dagosa, you got a little somethin-somethin for your taxes.
They were preaching to the choir as far as I’m concerned. Here in Maine, with cold weather, towing, living on a dirt road and 4 wd use more days then not, it gets changed at 5k…no earlier.
Not to whip a dead horse, but I took a quick look at the actual study. Not a detailed look but what I saw I didn’t like. The car portion was based on 40 pool cars that ran under 800K miles. Most of the other vehicles were buses and trucks. The main purpose of the study was to determine how to convince managers to use high efficiency filters and higher quality oil such as syn, to extend oil changes. The purpose was not to determine what was best for the engine but rather to identify obsticles that needed to be overcome. The office that commissioned the study was not an engineering, maintenance, or administrative office, but a polution control office. On the large vehicles they used secondary filters. All in all if you used syn oil, and a high efficiency and/or dual filters, there will be no cost savings and likely a cost increase.
I’m not saying the study is bogus, but they began with pre-conceived notions, and set up focus groups, and test vehicles to prove their original conclusions, using a contract partner for the oil analysis. I didn’t see where they tore the engines down on the 40 cars or what they looked at if they did such as sludge or bearing wear. Like I said I didn’t read the whole thing but if someone came to me with that study outline looking for funding, I would have said tax money is too tight to fund it.
Thanks Bing! My original premise was that whatever they arrived at would not necessarily apply to the average California driver and that the focus was not on having engines last longer economically, but reducing waste oil.
The city where I live has a varied climate and the city busses come in every 6000 miles for oil and filter changes, and other inspections. All other maintenance is done in multiples of 6000 miles so as to make best use of the time in the shop. The mandate for maintenance is to maximize reliability and availability and also maximize vehicle life at reasonable cost. Used oil goes to a re-refinery.
What I find interesting is people clinging to practices that they believe almost like religion. It’s 2012 (shortly) and there are new recommendations. People are asking where’s the data to support the new recommendations including how many engines were torn down and analyzed. Let me ask, where did you get the 3k mile recommendation from and what data where you given to support it? Likely it is what you grew up with and old habits die hard. If back then they recommended 10k mile changes and now recommending 20k, I suspect people would be saying no way I’m going more than 10k!!
I have not read the study, so I can only guess it may be right. Then again it may be wrong.
Let’s face it, many people today are still holding onto the what their grandfather taught them. Well, modern oils and engines are far different than grandpa’s.
Following the recommended (recommended by the manufacturer) oil maintenance, is generally good for the car and the environment
Twin Turbo, Just because one questions people trying to save money or inconvenience by extending oil changes doesn’t mean that it is not based on logic and information. My information comes from my owners manuals, personal and administrative experience, conversations with mechanics, and fleet managers. My Pontiac manual says 3000 so that’s what I do. My Acura says 5000 so that’s what I do. My Olds says 3000 but I change at 500 every year. The State of MN has several thousand fleet cars and they service at 5000. No syn oil or HE filters, just regular service as required by the manufacturer’s warranty. Not based on my Grandfather at all.
I changed oil yesterday in two cars. It took 45 minutes and cost about $15 a piece. The cost of an engine is maybe $5000. Maybe I could extend it a month or too longer but I just consider preventive maintenace good business practice. Once sludge develops it is too late.
Now if I were a fleet manager in California, and these folks were recommending 50,000 mile oil change intervals on $20,000 bus engines, I’d need some hard evidence. $50 oil change versus $20,000 engine?