3,000 or not...

[kybearfuzz]

Ugh... substitute Mondays sucketh...

I was reading Yahoo News the other morning and there was a story about oil changes for cars and how the 3,000 mile limitation may be something of a myth these days. With improvements in oil and cars in general, motor oil actually lasts much longer, but oil change places naturally continue to promote that oil should be changed every 3,000 miles.

When I bought my Toyota Corolla back in 2007, I read through the manual (yeah, I'm one of those that do that) and noted that it recommended the changes every 7,000 miles (I think... I read it, but didn't memorize it). It struck me as odd that they'd recommend going that long between changes.

Do you change every 3,000 or so, or have you started expanding it out to longer stretches?

Comments

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I use the 3000 mile as a target ... A reminder to get a grease job and oil change. Most of the time, I accomplish it around 5000 miles. This means it's time to get my truck done.

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

I average around 5,000 miles per oil change. Overall, with fuel injection systems and smarter engine designs, oil changes are less often necessary as engines run cleaner.

The TYPE of miles you drive is actually more important than the NUMBER of miles. If you do a lot of short haul, start and stop driving, changes should be done more often, perhaps as often as every 3,000. If you do a fair amount of highway, you can stretch it a lot longer.

And then there's the argument that synthetic oils can be used for a lot of miles more than natural oils. Or if you had a car with oil lubricated turbocharger bearings, changes should be done more often.

But now I'm on the verge of babbling and will kindly shut up!

[dendren.livejournal.com]

I change mine when onstar sends me an email saying "oil life remaining = <10%" or something like that. I have *no* clue how far between changes it is :P

[barak.livejournal.com]

I usually do it every six months or so. Which, at the rate I've driven in the past, has been about 3,000 miles.

[jkusters]

I specifically bought a car that told me when it needed work done because I was really terrible at remembering to do it myself. I don't know what algorithm the car uses, though.

VAN oil

[pink-halen.livejournal.com]

I was good about strictly adhering to the 3000 mile limit except with my new van. The new electronic display has an oil life item. So I watched the numbers. At 3000 miles the oil life was only about 40%. I got about 7500 miles before The electronic system asked me to change the oil. In reading about it I discovered that the oil life is actively calculated by the device. That means that It accounts for engine hours instead of mileage. It accounts for speed as well as distance. That makes much more sense. The plus side is that I cut my oil changes in half.

When I bought my first car in the Dark Ages, We changed the oil every two thousand miles. But there were other rules that were given to new car owners. These were things like vary the speed in the first 500 miles to break in the engine. These were part of the information you were told as they handed the keys over. Today, they don't bother.

I have been fortunate to own many a new car. I have taken possession of cars with less than 10 miles on the odometer. I really cannot tell that the frequency of oil changes is much of a factor. I can understand how people who stand to make money recommend changing more often. I'm trying something different with this one.

[prisonbitch.livejournal.com]

both my vw & honda recommend 5k intervals. so, I rotate the tires ever other change. the new vw's recommend a 10k interval.

[dewittar.livejournal.com]

Whenever the Prius computer tells me to do it.

In the Volvo, every 5K or six months, whichever comes first.

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

3K or 3 months, whichever comes first, thus sayeth Subaru.