Oil Change

[hanovertom]

do you change mainly by mileage, or do you also follow the time recommedation? Only have about 3500 miles on this change, but its passing 9 months. Just not driving much until this nnalert thing is over

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Onstar sends me email when it's time to change oil when synthetic oil life is below 20%.
Usually around 6k. Surprisingly synthetic oil looks better than my older GM vehicles using conventional oil at 3k.
My daddy said oil is cheaper than an overhaul.
Read owner's manual.
It really comes down to, It's your money, do what you feel is best

 

[MarkB_MI]

Changing oil based on the calendar is silly. The only exception would be if I want to change to a different viscosity for winter, but it's simpler to run 5W-40 full synthetic in my Duramax year-round.

 

[John T]

Great question do you change mainly by mileage, or do you also follow the time recommedation?

For my car truck and RV I change it mainly by mileage approximately every 3000 to 4000 miles using full synthetic oil at the manufacturers recommended viscosity. I consider changing oil (typically MORE often them recommended or necessary) is good cheap cost/benefit effective maintenance and I'm not stopping... I figure using good oil and frequent changing (NOT that expensive in the overall scheme) to be better then risking major engine damage even if I have no scientific evidence or data to bear that out... THATS JUST ME To each their own..

HOWEVER if much over a year has passed, even if Ive not reached 3000 or 400 miles, I may change it anyway in hopes of flushing/draining any water or acid or unwanted accumulation....

There ya go

John T

 

[Determined]

(quoted from post at 06:52:24 04/29/21) do you change mainly by mileage, or do you also follow the time recommedation? Only have about 3500 miles on this change, but its passing 9 months. Just not driving much until this nnalert thing is over

Picked up an 07 Sierra this week with 61 000 original miles on it.

Sticker says next oil change is due at 62 000 miles or November 2013.

This would be one of the rare cases where I will be changing it now instead of waiting for another 1000.

I have quite a few trucks that only get used for a short time each year;
Bale truck, dump truck, manure truck etc.
If I changed the oil based on months I would be wasting an awful lot of good oil as some years some of them travel less than 100 miles.

 

[DoubleO7]

(quoted from post at 09:02:56 04/29/21) Onstar sends me email when it's time to change oil when synthetic oil life is below 20%.
Usually around 6k. Surprisingly synthetic oil looks better than my older GM vehicles using conventional oil at 3k.
My daddy said oil is cheaper than an overhaul.
Read owner's manual.
It really comes down to, It's your money, do what you feel is best

Our GMC tells us when it is time everytime we start it up.
We have to push a button to go back to regular cluster function so as not to forget.

Thus we do not have to pay a subscription for Onstar to send an email.

 

[Loosehandle]

When it says to on the dash

 

[pete 23]

Depends on your use of the vehicle. One mile trips to the coffee shop take a long time to build miles. Driving It 50 o r 100 miles every trip but only once a week takes a long time to add miles also but the two situations are so different that your oil change schedule should depend on your use.

I had under 1500 miles on my car last year when I changed oil. Some 60 mile trips, mostl y under 5 miles.

Do what makes you feel good about changing.

 

[DoubleO7]

are the miles put on it short trips where the engine is not hot enough long enough to evaporate accumulated moisture??

If yes, I would change the oil at least once a year.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I used to change the oil every 3000 miles or three months but after the last engine overhaul seeing all the stuck lifters and sludge in the engine I started changing the oil the first of every month. Usually only have about 900 miles on the oil. Oil is cheap and easy to do compared to an engine overhaul.

 

[sotxbill]

(quoted from post at 06:52:24 04/29/21) do you change mainly by mileage, or do you also follow the time recommedation? Only have about 3500 miles on this change, but its passing 9 months. Just not driving much until this nnalert thing is over

I see two issues.. one is moisture build up and the other is acids.

As others have said... driving short distances will never get the oil hot enough to get rid of moisture. This can be a problem.

Acid builds up... in old oils as it set, moisture combined with combustion by products and formed harmful acids... Todays modern oils have an additive to neutralize these acids. So changing oil every 3000 miles is a total waste of money, time and resources. Modern oils should be able to run a year or longer. If you add oil during this period, you resupply the base or alkali additives so that it can extend the life even longer. SO... short answer, no you dont need to change oil from sitting up a long time as you used to have to do. If you run an oil analysis, you can check your oils properties and extend you oil changes based on time and mileage. Further more, industrial engines have bigger oil sumps and higher capacity that means the oil should go even longer sitting up... than smaller oil capacity engines before the additive package is neutralized or used up. Cummins even had a system where every 5000? miles a system would suck a quart out of the pan and burn it in the fuel, so that you would add a quart of fresh oil with additives. This and 3 stage filters, would extend the oil changes almost indefinitely. Others had a plan where you changed the filter every 5000 miles, added "make up" oil and would extend your changes. BUt a 3 stage filter has a moisture collector built in to it.

 

[rlp in Co.]

I change oil at 10,000 miles. A trip to town and back is around 150 miles. As the engine starts using oil, I change when it gets a quart low.

 

[Russ from MN]

There are lots of variables here! Do you live in a cold climate? Do you keep the vehicle in a garage? Cold starts and cold weather shorten oil life. Short trips are bad for he oil. I have never paid any attention to the calendar when it comes to changing oil, miles or hours and driving conditions only.

 

[Mule Meat]

All of ours that is driven regularly gets an oil change with every change of the season regardless of mileage.

So around the week of June 20th they will all get their Summer oil change.

 

[Jim PA]

I used to change my oil every 3000 thousand miles and always used Mobil1 synthetic. I figured and still do that oil is cheap and an fresh clean oil has got to protect the engine better than dirty. All of my vehicles have the computer that tells when it needs done but I would never go 10,000 miles between changes. After tons of changes that the computer indicated 60% oil life remaining, I made a good change. I always write my mileage on a white board in the garage so I know when each vehicle is due but with 3000 mile changes I had to constantly check to make sure that I wasn't going over the 3000 limit. I decided that if the manufacture was confident that the engine could go 10,000 between changes I could compromise and make my life easier in the process. I decided to change oil every 5,000 miles. Now I never question when a change is due. Every time the odometer rolls to a 5000 mileage it is due. I still write it on the white board but never need to check.

 

[KayBur]

(quoted from post at 07:52:24 04/29/21) do you change mainly by mileage, or do you also follow the time recommedation? Only have about 3500 miles on this change, but its passing 9 months. Just not driving much until this nnalert thing is over

Well now, life must stop? If there are acquaintances in the repair shops, you can agree on an oil change. With all my moral strength, I am struggling with the mess that has appeared in my daily life with nnalert.

 

[SARG]

I also change the oil every 3000 miles and a couple decades ago startted putting a length of the blue painters tape on the inside of the front door jam and use a marker to put down when the next change is due.

 

[Jaden]

My dad used to tell a story about a neighbor back in the Model T and A era. When getting close to the recommended mileage interval, he would head to town to get the oil changed. If he had mis-estimated and the mileage interval came up on the way to town, he would pull over, walk to town, buy some oil, come back and change the oil at the side of the road.

 

[47fivewindow]

I was a 3000 mile adherent until I was given a company truck. They changed the conventual oil at 6k. We often approached 200k miles and looking in the fill plugs the top of the heads still appeared clean. These service trucks were driven daily for commuting as well as job to job. That convinced me to regard usage as more important than mileage Swmbo drives 3 miles to work. I worry about her engine that never gets warm.

 

[DR. EVIL]

I always keep a log book of my gas stops, date, gallons, cost, and mpg, My new pickup has an oil life monitor that simply tracks 10,000 miles since last reset. Pretty lame in my opinion. I change oil/filter once a year, around 3000 miles.
The most accurate way to schedule oil/filter change is by fuel, Gas or diesel, consumption. Pick an amount, 5000, 10,000 gallon, and that takes into account low tempurature short trip driving with bad mpg, trailer towing, city driving with stop & go, short trips, idling, any driving use that requires a vehicle to be serviced more frequently. I've used engine oil analysis many times, once when I thought I blew up a 10 hp Kohler engine I had just rebuilt. It was fine, was still fine after 1400 hours when I rebuilt it again. And on my 7.3L POWERSTROKE, there's 3-4 ways for antifreeze and coolant to mix, I did oil analysis every 10,000-12,000 miles, they checked for coolant, fuel, soot, wear metals, and how much longer they think I could run the oil. Lots of owner-operators of semi-trucks schedule maintenance by oil analysis, sample every 10,000-12,000 miles, when the lab says there getting close they change oil & filters, 'course semi's hold 10-12 gallons and couple hundred Dollars worth of filters.

 

[fastfarmall]

Hi, i am real curious what kind of motor and what kind of oil was used, a non detergent ??

 

[RedMF40]

(quoted from post at 04:52:24 04/29/21) do you change mainly by mileage, or do you also follow the time recommedation? Only have about 3500 miles on this change, but its passing 9 months. Just not driving much until this nnalert thing is over

My '07 Honda Fit has a monitor on the dash that gives percentage of oil life left. I looked at the manual, and it says the computer keeps track of engine rpm and some other things to come up with the number. Last oil change I was pushing 5,000 miles. I change it with 30% oil life left (according to the car).

It would be interesting to see if I parked it for six months at 50% oil life and then fired it up again. Would the computer change the oil-life number? I doubt it.

Gerrit

 

[Stephen Newell]

The motor is a Chevrolet 5.7L. I'm using a detergent oil. It's Valvoline 5W-30

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Do manuals even recommend a time interval anymore? Modern oils are now formulated to prevent the formation of acids that were the reason for changing the oil every 3 months, 6 months or 1 year depending on when you grew up.

I go every two years on one truck I own because it takes that long to rack up 3000 miles. On my daily driver it's every 6000 even though the manual recommends to go by the oil life meter or every 7500, whichever comes first.

 

[Hdonly]

(quoted from post at 06:58:11 04/29/21) I used to change the oil every 3000 miles or three months but after the last engine overhaul seeing all the stuck lifters and sludge in the engine I started changing the oil the first of every month. Usually only have about 900 miles on the oil. Oil is cheap and easy to do compared to an engine overhaul.

I would quit using Valvoline.