Regarding the 3 month and 3000 mile oil change interval that 90% of motorists seem to swear by? I work in a independent quick lube shop and most of our customers return right at or a few hundred to a few thousand miles before the 3k mark to get their oil dropped and replaced. Many oil life monitors I read often have between 50 and 70 percent left when I go to reset them.
Face it, the 3k change interval hasn't really been necessary since the 70's because oils have improved a TON since then. And in the other corner we have commercial truck drivers who will run between 10 to 50 thousand miles on a single oil change. Many of them running conventional weights of 15w-40 Rotella and other name brands. Surely a big semi abuses oil twice as hard as any passenger vehicle, gas or diesel considering they haul up to 100k+ pounds of weight for thousands of miles in all types of conditions. Many trucks spend several hours sitting and idling while the driver rests in the sleeper. These guys must be periodically changing oil filters and topping off, correct? The engines in big trucks last well beyond the million mile mark before needing an overhaul/replacement it seems so extended OCI's can't be all that bad, can it?
Not trying to sound like a newb, but if someone could enlighten me on why the majority of people are still so hung up on the 3 month/3k oil change in vehicles that can't possibly be wearing out oil that fast. The most you'd really need to do is change your oil filter, top off and keep going just like the big rigs do.
For the record, I run 7500k intervals on Amsoil XL 5w-30 in my 2004 Toyota Tacoma and 5000k intervals on Rotella T 15w-40 in my 1997 Ford F-250 Powerstroke diesel. Am I wasting my oil life as well? Each vehicle the oil comes out still looking good. It's darker than it was new obviously, but still an amber color that can be seen through on the dipstick or when held to the light. None of my oil comes out black as tar, ever, it still looks good enough to keep running!
This is just something I've been mulling over at work the past couple days and I had to get it out to see what my fellow BITOG'ers had to say.
Face it, the 3k change interval hasn't really been necessary since the 70's because oils have improved a TON since then. And in the other corner we have commercial truck drivers who will run between 10 to 50 thousand miles on a single oil change. Many of them running conventional weights of 15w-40 Rotella and other name brands. Surely a big semi abuses oil twice as hard as any passenger vehicle, gas or diesel considering they haul up to 100k+ pounds of weight for thousands of miles in all types of conditions. Many trucks spend several hours sitting and idling while the driver rests in the sleeper. These guys must be periodically changing oil filters and topping off, correct? The engines in big trucks last well beyond the million mile mark before needing an overhaul/replacement it seems so extended OCI's can't be all that bad, can it?
Not trying to sound like a newb, but if someone could enlighten me on why the majority of people are still so hung up on the 3 month/3k oil change in vehicles that can't possibly be wearing out oil that fast. The most you'd really need to do is change your oil filter, top off and keep going just like the big rigs do.
For the record, I run 7500k intervals on Amsoil XL 5w-30 in my 2004 Toyota Tacoma and 5000k intervals on Rotella T 15w-40 in my 1997 Ford F-250 Powerstroke diesel. Am I wasting my oil life as well? Each vehicle the oil comes out still looking good. It's darker than it was new obviously, but still an amber color that can be seen through on the dipstick or when held to the light. None of my oil comes out black as tar, ever, it still looks good enough to keep running!
This is just something I've been mulling over at work the past couple days and I had to get it out to see what my fellow BITOG'ers had to say.
