I don't know why you couldn't do once a year with a good synthetic. Sure it's a bit severe, but despite how some folks feel there is no reason an engine in good running order will have problems with this OCI.

The real key in the situation, IMHO is a GOOD thermostat. Yes, the lowly stat. If you have a cheapie or old, weak or even partially dysfunctional with even the slightest sticking open - the engine, and the oil never get up to temp properly or quickly.


Funny you mention that, because when I drove her car a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the thermo is opening early or stuck open a little. Took forever for the car to warm up. I am planning to change it asap, but waiting for a semi-warm day to do so.

In her situation, would you think a 180 or 195 degree would be better. IMO the low end is right for her application.

My instincts (thanks to the knowledge shared on this site mostly) are leaning me toward PP 5w30 in both her 06 Vue 2.2l and my 08 Aveo5 1.6l, with 6 month changes in April and November regardless of mileage. The Vue should be at about 4k and the Aveo will be a bit over 5k at each time frame if I were to go that route. I can't help thinking that I could save a couple of bucks by moving back to dino. But with the short trips she makes, and the security of knowing that if the Aveo runs well past the 5k in the 6 months (vacation driving, etc.), I think the synthetic 6 month schedule will cover both situations. As well will offer a little better coverage during our colder Ohio winter months.
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman
Originally Posted By: Pablo


The real key in the situation, IMHO is a GOOD thermostat. Yes, the lowly stat. If you have a cheapie or old, weak or even partially dysfunctional with even the slightest sticking open - the engine, and the oil never get up to temp properly or quickly.


Funny you mention that, because when I drove her car a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the thermo is opening early or stuck open a little. Took forever for the car to warm up. I am planning to change it asap, but waiting for a semi-warm day to do so.

In her situation, would you think a 180 or 195 degree would be better. IMO the low end is right for her application.


I would think you want the 195°F thermostat. (beginning to open at a warmer engine temp). You want the engine as warm as possible for as long as possible, so you don't want coolant passing through the radiator "early".
 
Get yourself an OEM thermostat, and with the heat setting the mfg calls for. In other words if it calls for a 195* Thermostat use it. Going to a 180* Thermostat will only cause problems later on because the engine will be running cooler than it was designed to. Now if you had a bad radiator, or some other cooling system issue that you didn't want to address going with a cooler Thermostat was an old trick to help with the situation.

As far as OCI's I would try 2 6 month OCI's with an inexpensive synthetic or even a synthetic blend. Or you could do 4 month OCI's with a dino oil. Opnions vary.
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman
My instincts (thanks to the knowledge shared on this site mostly) are leaning me toward PP 5w30 in both her 06 Vue 2.2l and my 08 Aveo5 1.6l, with 6 month changes in April and November regardless of mileage. The Vue should be at about 4k and the Aveo will be a bit over 5k at each time frame if I were to go that route. I can't help thinking that I could save a couple of bucks by moving back to dino. But with the short trips she makes, and the security of knowing that if the Aveo runs well past the 5k in the 6 months (vacation driving, etc.), I think the synthetic 6 month schedule will cover both situations. As well will offer a little better coverage during our colder Ohio winter months.

I run similar short trips in my Malibu, and I switched to a synthetic in the fall/winter of 2008/2009. It really helped out with cold starts, and the UOAs looked good too. I usually use Q-HP in the winter since it has really good CCS and MRV numbers. It's also dirt cheap for a pretty good synthetic. I change it when my OLM hits about 50%.
 
With a 2.2l 4 cyl Vue (Excellent motor BTW) doing short trips I'd try for a 6 month OCI using any conventional oil and filter.

Do a UOA with TBN and adjust from there.

I would NOT do a yearly OCI as with the short trips you WANT to get the by-products and water/fuel OUT of the sump. The ONLY way is to CHANGE THE OIL.

No oil is going to get rid of the affects of the short trips.

Make sure you change BOTH the filter and oil each time.

Take care, Bill
 
I sense you are not like some of us... not a recreational oil changer. Think practical and cost effective!

Definitely make sure the t-stat is working as designed but also do as Bill suggests, go 6 months and UOA. You can adjust from there. Whatever failings UOAs might have as a diagnostic tool, using them to tailor an OCI in a particular circumstance is one of the best uses of the service.

Also as Bill suggests, make sure you get either TBN, or TAN. Since they are inverse (high TBN means low TAN) you can judge when the oil is used up, If the TBN is 40 percent of new, it's usually the beginning of the end for the oil. The best thing to do is to send a virgin sample of the oil in with the used, because with lab standards being somewhat different, that will give you the most accurate "apples to apples" numbers. You could get both TBN and TAN as well.

I'd invest in UOAs at least a couple of times, using the same oil, and once you find a convenient interval, you can go on using that interval as a guide as long as the operating cycle doesn't change for the worse. There are a few short hopper UOAs in the BITOG library of UOAs and they are not all that terrible. The UOA will show what it shows, but from what I've see, I'd bet that you won't need and more than twice a year. You might get luck and have to do only once a year.
 
Originally Posted By: 2003f7
My cars see about the same type of driving and call me old school but I will not go longer than 3 months. I can smell the fuel dilution in winter and have even had my oil level go up from the fuel and water over a 9 month OCI.


WOW
shocked2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Get yourself an OEM thermostat, and with the heat setting the mfg calls for. In other words if it calls for a 195* Thermostat use it. Going to a 180* Thermostat will only cause problems later on because the engine will be running cooler than it was designed to. Now if you had a bad radiator, or some

other cooling system issue that you didn't want to address going with a cooler Thermostat was an old trick to help with the situation.

As far as OCI's I would try 2 6 month OCI's with an inexpensive synthetic or even a synthetic blend. Or you could do 4 month OCI's with a dino oil. Opnions vary.


Very good point!! I can not stress this enough! ONLY an oem stat. Other after market stats are alway`s a problem.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom