Oh, sorry. Used Oil Analysis

Used oil analysis like what people do with blackstone labs and such. They usually do it every oil change and then blackstone will tell you whats in the oil on a microscopic/molecular level and what that means for the wear of the engine and whether or not your intervals are alright

I'm in the "every 3000 miles" camp, too. Synthetic oil doesn't break down as fast as dino oil, but it still gets dirty. An 80$ oil change (60$ if you do it yourself.... the equivalent of two tanks of gas..) is REALLY cheap insurance. My last five cars all went well over 250K miles w/ virtually no engine problems, and I'm pretty sure that regular oil and filter changes had a LOT to do with it. W/out exception, I had to retire each of those five due to salt damage, and nothing else. Never needed to replace a transmission or clutch either (with the exception of our current MB which was SOLD to me w/ a bad transmission.. long, sad story). Manufacturers have a vested interest in selling new cars, so I have a hard time accepting their 12,500 or 7,500 oil change interval recommendation... or whatever it is on the twins.

Changing your oil is sort of like furling a mainsail.. if you're asking yourself if you should change it (furl it), it's probably already past the time to do it. Just change it. It certainly won't hurt, it doesn't cost that much, and at the very least you'll feel better.

Barry

Well, now, I go along with the Tcoat theory here.

I just don't see how an engine could run noticeably smoother with "new" oil, compared to the same engine with "7,000 mile old" oil in it.

Normally, I would say, that if you feel that, it's all in your head, HOWEVER, I will reserve my opinion and run check the next time I have my oil changed.

Let's see I'll need a vibro-meter.

Or, maybe a wine glass on the hood and a slow motion video camera..... :)


humfrz

I'm all in for mileage, modern oil doesn't really age. The only caveat is that gas in the oil over an extended period of time supposedly reduces it's life, that will happen if the car sees a lot of short trips and doesn't get up to temperature often enough to evaporate it out of the oil. But @Tcoat is right, for keeping warranty do the change on time.

No problems with the 7.5k mile interval, I'm with @humfrz the oil change = smoother engine is good old placebo.

And @Ultramaroon I never fill to the top mark, and keep it between the bottom and mid, old racecar habits die hard.
:P

:burnrubber:

I think there is a lot of this working here ....... ;)


humfrz

To anyone that runs E85 regularly during the summer as I do:


You have to change your oil around every 3000-4000 you'll notice how bad the oil smells, E85 wreaks havoc on the detergents in the oil and it breaks down way quicker than it normally does. Also with E85 making sure the engine is at operating temp before bagging on it is super important as @strat61caster said pertaining to gasoline.

My last 4 cars all went 350k to 400k with oil cahanges pushed to the last minute. Not one of them ever had a single engine issue and they were Mitsubishies. I have never once changed transmission oil in a car and have also never replied a tranny or clutch.
I think many many people over change fluids based on the archaic schedules that were required with old lubricants. There are many experts that agree.
Dealers also have a vested interest in getting people to pay for oil changes so if anything they would be expected to say do it more often than not.

I hear you guys. I posted knowing full well I'd get called out but I promise you I push it until I can't take feeling the added vibration from the engine, either in miles used or in the level. Yes, I am that tuned into the changes.

@Tcoat, one thing I just remembered is that on my last car I took to changing the filter every few thousand miles and just topping off the oil. I haven't been doing that because this engine is still under warranty and I've been keeping records. Some of the head loss is due to reduced flow through the filter.

Just do what feels right as long as it's within the interval specified in the owner's manual.

I just scheduled my first oil change even though I have only had the car for a couple of months. It'll be at 3000 miles. Future changes I'll do at 5000, but this first one I want out of the way.

I put a lot of miles on my car & I want to use all 5 of the free oil changes in the first 2 years. This 7500 mile thing seems a little wrong to me. Not so much because of the oil, but the filter needs to be changed at earlier intervals IMHO.

I think some here say that the dealers are refusing to do these early oil changes.

Not sure on this myself. My honda i always done about 5,000 miles. I drive it pretty hard for what it is and never burned more than half a quart between changes so i never even checked it anymore. I been running mobil 1 for a while and thought i just extend my interval to 1 year since the bottle says something like 15,000 miles and i do like 10-12.

Anyway after 8 months i got a low engine oil light. So i just stick to 5,000 now and havent got the light since and havent been burning excessive oil either. Not sure what to make of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Brz i track so i change it quite a bit with motul 300v. Probably more often than i should.

Just got done painfully extracting the info "every 1 year or 7500, whichever comes first" from my dealer(Sun Toyota).
Every person I talked to said something different....6 months, 1 year, 7500 miles, 10 miles until the final answer was the 1 yr/7500 mi.
In our owners manual, it just says every 7500 miles or half that for severe duty and nothing about time intervals.

I split the difference and shoot for 5k. I do a fair mix of highway and non-highway driving, so I figure its not heavy duty, but not lighter, mostly highway duty. That and its easier to calculate, because I'm lazy. 3k miles is just too early and a waste of money, IMO.