Cdaquila, with respect, be careful you don’t walk too far toward over-moderating the forum and into the realm of judging the posts. The discussion may have gone a bit free-form, but Robert said nothing disrespectful or off-color. Over-moderate and you may just take away the fellowship. That would be a shame.
Sincere respect,
TSM
Cheaper to change the oil and filter than cost of delivering a sample and testing it.
Um, yes, but then you know no more than simply guessing. A very few tests will give you a lot of information, and then you will know instead of continuing to guess. I did it once on a high mileage 2002 Sienna, and now I know that changing the oil at 8800 miles of highway driving still has good Mobil-1 EP in it. As long as there is no major change in oil consumption or cleanliness of the oil there is no need to test it again.
Someone I know lived two years in the United Arab Emirates. They had bidets, and he says they are worth the fuss. He does not want to be without one if he has any choice.
^ Thank you. I should just use your test result for our Expedition - unless my fuel injection is too rich. How much does a test co$t?
^ The Intelliseat is worth the co$t. Wife really appreciates it and I always use it.
Actually better than a typical bidet, which I also installed in my previous house.
I know what an OLM does and I’m not confused about it. My point was the manufacturer makes no change based on dino or syn oil. So all I ask is that you folks going for 10K miles or more just note it when you trade it in so I don’t get stuck with it.
This converstaion really isn’t going anywhere so “alright, good night”.
Is the OLM based upon the recommended oil which is a synthetic oil?
So if a non synthetic oil is used, the interval should be less?
Admit it, Robert, you spent $500 on a toilet seat for the pulsating wash mode. 
"Admit it, Robert, you spent $500 on a toilet seat for the pulsating wash mode. ;)"$175 And I love theated seat in our cold house.
With synthetic oil and recommended 10k miles oil change intervals I take this to mean that oil sludging and coking problems, excessive oil consumption per 1000 miles complaints, failed chain tensioners, flickering oil lights due to low oil pressure, rattling lash adjusters, coked turbochargers, and gunked up variable valve timing mechanisms are a thing of the past.
Traffic on this site should slow down considerably due to the new miracle oils and the now obsolete shorter oil change intervals.
Car owners can motor on with impunity while having no need to ever raise the hood for any reason.
Um, yes, but then you know no more than simply guessing.
What guessing…The engineers of the manufacturer provided that information for you. There is no guessing.
@ok4450, I don’t follow your logic. A 10,000 mile oil change interval wouldn’t resolve the issue of neglect. It would just take longer for a neglected car to show symptoms. You seem to assume the bulk of posts in this forum are caused by oil issues. If I were to guess, I’d estimate that problems caused by lack of oil changes may make up 10-12% of the threads in this forum at most.
We deal with many OPs who don’t check their oil between oil changes, but how often do we deal with OPs who don’t change their oil?
Whether it be an oil change interval or the connector bolt that holds a key suspension component, everything is on a calculus for service life. They are getting better at it and “suddenly” realized that the service life of the motor is only one part of the projected life expectancy of a car in general. They knew that all along but it’s a tough job making everything fall apart at once, a design goal, then have you buyers actually have different driving habits. So generally, the advice can vary from one person to another. But just remember this.
The VALUE of a car does not lie in the motor. It lies in the motor plus other serviceable components including the body and suspension. The key to getting the best bang for the buck is a balancing act and making sure you don’t over spend in one area while getting the shaft in another. I as an owner want a to make that choice. I want more drain plugs and easy assess to so called, life time fluids so I can make he choice, not the maker who makes the car for one generic consumer then charges me infinitely more because my demands are different.
To me it’s a game of attempting to do everything possible to prevent premature engine wear. One cannot change the oil too frequently, but can change the oil too INfrequently. I still believe at this time that 10,000 miles between oil changes is too long. Should some significant and properly study be done by someone with no vested interest in the outcome that showed no difference long term in 5,000 and 10,000 mile oil changes, I’ll reconsider. Until that happens, I’ll sleep better changing it every 5000 miles.
