Getting 300k miles out of a vehicle

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by Gebo
How much money are you trying to save in a year? $50? $100?

If my goal was to get to 300K, I'd choose a brand name oil as suggested by Triple_Se7en.

I'd be much more concerned with Transmission Fluid, Brake Fluid, Power Steering Fluid, Diff fluid and Coolant.

My goals are 500K. You can see what I use in my sig.



Motor oil is a commodity there is no value staying exclusive with a "Name Brand".

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Originally Posted by dave1251
Originally Posted by Gebo
How much money are you trying to save in a year? $50? $100?

If my goal was to get to 300K, I'd choose a brand name oil as suggested by Triple_Se7en.

I'd be much more concerned with Transmission Fluid, Brake Fluid, Power Steering Fluid, Diff fluid and Coolant.

My goals are 500K. You can see what I use in my sig.



Motor oil is a commodity there is no value staying exclusive with a "Name Brand".

hahahaha..... That would be a minority of cases.
You get what you pay for, a majority of times.

Yes there are instances where hypothetical Dollar General oil has been used for over 300K. But for every (1) of them, there's five times more with owners using popular name manufacturer brands for 300K plus.


There are reasons why the popular manufacturer names sell so good. Longetivity and quality are the main two reasons. Price-point is probably #3. Then advertising at #4.

Anyone here that claims Supertech is as good as Pennzoil, needs education. I am first and last owner of eight vehicles now..... since the 70s. All that experience with one vehicle at a time (wife also with her vehicles), has proved invaluable to me.

I will never buy store brand names like Supertech or NAPA. They may work fine for you. That's great - glad to hear it.

 

[KGMtech]

Like most BITOG's I over maintain all my cars and other powered equipment.

I will say that when you are analysing the upside of keeping a car beyond 13 years, you should consider that your source for certain OEM only components will start to dry up after 10 years. This issue is dependant on many factors such as the popularity of the car when it was still sold, the special features your specific model came with, longevity of the OEM maker.

I'm not saying you will be abandoned for certain parts, but the search is going to get harder, not easier. If your daily driver is a 1967 Mustang, well you can relax for at least the next 30 years.

From my experience, I would much rather take the newer car on a long trip, leave the old ones at home.

 

[Railrust]

I've come close to making it to 300,000 once (287,000) on a 1999 Honda Accord, purchased new. Did all the repairs and maintenance myself, but it's just hard to do even if you do chose a "reliable vehicle". The Accord was supposed to be a super reliable car but even then I still had to repair/replace...engine mounts, EGR valve, tranny switches, evaporate canister twice, entire exhaust, fuel lines, brake lines, cradle, rack and pinion, axles, control arms, ball joints, tie rods (over and over again), calipers, vtec solenoid, radiator.

In the end the thing was drinking so much oil that it just wasn't worth it anymore. I always performed 3,000 mile oil changes using whatever was on sale (back then 3,000 miles was kind of normal). The thing developed an idle problem that would cause you stall out at stop lights if you weren't paying attention. But a great car overall.

I think the key is maintaining the vehicle...almost over maintaining it. And the way you drive...not a lot of hard stops and starts, not beating on it. Highway miles. And climate...the salt kills cars. It just ruins them. Yearly prevention I think is important.

 

[kschachn]

My Accord has been more reliable than that, other than normal wear items. I went on a red herring/wild goose chase a while back that ended up being only a loose valve cover, but other than that I haven't spent a lot of time in maintenance for the thing.

 

[CR94]

My Mazda (listed below) went 2×300k on whatever brand of 10W-40 was on sale, including ArcoGraphite for most of its first 100k. Similarly, whatever oil filter was on sale every third oil change, and air filters about every 120k. Avoiding short trips helped it survive that far. Spending its first two winters in Jersey, with winter trips across Pennsylvania and Ohio didn't. Never any real wear issues with oily parts of the engine, although it eventually had other engine issues.

