Originally Posted By: CharlieBauer
I, boringly, follow the owner's manual.
So I fill to the full mark at an oil change.
I will only add oil if the oil reaches the minimum level or is close to it before a long trip. If an oil change is going to be due soon, then I'll change oil instead.
I typically will add enough oil to take it up to the full mark.
Pretty similar here.
I know my truck uses 1 qt every 1500 miles. I usually check the oil every other fill up. When I get to the low mark, I add a qt, unless as said, I know I will be doing a lot of driving, in which case I will top up with the appropriate amount (maybe a little extra).
If I drove a lot, I could probably easily go 10,000 miles per oil change (or more) since in 10,000 miles, I would have added 6 qts to a 6 qt sump.
But with the mostly short trips I do, I come up on a year before I even get to 7,000 miles, I plan on changing every 6000 miles/1yr (just before time to add another makup qt).