To me it’s analogous to waxing the car. The finish will stay great much longer if you wax the car BEFORE it stops beading water, like on a regular schedule, than it will if you wait until it stops beading water. Once it stops beading water, the damage has already begun. You can still keep the finish lasting a lot longer than it would if you never waxed at all, but ten years on the regularly waxed finish will look far better than the one that was only waxed when the beading stopped.
There is a way to test this theory without putting your own vehicle at risk. You could go to a dealership in your area and ask for a sample of oil that was drained at a 10,000 mile interval from the same make and model you own, send it to a lab, and get your own findings.
I would recommend against determining your oil change schedule based on the analysis results of the oil from someone else’s car. Even if it is the same make and model. You know nothing about the other person’s car or its history.
As to getting my own oil tested, I’d rather just change it.
I would recommend against determining your oil change schedule based on the analysis results of the oil from someone else's car. Even if it is the same make and model. You know nothing about the other person's car or its history.
Not only that…but the dynamics of the engine changes with age.
While 10k oil change intervals MIGHT be acceptable for the first 100k miles…it may NOT be after that.
Should some significant and properly study be done by someone with no vested interest in the outcome
Impossible. There are no completely objective observers. GM has already done decades of research to support their method. Will you trust them? Oops, they’re selling cars…the oil industry is selling oil…the environmental groups have their agenda to support…universities are funded by private interests…I know, the government!! Yes, they will have the objective viewpoint everyone can agree upon…
There’s already overwhelming data to support the extended change intervals. FWIW, I am against a set mileage number and would prefer usage based criteria be applied on a case by case basis. OLM algorithms are not all inclusive but they turn out to be pretty accurate based on test verification. I suspect a little known fact is that GM’s OLM has a safety factor built in such that it reads zero when there’s actually predicted to be around 15-20% life left. So if you’re changing yours at 50% or even 20%, that’s only half used up!
Regardless, the number of people who have actually done any data gathering is probably limited to a grand total of one or two people (doing oil analysis) on this board but it seems everyone is an expert when it comes to changing oil…actually, it is fear driven and based on some passed down tribal knowledge from a bygone era. When someone challenges the status quo, fear of the unknown kicks in and we revert to some multiplier for the safety factor when we have no idea, no scientific basis, of where the edge of the cliff actually is. Same with the wax analogy. Since we wax BEFORE it stops beading, we have no idea how much actual usable life was left. But wax is cheap and so is our time…Not picking on you TSM, just leveraging your analogy for illustrative purposes!
Think about where the existing tribal knowledge came from. It was proposed mainly by the oil companies many decades gone by. Not too unlike a cartel that has a great marketing campaign to brainwash the masses (diamonds anyone?) It was good for oil business, good for filling stations and as pointed out, you can’t change oil too frequently if your only measure is protecting the engine from harm so the car manufacturers would be on board with really frequent change intervals too. No losers! Then the pesky environmental concerns creep in and challenge the status quo. Turns out, when viewed from a global perspective, when we add up all the “you’s” out there that are changing oil every 3000 miles, it does become too frequent. It stresses the supply and therefore price and it stresses the environment in many ways. Time to base the interval on science, not some bygone era that has no correlation to modern day engines, electronic monitoring and environmental concerns…
"... when we add up all the "you's" out there that are changing oil every 3000 miles, it does become too frequent. It stresses the supply ..."
Is almost all changed oil now being recycled?
We take ours to Walmart.
Does a vehicle, like our '08 Expedition, advance the change oil indication when driven more aggressively and at higher speeds and engine loading?
To be fair, when I said the same make and model, I meant to include the same year, and if you did this at your local dealership, the car would have been driven in similar climate in similar conditions.
@TwinTurbo, I agree wholeheartedly.
Those who make a case for over-maintaining their vehicles ignore the negative impacts of used oil disposal and pollution created by the refining process. There are perfectly valid reasons to go through the trouble of testing conspiracy theories. I regard most of this forum’s regulars as rational and civil thinkers, yet on this particular issue, dogma rules the day.