 

[anndel]

I have a 1993 Toyota 4x4 pickup with manual transmission and 4 cylinder engine. My girlfriend (now wife) and I bought it brand new in 1993 and changed oils with Amsoil, Mobil 1, Pennzoil, Valvoline, Red Line - all synthetics since day one. The same for the diff, manual tranny and transfer fluids. Unfortunately thee's only 162,000 miles on it since there's no long distance places to drive on an island (Oahu). I have friends with the exact same truck with the 22R-E 4 cyl engine that have over 300,000 miles and still going strong.

 

[69Torino]

Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
The biggest question is how do you and your spouse feel about driving a twenty year + old car? For instance, a 1999 car won't have side air bags, a safety feature that might have come in handy during those winter collision videos that were recently posted. I actually do have one car that is 19 years old, just say'n.


When I was a kid I wasn't special. I wasn't to good to go through the windshield with the rest of the family. I rode around in 70's station wagons my whole childhood. When my 15 year old starts driving I'm putting her in something big and heavy. Simple as that. And make sure she buckles up.

I have 2008, 2005, 2003, 1992 and 1969 vintage cars. I'm not afraid to put my family in any of them.

 

[dan_erickson]

2009 Ford Fusion 3.0L V6 and 6 speed auto trans. 275,000 and counting, driven every day and goes to the dealer for oil changes and tire rotations. I'll do other matinance like trans fluid changes, brakes or repairs. Hasn't needed much and runs like a top.

 

[JLR]

I think the engines in modern cars will get 300k. Head gaskets, timing chains and belts, high pressure fuel pumps, timing actuators, and this such are the things that fail. The actual valve train, bottom end, pistons and rings are good for the 300K.

 

[BLND1]

Originally Posted by Gebo
How much money are you trying to save in a year? $50? $100?

If my goal was to get to 300K, I'd choose a brand name oil as suggested by Triple_Se7en.

I'd be much more concerned with Transmission Fluid, Brake Fluid, Power Steering Fluid, Diff fluid and Coolant.

My goals are 500K. You can see what I use in my sig.


Agreed!

Just change your oil (literally anything that specs properly) at an appropriate interval. Making sure your secondary systems are taken care of is very important.

On the vehicles I've run deep into the several hundred thousand range (work trucks - all gassers) its been a steady diet of timely oil changes (mostly syn blends) and full fluid flushes (PS, Brake, Coolant, Diffs, trans) typically every 100k.

My personal truck gets synthetic (spoiled) and oem interval fluid changes everywhere else. I'm not picky about brand - diffs typically get mobil1 or valvoline full syn, PS typically gets maxlife ATF, brake fluid gets whatever synthetic is spec'd and on sale, coolant typically gets OEM, transmission is OEM or Maxlife. Engine oil has been Mobil1, PP, Valvoline syn, valvoline syn w/ml, and even supertech syn. Valvoline Synthetic gets the nod lately because I happen to like the bottle design (as if any other selection process will result in different real-world results).

 

[BJD78]

Most vehicle engines of today can easily go 300K and that is with regular conventional oil and regular maintenance schedule.The body will likely play out well before the engine does. I have had a couple vehicles go past 300K and I have no doubt they would have made 500K plus ,but the body wears out and time to move on to something newer.

 

[Cdn17Sport6MT]

Originally Posted by Gebo
How much money are you trying to save in a year? $50? $100?

If my goal was to get to 300K, I'd choose a brand name oil as suggested by Triple_Se7en.

I'd be much more concerned with Transmission Fluid, Brake Fluid, Power Steering Fluid, Diff fluid and Coolant.

My goals are 500K. You can see what I use in my sig.


LOL - there's one guy on a Mazda forum I belong to who swears by the owner's manual's recommendation that the A/T is "filled for life". He WON'T be convinced otherwise. Yeah, right! Filled for its SHORT life! My sense is "Give your head a shake". An incredibly big player in A/T life is an adequate number of fluid drops + filter changes (better, 3 drops in close succession). I say this only if it is done in this manner from new... And for me, I am all for a bypass filter (2 microns) + an aux cooler (the latter, bypassed for cold weather operation and plumbed AFTER the rad tank cooler).

 

[CrackyWainwright]

My experience has been that expensive suspension components have worn out long before a reasonably maintained engine. They get to where they won't hold an alignment no matter how often I take them in to be aligned, and then they wear out tires like mad. Once that starts to happen, I can't keep a vehicle even if the engine and transmission are still ok.

