I am conflicted

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 18, 2013
Messages
6
Location
victoria bc canada
Up until now, Merc Marquis was under warranty and had to get oil changed every six months. Fine.
Warranty now up. Where I am at moment- 7 months in, 3000 km, 108 running hours, oil looks almost new on stick, ( ya I know about the colour thing.)
Have Mobil 1, fl820 and 6oz of gm eos in wings. Should I wait for more mileage, or should I change based on time ?
 
Just took the wife's Suzuki in for it's two year, 25,000 mile service primarily to maintain the final year of warranty (it's only done 6,000 miles in total and just 1800 miles in the last 12 months). £230 ($US 300). Ouch!!

This will be it's last dealer service and the plan going forward is to only get the the oil changed every two years (or 12,500 miles). I might even stretch this to a three year OCI if the wife continues to use it so little.

Whilst I know this will be anathema to some, there's really nothing in modern synthetic oil (the car currently uses Petronas Synthium 0W20) that will self-destruct after so long with so little mileage. This is especially true if you don't speed, don't pull a trailer and live in a temperate climate that's neither too hot or too cold. Also, logically speaking, what's the point in buying a cheap, economical car (it happily does 70+ mpg) if all you're going to do is blow loads of cash on expensive and unnecessary servicing?
 
Last edited:
Quote:
and the plan going forward is to only get the the oil changed every two years


But ... But ... But ....Mobil 1 has only just brought out Annual Protection (AP) and they have yet to bring out Biennial Protection (BEP) for daredevils like yourself.

Joe, as a Chemical Engineer, you know the oil chemistry is unstable until the correct marketing appears on the front label.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: SR5
Quote:
and the plan going forward is to only get the the oil changed every two years


But ... But ... But ....Mobil 1 has only just brought out Annual Protection (AP) and they have yet to bring out Biennial Protection (BEP) for daredevils like yourself.

Joe, as a Chemical Engineer, you know the oil chemistry is unstable until the correct marketing appears on the front label.



Lol!!!

What can I say? On the one hand, both of my pensions depend on people driving big, inefficient cars and changing their oil as often as possible, so by rights, I should keep my reactionary views to myself. On the other hand, there's a reality that needs to be communicated.

I too am conflicted!
 
That oil is just getting started, running it over the winter should be A-OK unless you decide to drive down to Peru a few times.

I don't think that black oil is necessarily bad oil (mine turns black fast even when I don't add MoS2), but a detergent oil being golden can only be a good thing IMHO.
 
That seems like a lot of hours of operation for such a low distance traveled.
Short tripped car or lots of idling?
 
Yes, its not very many km. Victoria traffic is more stop than go. I really noticed the lower average speed after the bike lanes were installed everywhere, of course using car lanes to do it. You can figure what happened ! Yes, I will leave it alone for awhile.
 
3,000 km is like 1,800 miles (off the top of my head) which is about 5,000 miles less than a good synthetic will go any day of the week. Go to annual oil changes if you are going to use top tier synthetic oils ...

The GM EOS will not do you much good on a roller cam engine ...
 
It's like asking what beer is best! I change my oil twice a year.Right before the change of seasons. OIl is cheap as far as I am concerned and takes little time to change. I figure with what little driving I do it averages about 3 or 4 thousand miles between changes.But most of my driving is city driving. I always picture the van being happy somehow with fresh oil in it.(i didn't say I am normal)
 
Originally Posted By: Markl50
Up until now, Merc Marquis was under warranty and had to get oil changed every six months. Fine.
Warranty now up. Where I am at moment- 7 months in, 3000 km, 108 running hours, oil looks almost new on stick, ( ya I know about the colour thing.)
Have Mobil 1, fl820 and 6oz of gm eos in wings. Should I wait for more mileage, or should I change based on time ?
You say you had to get the oil changed every six months under warranty? What were the manufacturer manual recommendations, time and km?
 
Manual is much higher for mileage, but time is six months, they are assuming higher mileage for the six months as a maximum. Since I did not mileage out it came to six months or OLM, which ,conveniently, kicks out to 5% at 5 months and three weeks, no matter what it said before it set itself off.( Change oil soon.) Hope this helps.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top