I have a car that I only drive 1500 miles a year and change my oil every 3000 miles. Should I change the oil more than every two years.
I’m sure that your owner’s manual says to change the oil every x thousand miles OR every x months. This means whichever comes first. In your case it will be the every x months. If it’s still in warranty, then you have to follow that. If not, then you should change the oil at least every six months.
The owner’s manual for our newer car with an oil change calculator says to change oil at least once per year even if the calculator does not call for an oil change.
I have several vehicles that fall into this category and I change every 3000 miles regardless of time interval… Dumping out clean, uncontaminated oil makes no sense. Crankcases are pretty much sealed and motor oil is very stable. It’s good for a couple of years…
How do you put on 1500 miles a year - 4 miles every day, or a 30 mile drive each weekend? In other words, does the engine have a chance to warm up fully each use or not?
I’d change it every six months - warranty or not. Put it on the time-change list
along with new batteries for the smoke alarms. For $30 bucks you get to pop it up on the lift, check the tires, check the battery and get rid of the pack rats living in
the wheel well. Is this a Grandma’s car? If yes, remember your old car may last a very long time but your tires, hoses and belts will not.
I would recommend you change it once a year, conditionally. And that condition is mentioned by texases.
If the mileage is being accumulated 2 or 3 at at time then I’d change it every 6 months. Longer trips once a year.
Heat attracts moisture and if you’ve seen a window sweat then you should consider that an engine does the same thing. Moisture in the engine oil will not burn out during a lot of short 2-3 mile trips.
If you’ve read about oil sludging complaints that is the main reason why.
We had a span of several days here in OK about 2 weeks ago in which it was so humid everything was saturated in water.
When I raised the hood on my Lincoln to check the oil, etc. it looked like someone had just hosed it down with a garden hose. Even the inside of the headlamps were soaked.
(See where the heat factor comes in? Lamps go off at night when high humidity exists and the residual heat pulls the moisture right inside the sealed lamps.)
Once per year on a vehicle that old. Even vehicles designed for elongated oil changes, eg every 10k-15k have a one year limit and they have huge oil sumps full of synthetic.
It will only cost you $.02 per mile if you change the oil once a year ($30 oil change cost / 1500 miles).