Your WM oil is just fine as long as you change it according to schedule.

 

[JC1]

Originally Posted by CrackyWainwright
My experience has been that expensive suspension components have worn out long before a reasonably maintained engine. They get to where they won't hold an alignment no matter how often I take them in to be aligned, and then they wear out tires like mad.



+1. The engine will be fine and maybe the tranny too. All of the other parts will be worn and unless you are DIY you won't enjoy the truck at the end with a bad suspension or minor irritant problems.

At the rate I drive my caravan i'd need to keep it running for 30 years to put 300,000 miles on it.

 

[DGXR]

Originally Posted by 2000Trooper
Is getting more additives worth it or is it just diminishing returns? In other words, is paying more for the extra additive concentration a worth while investment on say 5k OCI, given my goal with the truck? Is the additives whats driving the cost of these premium oils, or is the price just to create the illusion of superiority?

A couple of the big brand oils (Mobil 1 and Pennzoil for sure) have rebates on synthetic oil at least once a year, which brings the price of these name brand oils far below the Supertech synthetic shelf price. These rebates have been going on yearly for a very long time, often allowing up to 10 quarts on the rebate (covers 2 oil services for most vehicles). So unless you absolutely must change your oil right now, there is no reason not to cash in on these discounts. Last time, I got 10 quarts of Mobil 1 5w30 for about $2.75 per quart. Supertech shelf price is about $3.40 per quart in my area.

 

[Tahoe4Life]

Got 300K miles out of my 2005 4.6 Ford Crown Victoria. Used zero oil between OCI. Oil used was Mobil 1 5w20 the entire time. Still had the original transmission and engine. Nothing major was done to it.

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

This was my '96 1/2 ton with the 6.5 turbo diesel. It had 301K before I gave it away. Long story short, no one could fix it so I gave it to a friend thats over a high school shop program. It ended up being a $26 crank position sensor.
I bought the truck new and drove it for almost 22 years. Delo 400 and Purolator filters from day one. I never did anything to the engine and it still had the factory water pump on it.
I sure miss this truck but I love my new Titan!

 

[qvalff8]

Originally Posted by DGXR

A couple of the big brand oils (Mobil 1 and Pennzoil for sure) have rebates on synthetic oil at least once a year, which brings the price of these name brand oils far below the Supertech synthetic shelf price. These rebates have been going on yearly for a very long time, often allowing up to 10 quarts on the rebate (covers 2 oil services for most vehicles). So unless you absolutely must change your oil right now, there is no reason not to cash in on these discounts. Last time, I got 10 quarts of Mobil 1 5w30 for about $2.75 per quart. Supertech shelf price is about $3.40 per quart in my area.



THIS! I get my walmart jugs of 0w-40 Mobil 1 for $12-15 every year to 1.5 years. I've got a 2000 VW Eurovan with 210,000 on the clock, and it probably won't make it to 300k because it's a van with an automatic trans. But it won't fail because of motor oil. No cars fail because of motor oil any more. Maybe the sludge era changed opinions, but my take is that they didn't use quality oils, and they ran them for way too long. Nowadays, oil is much better, and you can go 8 or 10 or 12 or 15k miles on an interval. I shoot for 12k in my van. If it dies an early death, it'll be due to collision, or catastrophic failure in the plastic cooling fittings, or the transmission.

The other alternative is an electric car, which doesn't have many of these pesky maintenance requirements

Edit to add: Live really far from work. If you put 40k a year on a vehicle, you'll get to 300k easily, 500 or 600k possible, too! That's why I'm not so confident about making it to 300k any more; I drive 7-10k per year, so my van will hit 300k by roughly 2030. Cars at 25-30 years old are really at their end-of-life. Rubber for the windshield seal and inside the transmission, all the crap plastic will be ready to die. And you can go in there and replace it all, but most will not bother. And even if it's still running, most families will get a newer car "just in case," and that one will get the majority of the miles, since it's safer, more efficient, cleaner, more comfortable, etc.

 

[Pinoak]

Supertech has to pass the same tests the others do.