what is logic for changing oil every year? (Even if driven 0 miles)

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Say a car does not get driven all year
brand new oil
why change it after a year?
what is the science from voodoo ?
 
There is no such logic if the car wasn't driven at all.

Otherwise, it may make sense to get the oil out after a time limit even if you don't put on a lot of miles to account for situations where oil takes a beating due to short tripping or some other severe operating condition. Probably best to use UOA to determine what that time limit should be in your particular conditions. It may be a year, bu it may be more, or less.
 
Originally Posted by wowthisexists
Say a car does not get driven all year
brand new oil
why change it after a year?
what is the science from voodoo ?


Your question isnt detailed enough.. is this vehicle not started.. or not driven?

Generators get 0 miles put on them but their oil is changed.

Generally if a car has a thousand miles a year put on it, it might still have tons of cold start idling to warm it up...there can still be nasties in the oil. Fuel dilution, water etc.

now if its a collector car that gets driven 1 day a month for 200miles.. its probably good to go for a few year interval.

Now if you are imagining up some not real world case to make changing it yearly seem stupid.. I would suggest if its your vehicle you dont need to change it.. and if you do for a warranty.. well an oil change is cheap JUST to keep the warranty.
 
Originally Posted by Rand
. and if you do for a warranty.. well an oil change is cheap JUST to keep the warranty.

Yup. That's the scenario I'm currently stuck in with the Charger. OM calls for oil/filter changes every 6 months, regardless if driven or not. I follow it to keep the warranty.
 
Just to make the bitog crowd cringe.... the cars at my college for the auto tech program all have under 20-30 miles on them, and all are early-late 2000's models and have never had the oil changed lol, and usually only ran a few minutes at a time. They all get crushed after so long anyways since they are on loan from various mfg's so doesn't really matter.
 
Originally Posted by Rand
Generally if a car has a thousand miles a year put on it, it might still have tons of cold start idling to warm it up...there can still be nasties in the oil. Fuel dilution, water etc.
You can't assume that. It could be one thousand one mile trips or a one thousand mile round trip driven in two segments. Drive it for a half hour and you are probably OK.

Everyone knows that more frequent than necessary oil changes generate revenue for garages. It also makes DIYers want to change oil more often for peace of mind, because this is what professionals do. You want to wrench like the pros, don't you?

Using a generator with zero miles is a great example. That oil is changed exclusively to pad the bill. I would expect a BITOGer to ask for that oil back to be used in OPE as Mobil 2. Why would you change oil that has 0 hours on it that is inside an engine?
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
You can't assume that.

Right so you didnt read what I typed. Please try again. Your disagreement with my statement is actually agreement.
Parts you missed in red.
Originally Posted by Rand

Your question isnt detailed enough.. is this vehicle not started.. or not driven?

Generators get 0 miles put on them but their oil is changed.

Generally if a car has a thousand miles a year put on it, it might still have tons of cold start idling to warm it up...there can still be nasties in the oil. Fuel dilution, water etc.


I said 0 miles on the generator because the OP doesn't specify usage etc. A generator could have 0 hours or 1000 hours which would be different scenarios but both are 0 miles... ie we need a more detailed explanation from the OP.

Some people like to start their stored cars every couple weeks and let them warm up.. again this would be 0 miles on the car.. but after 50 hours of warming up without driving or getting hot enough to burn off moisture the oil is not going to be pristine... with "0 miles on it"
 
I would assume that the one year or xx miles refer to a vehicle driven only a few thousand miles and not extreams like o or 100 miles. Ed
 
Originally Posted by wowthisexists
Say a car does not get driven all year
brand new oil
why change it after a year?
what is the science from voodoo ?


There are several (North American, I believe) UOA's on Bitog with a thousand miles or two over 2 - 4 years duration in between oil change demonstrates no excessive metal wear .

I'm yet to come across a SINGLE UOA of say, < 5 years oil usage with low mileage that demonstrates lab wear metal limits has been exceeded .

I love to be linked to one, if any .

Hence,IMHO it's a science in recommendation but a voodoo in practice .
27.gif
 
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Originally Posted by zeng
I'm yet to come across a SINGLE UOA of say, < 5 years oil usage with low mileage that demonstrates lab wear metal limits has been exceeded .

I love to be linked to one, if any .

Here is the best I can offer: 5,900 miles and 16 months on 7 quarts of oil (two Chicago winters, lots of short tripping). The lab flagged the UOA as abnormal, although not because of wear but rather due to oil's condition (TAN exceeded TBN). It could have gone longer, I suppose, but given the oil's condition, I decided to play it safe and cut my OCI to 1 year from that point on, especially that my short tripping got even worse after that. We all have our own tolerance level for (dis)comfort. I am not telling anyone else when to change their oil.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2591203#Post2591203

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
Ok, I'll play. Here's my 07 Mazda RX8 with Mobil 1 0w40.

Car still only has 36k miles in 13 years, but I ran last oil change 7700 miles and 7 YEARS.

Car was mostly driven on hwy 400 miles to track day where it got warmed for 3 or 4 20 minute sessions.

That's about 4 different track days, and lots of sitting around.

It's a 6 speed auto, and has 18,800 btu trans cooler which takes 14 degs out of system.

On days as high as 70 deg f, I can cruise and coolant goes back to 175 deg f which means thermostat is slowing coolant and oil coolers are nearly enough.

I think the lead and copper metals are insignificant, and would have come out at 1 or 2 ppm during 7 changes that most people would do.

Oil came oil still brownish and yellowish, not black as I expected.
 
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ok, let me restate the question.
what if a car is driven once a year, for 100 miles, full warmup.
can the oil last 50 years?
 
My Mobil 1 0w40 thickened to a real 40 weight with 7700 miles.

If you had a car sitting for 50 years....maybe it could, but my use limit of 7 years was farther than most people would ever try.

People on RX8club told me to take that BITOG nonsense out of there, since they have spiritual 3 month 3000 mile oil rinse.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by wowthisexists
can the oil last 50 years?
If you ask most oil companies, they'll tell you motor oil has a shelf life of 5 years, in an unopened container.

I don't think anyone's carried out a study to unequivocally answer your question.

My guess is you'll have other more important things to worry about after 50 years.
 
Originally Posted by 40w8
My Mobil 1 0w40 thickened to a real 40 weight with 7700 miles.

If you had a car sitting for 50 years....maybe it could, but my use limit of 7 years was farther than most people would ever try.

People on RX8club told me to take that BITOG nonsense out of there, since they have spiritual 3 month 3000 mile oil rinse.
smile.gif


I got to agree with the RX8club people vis-a-vis Bitog on this matter .
 
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Kind of at a cross roads here with my Lucerne, I'm 10.5 months into the OC and my OLM says 48% but the manual says to change it at a year if the OLM doesn't tell me to sooner, so I wonder also what is magical about oil and time. Every thing I've read says the GM OLM in 2008 can be trusted so why can't I go past a year if the OLM is so smart?
 
Annual oil changes are an easy thing to remember, and a good rule for basic maintenance. Does not apply in all situations. As they say, "your mileage may vary" LOL. This is one of many reasons why there are different service schedules for each vehicle.
 
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