3 yrs ago I changed to synthetic oil in my 82 vw vanagon. I put about 200 miles/yr on the van and now the oil has 600 miles on it.
Instead of 'miles left on oil. how much TIME should pass before changing oil?
Thanks much…Ken Carter
Personally I think once a year minimum.
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Barky…Thanks much…Ken Carter
How do those 200 miles accumulate? Is it one long trip or 100 small trips?
The worst thing is frequent small trips. Then, the condensation produced mixes with raw gas and combustion by products to produce acidic oil. Leaving that sit on your bearing surfaces is going to damage them. I have cars that go years between changes because they see very little use but when they do, it is continuous duty and they run clean. Other cars that may see even less mileage, have infrequent short trips and are not as clean running. Those I change at least once a year and preferably before winter storage so they are not basking in acidic oil all winter.
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Folks…It’s usually small trips, 5 or 10mile round trips. I’m guessing from your reply, it’s time to change my oil based upon my driving pattern, ie, infrequent short trips.
Thanks much…Ken Carter
with that many miles, you might as well go with mineral oil and have no difference, especially for engine technology that old
If oil looks good on the dipstick, and no signs of moisture under the filler cap, I’d leave it alone myself.
I have a 5000 watt Coleman generator I bought 14 years ago after we lost power for 5 days. I put synthetic oil in it and run it every couple of years to make sure the engine doesn’t freeze up and the gbenerator delivers electricity. I have never used it because the power was out and have no intention of changing the oil until I do.
That 5 day period was the only time in the 50 years we have lived in this house that the power was out more than a few minutes.
I bought 5500 W generator a year after 3-days power outage was all over our metro area.
it was collecting dust in somebody’s garage and they were happy to get $150 from me to take it away 
10+ years later… I’m still to have a single outage where I live, but had to rescue my boss at least twice when his power was down for a day or more in his old town
I was replacing oil every 2-3 years, just as a precaution…
You can sleep easy as you are prepared for Y2K.
Whaaaaaaaat!?
Prep H, maybe.
Thanks anyway…Ken.
Thanks for the info, but what’s this got to do with the price of ‘Pig’s Feet’ in Ozark, Ark?
Thanks anyway, nice try…Ken
Seeing as I’m mostly alone by myself, and my dipstick is clear, I’d say then, ‘I’m in good company’.
I feel better already, thanks much for your kind thought.
…Ken Carter
What the heck are you talking about?.
…Ken
On this message board if you ask a question about your Volkswagen you will receive replies about snow blowers. These senior citizens take pride in their accessibility to go “off topic”.
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I’m just wondering why you worry about this, and at the same time do it yourself…
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Earl, everybody on the CarTalk forum can see everything you and the rest of us post.
We aren’t always responding just to you. Sometimes to each other, sometimes just tossin’ fluff.
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More off topic - person has screen name Earl 1 - signs post with Ken Carter .
Just curious .
My generator has a gasoline engine and oil in the crankcase just like your car. They see about equivalent use. I think changing the synthetic oil in either one yearly is overkill.
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My generator got used once maybe 15 years ago, I changed the oil afterwards. Until the riots last month and they cut off electricity to our grid for 15 hours. I will start it up and run the gas out. It worked fine for 5 hours when we needed it a month ago, but thanks for the reminder, thinking I’ll fog the cylinders do an oil change again. Regarding fogging, my boat guy says do it through the carb because then everything is fogged, but it dies as soon as you try it, now with 4 carbs on my boat I never asked, but just crank it while no start? My 86 2 cycle 90 hp working fine as I live by the old wives tale you do not need to fog a 2 cyl engine as there is oil in the gas. It is an evinrude VRO, I usually run it out of gas but original manual says not to. I disconnected the vro oil supply and premix gas. I guess after 34 years I am not worrying too much. Still plenty of power and let the neighbor borrow the boat to take adults water skiing. So we went out so I could show him the quirks, like you have to increase throttle as tilting it down will kill it or even not start unless tilted up. So his first run through, he has an io boat on another lake hours away he was like geees this has some get up and go. What do you do for maintenance, change the lower gear oil and new plugs every few years, he was astonished.