Oil Change Intervals

At what interval do you change your oil & filter?

  • 3k miles, 3 mo.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 6k - 6 mo.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 10k- 12 mo.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other, please specify

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
C

CharlesW

The Rainmaker
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:confused:
 
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:)
 
caddyman said:
My car has an oil life monitor. It actually measures many variables, and then predicts oil life.
Click to expand...

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
 
CharlesW said:
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
Click to expand...



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.
 
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.:o



Charles
 
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.
 
CharlesW said:
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.:o



Charles
Click to expand...



No problem, I changed it per your request. :up



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.
 
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.
 
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.:o



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
 
ShowroomLincoln said:
Charles,



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



:wavey
Click to expand...
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:sosad
 
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!
 
Every 6000 miles with dino, every at 18000 service intervals I use Diesel oil for a week and then refill with normal. If I take the valve cover off, everthing is spotless :)



Steven
 
4000-6000 here. I use the theory, quick lubes want you back sooner for the money and manufactures want you to have a car that lasts, but not too long!:p



So 3000 is too soon for me and 7500 is too late!
 
I chose other because I change mine every 5000 miles. That may be 3 months or 7 months. I'm using synthetic so that's why I don't care about the length of time between oil changes, only the mileage matters to me. Plus, my truck's computer will tell me when oil change is due anyway so I don't really have to worry about it.
 
According to BMW, mine needs changing only once every 15,000 miles, depending on how I drive, etc. The onboard computer tells me how many miles to next oilchange, factoring in miles driven, style of driving, etc.
 
I change mine every 6 months now that we're over 125,000 miles, prior to 125 it was once a year (whether it needed it or not).



I just changed it on Saturday for the first time since October, it certainly was about due.



:bow amsoil :bow



btw, I don't remember when it was, but maybe a year or two ago I posted a big thing I found about what the experts said about oil changes. If you run a search on amsoil or synthetic or something to that tune, it might just come up.



:wavey
 
I voted "other"



5000Km: oil exchange

10000Km: oil+every filter exchange

I don't set a time-limit, just ODO-limit



Christiaan
 
cvcaelen said:
I voted "other"



5000Km: oil exchange

10000Km: oil+every filter exchange

I don't set a time-limit, just ODO-limit



Christiaan
Click to expand...

Why not change the filter also at 5,000KM? The filter actually needs more attention at this point than the oil. At $3.00 - $5.00 per oil filter, it's some cheap insurance.



The filter prices that I quoted are U.S. $$ prices. However, it's still a small price to pay for some great protection.
 
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