The purpose of the oil jets is to cool the piston crown. My '07 Civic had them; my '10 Insight does not.
Totally agree with you. From my own recent, first oil change at 4,850 miles, that 0W-20 was dirty enough, as was the pleated filter element.
I’m finding many who think 5,000 on synthetic is an acceptable interval, although a mechanic I spoke to at the dealer the other day said he changes every 3,000. Since you can buy Mobil 1 at Walmart for $20 a 5 qt. bottle, it’s not expensive. (Hint: If the price is lower on Walmart’s website, you just tell them at customer service & they’ll look it up & match it. Much easier than having to go thru their BS of ordering & paying for it online & going to pick it up.
And, in all the years I’ve had cars, though all of them have been 1994 & older, the Toyota Camry has got to be the easiest car to do an oil change on. I just didn’t need to do it myself yet. My dealer’s Service Mgr. allows me to stay in the work area around the mechanic that did my oil change/ 5k Toyota Care because he likes me (unlike most here who hate me), & knows that since I worked in a shop before, I’m not a casualty risk. I realize he’s stretching the line from policy, but they’re an unusual dealership in some ways.
Ok, if you’re not going to defile or abuse any longer, how about a truce? You do some good posts.
As far as the Castrol I was raving about, I’ve taken a U-turn on it. I have in the past couple days done much research, & spoken to a major writer/researcher in the area of Petroleum, & specifically synthetics & their composition, and, as a result, I have many papers to read & material to assimilate & then I’ll post some information that I don’t think anyone here knows about synths, particularly that most are created from breaking apart petroleum-derivatives to the molecular level to use them to rebuild a “synthetic” oil. And I don’t like what most oil mfrs. are doing & getting away with…
At this point, there are only a few companies whose oils are truly synthetics, Mobil being one of the best. But even they will not tell you the % of the main & quality components their oils are comprised of …more later.
I know a heavy machinery mechanic who changes the synthetic oil in his Harley every 1,000 miles.
It’s important to remember that mechanics aren’t mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, or chemists, but even if they were, people have some very strange ideas and habits that they hold onto in spite of contrary evidence.
My mother’s father owned two full service stations back in the day. He passed away before I was born, but my grandmother used to tell me that he would change the oil in his cars every 1,000 miles and then put that used oil into his customers’ cars. I’m not proud of that story, but there it is.
Change synthetic every 3000? No wonder the mechanic loves it. What a huge waste of money, for 90% of drivers. Maybe 99%.
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The manual for my 2009 Mexican Sienna lists 20W-50 oil as an option. I am sure they know better, but a strange part of the Mexican culture is most people think anything lighter will destroy your motor. So, to sell cars to people with that opinion you need to give them what they want on the charts.
Recommended, by memory, I think is perhaps 5W-30, not sure right now.
Once I wanted a quart of oil to carry in the car in case of emergency. I went into a car place here in my village and asked for 10W-30. The smart-aleck punk, who probably owns an Italika motor scooter, snarled at me as if I were an idiot, “It will destroy your motor.” The sad part is he probably believes it.
I can only imagine what 20W-50 does to a modern variable valve system.
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I can show you several extremely qualified with many years experience who say 3k is overkill.
The 3k oil change interval ended decades. Oil and engines have made drastic improvements in the past 20 years.
I’ve used nothing buy regular dyno on my 98 Pathfinder and my wifes vehicles with a 5k oil change interval…
Wife’s 87 and 96 Accords both were running great and not burning any oil when we sold them with well over 300k miles. Wife’s current vehicle (07 Lexus ES-350) has almost 200k miles and it’s running great. Expect to easily get another 100-200 thousand miles.
My 98 Pathfinder used regular dyno oil with 5k oil change intervals for well over 400k miles…and still running strong.
Even service departments of new car dealers sometimes have strange ideas about what type of oil and what viscosity is appropriate. Here in Indiana where the temperature sometimes drops to below zero, one of my colleagues bought a new 1976 Pontiac from a small town dealership. He was really unhappy when we had a cold spell and the Pontiac cranked over too slowly to start the engine. He was ready to go back to Ford products that he had been driving. It turned out that the service manager at the dealer did not like multi-viscosity 10W-30 and put straight 30 weight in the cars that were serviced. My colleague, when he found out what had happened changed to 10W-30 and had no more cold weather starting issues
The dealership handled Oldsmobiles as well as Pontiacs. In1958, Oldsmobile had a problem with camshaft failures. Certain brands of oil were determined to be causing the problem. GM then issued a bulletin stating that multi-viscosity oils were not to be used in Oldsmobile engines. This may be why the service manager, 18 years later, did not like multi-viscosity oils.
