As a mechanic who has had to face car owners who are the once-proud owners of a 25-50k miles vehicle that now needs engine work, or a new complete engine, I can say that most of them in retrospect wished they had been more diligent with their oil change regimen. A select few of course will always choose to blame the rest of the world for this problem.
And some still won’t care. While their car is on the lift and they get the bad news, they just walk to the showroom and buy another car and trade their broken heap in.
How many people you know that lease, but never change/look at the oil? Well, they might change the oil before they trade it back in, but that’s it.
There was an incident here about 2 years ago involving a “who cares” attitude about oil changes.
A guy bought a 2008 Ford King Cab diesel pickup with every bell and whistle in the world on it. He paid an arm and a leg for this truck.
At 3k miles he brings it in for the first oil change. The next time the dealer saw this guy he was with a tow truck driver who had the truck on the back with a blown engine.
This truck had a total of 25k miles on it and after that initial oil change he never changed the oil again or even bothered to raise the hood to check the oil level.
A distance of 22k miles without even raising the hood.
Needless to say, he was livid that warranty would not buy him a new engine and as per the usual pointed his finger at everyone from Ford Motor Company on down.
Like everyone else I drive by gas stations all of the time and only once in a blue moon do I ever see a hood up with anyone spending even a minute looking things over.
"Mike, I agree with you about drivers who follow the monitor system’s advice not being responsible should the engine wearing out prematurely. Unfortunately, manufacturers won’t help at that point. So it’s better to do the changes early and often. "
And that’s a problem…Yes…when it happens that person is going to learn from it and then follow a 5k oil change interval…But there are many NEW drivers buying cars every day…Either these monitoring systems need to get better or they better cover the warranty when they end up destroying an engine.
One other thing about these monitors…Let’s say a manufacturer is good and will honor any engine damage done if the owner has an oil change done when the monitor says it should be…My question is…How does the dealer know that…that’s the case…The owner could say…“Gee the light just came on at 15k miles”…But in reality the light came on 8k miles sooner…Is there a mileage indicator that says when the light came on??? The one on my 4runner goes strictly by mileage (every 5k). So I wonder how GM’s oil monitoring system works.
"A distance of 22k miles without even raising the hood.
Old family story:
About 85 years ago my maternal grandfather loaded up the family and drove his one-horse wagon about 15 miles from Anacostia (Southeast Washington DC) to Silver Spring Maryland, spent the day, and drove back.
When he returned home the old horse promptly dropped dead: he’d forgotten to give it water.
The engine light monitor is an more accurate approximation over the old 3000 now 5000 mile oil change out there. Do what feels best. Those monitors do a good job assuming you check/top the oil and use the proper spec one.
Regarding leased vehicles, I would expect the leasing company to require oil changes and other maintenance at certain intervals as part of the contract - but having never leased a car myself, I guess that isn’t the case.
I suppose it would be difficult to enforce that rule.