Oil Change Intervals

CharlesW · 03-03-03, 05:40

At what interval do you change your oil & filter?
I have always done the 3k mi., 3 mo., thing, but I have been reading several posts that seem to indicate that is more often than necessary.
My cars are around for anywhere from 6 months to 15 years, 8k to 170k miles., depending on my feelings about the car.

Charles

caddyman · 03-03-03, 05:48

My car has an oil life monitor. It actually measures many variables, and then predicts oil life. Even so, i will change it at 20% left which works out to be somewhere btwn 3200-5000 miles, depending upon the type of driving.

I just use dino 10W-30

CharlesW · 03-03-03, 05:52

Quote:

Originally posted by caddyman
My car has an oil life monitor. It actually measures many variables, and then predicts oil life.

one of my vehicles has the oil monitor and if I remember correctly, it is still showing 40% to 50%, when I change at 3,000. I do use synthetic oil.

Charles

caddyman · 03-03-03, 05:56

Quote:

Originally posted by CharlesW
one of my vehicles has the oil monitor and if I remember correctly, it is still showing 40% to 50%, when I change at 3,000. I do use
synthetic oil.

Charles

Most of my driving is city driving, with occasional 100-200 mile trips onthe highway.

The oil life monitor acounts only for dino oil, and not synthetic.

My dads lumina just went off at 3k miles.

CharlesW · 03-03-03, 05:56

If one of the moderators could change my "synthetic or dino oil"
option to synthetic, then add another option for dino, it would be appreciated. Might make more sense, too.

Charles

Aurora40 · 03-03-03, 06:28

I also have an oil-life monitor. I would change it around 10-15% but it's usually happened that I was going on a long trip and change it beforehand. I use Mobil 1 5w-30 (almost 8 quarts of it). The oil-life monitor is set up for dino oil, so this just buys me a bit more peace of mind. The changes usually end up being about 5,000-7,500 miles.

If you are interested in more about GM's oil-life monitor, go to page 4 of this:
http://service.gm.com/gmtechlink/arcv_pdf/3_00_e.pdf

P.S. CharlesW, maybe you should just remove synthetic and dino from the poll. We can only vote once, so then you either have to vote for an interval range, or an oil type, but not both.

BradE · 03-03-03, 06:35

Quote:

Originally posted by CharlesW
If one of the moderators could change my "synthetic or dino oil"
option to synthetic, then add another option for dino, it would be appreciated. Might make more sense, too.

Charles

No problem, I changed it per your request.

Back to the topic. If I am using dino oil I typically change between 3,000-3,500 miles. For synthetic I typically go about 5,000.

Scott P · 03-03-03, 06:44

I run about 6,000 miles on synthetic before a change. I plan on trying longer intervals starting this summer. i'm going to try a 12,000 mile interval witha filter change and fluid top off at 6,000 miles. I'll be doing an oil analysis during the 6,000-12,000 mile period to see how the engine is holding up.

CharlesW · 03-03-03, 07:16

Show Room Lincoln:
Thanks for correcting part of my screw up. Check out Arora40's observation on another screw up. Do you feel like taking care of that one as well, or should I just delete the dam thing. Not too hard to figure out, I don't have a clue as to how to post a poll correctly.

Posted by Arora40
P.S. CharlesW, maybe you should just remove synthetic and dino from the poll. We can only vote once, so then you either have to vote for an interval range, or an oil type, but not both.

Charles

BradE · 03-03-03, 07:20

Charles,

EDIT: I went ahead and removed the "Synthetic" and "Dino" choices.

CharlesW · 03-03-03, 07:27

Quote:

Originally posted by ShowroomLincoln
Charles,

I can remove the "synthetic" and "dino" options if you would like. Just let me know.

Please, "Make it so."
Sounds like I should since it kind of messes up the intent of the poll.
In case that intent has been totally lost by my confused ramblings, " How often do you change your oil & filter was the original question".

Charles

Scottwax · 03-03-03, 07:50

I've always changed my oil and filter every 3000 miles. In my Accord, I run Penzoil 10W-30...not synthetic though.

When I yanked the engine in my Chevelle (the second engine) to put in a higher compression .030 over one in, we had to use the oil pan on my old engine since the Corvette pan on the one going in was hitting the crossmember. We pulled the pan off my engine-that had 96,000 miles on it and had been to the dragstrip every other week since I changed cams at 55,000 miles (and heads at 65,000 miles)....and the inside of the oil pan looked brand new. No sludge anywhere inside the engine. In fact, the person I sold the old engine to rebuilt it-and even after nearly 100,000 miles, modified for a good 75-100 hp more than stock, 1.5 points higher compression and probably 100 quarter mile runs (not to mention some street abuse), all the cylinders needed was a clean-up hone. The block spec-ed out like a new one!

BTW, I have got more than 200,000 miles out of my last 3 cars. Changing the oil helps!