AL500:
The economics DO make sense if you assign any value to your time, let
alone for the inconvenience of schlepping the used oil somewhere.
Fewer oil changes the better.
Just curious, if you switched to synthetic in your car:
1: How many miles would you extend your oil change interval? [From what to what?]
2: How do you know it’s acceptable to extend the oil change interval?
3: Would you do it while your car was still under warranty?
They are all very good. Most all automobile oils are at least good.
Generally you would be fine to extend the recommended oil change interval for your car, but:
If it is under warranty, you could loose coverage.
While there is a high correlation between synthetic and dino oils, and generally the synthetic, but since oils must do many things, and cars are not all the same, it is possible that on some cars and some synthetic oils it might not be a good idea to extend those oil changes. If my car did not call for synthetic, I might extend my oil changes, so I don’t believe there is much of a problem.
Good Luck
Many factors Joe. For example, my car recommends 7500 mile oil changes, but I would not do that with conventional oil, I’d change at 5000. I would be comfortable with 7500 in this case with synthetic.
Obviously it’s a personal choice, but I’m just saying the economics go beyond comparing the price of the oil itself.
I have used synthetic(few times) and conventional in my turbo Subaru’s. The cars could absolutely care less.
Most important thing is actually changing the oil in a timely fashion not the specific brand/type.
In my case I run 7500 miles on synthetic under warranty (manufacturer recommended interval) and 15,000 mile intervals out of warranty (backed by Used Oil Analysis to confirm Amsoil’s claims that it can hold up that long in my engine).
EDIT: I know Amsoil claims 25,000 mile intervals but they say that’s normal conditions on the back of the bottle and their severe interval is 15,000 miles, which is what i’m following.
Another possibility. Buy a better filter to avoid possible failures due to cheapness. Leave it in there for 10,000 miles and just change the oil at the first 5,000.
In the old days it was common practice to change the filter only every other oil change.
With better oil, better engines and a good filter, it should be time to get more use from our resources.