First Oil Change Distance vs Month?
 

Hey all,

Seems I'm coming up on my 7 months and I have yet to hit 7500 miles. I'm around 2k (the car is a weekend car) and have been contemplating changing the oil due to the months vs the mileage.

Anyone have any opinions on this? Do what comes first? Or just wait for mileage or at least a higher mileage.

Thanks

I don't drive my car enough, so I had to do it the same as you. I did my first after 7 months and my second after another 6 months.

That being said, time in engine is less relevant with today's good synthetics, so it's not as much as an issue as it was in the past, re: oxidation.

Still, I think it's prudent to do it every 6-7 months regardless of mileage just for peace of mind. It's not that expensive, and I enjoy doing my own oil change.

I've actually wondered about this since my very first vehicle, so I started getting my oil analyzed every oil change by Blackstone labs. Since the maintenance intervals suggested by the manufacturer is probably more of a "catch-all" statement, I figured it's on the conservative side and that conditions may vary from area to area, heck, maybe even from person to person. Based on the oil content analysis, they make some recommendations on rate of degradation of the oil and take an educated guess on when to replace.

I've had several oil changes now, so I'm pretty comfortable with my data set and have been doing the oil changes accordingly. But I'm no expert, so take it as you will. My opinion is simply based on my own findings :D

If you are revving it hard on the weekends, you should probably change it. If you are still babying it then it's probably still perfectly fine. But, when in doubt, change the oil. It's really easy to change it on this car.

Just change it.

It's not a big cost, it's relatively easy and doesn't take much time.

The peace of mind alone is worth it.

I drive maybe 6000 miles a year, and change my oil about once a year. I only change it more frequently if I'm doing track days.

Change it for the piece of mind that you did it sooner than later.

I drive about 4k miles a year so I change it out once a year.

7.5k miles or 1/yr(assuming more than 3k in the year) unless tracking or running e85. YMMV depending on where you live, how dirty the air is and how hard you drive it. But if you are the dealer service type (shame on you) they are still going to just do it every 7.5k anyways.

I do my own oil changes but wanted everyone's opinion on this. I'll make an effort to change it relatively soon. I drive it once a week at most (I carpool in my daily commute with my wife and she can't drive stick) and I'm not really hard on it. Just wanted to make sure that the additives from the factory oil were getting their time in.

Thanks all!

Hi Soldier,

Definitely change it at whichever comes first (time or mileage).

We recommend owners to change their oil at 5,000 miles or 5 months (whichever comes first).

Hope that helps!

The owner's manual suggest 7.5k miles or 7.5 months. May I ask why you recommend changing it out so soon? Most synthetic oil these days are designed to run 15k miles so changing it out at 7.5k miles is too soon already.

There are two maintenance schedules, if you drive hard, lots of short trips, extreme cold, then it is every 3750 miles or 3.75 months.