If you’re in doubt just send a used oil sample to Blackstone labs, they can give you a good idea about how the oil is holding up vs. the mileage you put on the car over the last oil change. I did that with my old Mustang. Ford called for oil changes every 5000 miles (conventional oil), but I always used synthetic. When the supercharger went on, I thought it would be prudent to change the oil more frequently and/or go to something like a 10W-30. Much to my surprise, the results suggested that I could extend the oil change interval to 6500-7000 miles if I wanted to, and that the 5W-20 was holding up exceptionally well. I decided to continue with the 5000 mile OCI with full synthetic 5W-20. The car never had any oil-related problems and never used more than a 1/3 of a quart of oil between changes. I got rid of it when it had about 170k miles on it. My current Mustang (2016 GT) suggests an OCI of whenever oil monitor says to change it or 10k miles whichever comes first. I’ve been changing it every 6500 miles so far. I should have an oil analysis done to see what’s really going on though.
I have found perusing archives to be a good way of learning the unwritten “rules”.
I’m not going to jump into another oil war, but sad little snide comments like this are among the big reasons why you have so many people that are ticked off at you. They’re unnecessary, and they can invalidate some of what you say. Stick with your facts and keep your emotions out of it
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Wow! Nearly 200 replies regarding a question if the OCI required by the owner manual is excessively long. The simple/correct answer was and still is: There is nothing wrong with changing the oil more frequently than recommended by the manufacturer.
@bravesfan314
You label my postings as “Sad little snide comments” ? No, simply statements of fact. And then you JUSTIFY & VALIDATE all the nasty comments that violate this site’s guidelines by blaming me for their unacceptable attacks by saying they are “among the big reasons why you have so many people that are ticked off at you” ???
You can’t defend what is indefensible. Those who post nasty, demeaning, degrading, ridiculing responses should be censored from this site… And to blame me for their behavior is ludicrous. I started my posts as posts that are based on FACTS, not on attacks. Your comment is totally indefensible and absurd. I’ve answered you with no disrespect, and now this is your behavior towards me? I’ve also reached out to respond to people who have been very disrespectful, and suddenly write a respectful response. I wrote a respectful response to you. After getting this from you, I don’t expect any further abusive responses from you, or you’re flagged. Two can participate in that same process…
Except for the money, oil, and time wasted. That’s up to the owner, of course. Why not every 1000 miles?
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People get as worked up over motor oils than football fans do over a Michigan-Ohio State game. I would have said the Old Oaken Bucket games between Indiana University and Purdue, but in the Oaken Bucket games I attended as a graduate student at IU, there weren’t enough sober fans in the stadium that even knew what was happening on the field. At this point, let’s all have a couple of beers and quit battling about motor oil.
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C’mon, we can make it to 200 comments…
;-]
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This is my little contribution…
197?
C’mon!
Really . . . you literally are speaking for your mechanic buddies, instead of letting them speak for themselves.
There is a significant distinction
If you dispute my assertion, I’ll gladly make a cut and paste to make my point
You’re not giving the members of this forum much credit. There are members from several different professions, and there’s a great deal of experience. Automotive, manufacturing, computers, software, engineering, etc… In fact, we HAVE discussed synthetic motor oil several times on this forum. With all due respect, if you post that stuff you mentioned, you literally would be adding nothing new. We would not be gaining any new understanding.
I notice you seem to be much more agreeable, when people aren’t disagreeing with you. Well, you can’t always count on that. Not everybody will always share your opinions.
Well, when somebody comes on a website, professing to have the inside scoop, and know more than the regulars, there are bound to be disagreements
You sure know how to make an entrance
And you got noticed, but not because of your flashy smile 
An observation . . . you seem to be the kind of person who learns something, and assumes everybody else was also in the dark about it. That’s not a wise assumption to make
I didn’t attempt to justify the comments made by anyone else:
Just trying to give some friendly advice. You’ve been posting here for 3 days, came in with guns blazing and got under the skins of a lot of regulars. Have the responses been cordial on both sides? No, but let’s look at this another way. Let’s say I come running into your house shouting and screaming at you, hurling curses and insults…you respond in the same. Who’s wrong?
Really? Initially perhaps, but they devolved quickly:
and
Another:
Frankly, calling a comment “snide” isn’t disrespectful. The ONLY other time I posted in this topic or to you directly was to give information. Just trying to do the same here. Not trying to antagonize either. Just friendly advice. I’d say take it or leave it, but I think we can all guess which way you’ll go (but I hope sincerely that it’s towards take it!).
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@cdaquila I think we can put a nail in this coffin, I highly doubt anything constructive will come from further discussion
Edit, 200!
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