Regarding Toyota’s oik check once a month, I can see it now. Customer comes it with his car on the hook and blown engine due to no oil.
Well, you guys said check it once a month and I just did 3 weeks and 4k miles ago…
I wonder how Toyota would weigh in with the quart per 1000 miles is normal bit.
That’s not as bad as the comment from corporate Subaru to a customer who inquired about when to change the fluid in an automatic transmission.
“When it’s black and smells really, really bad…”…
I check oil every 1000 miles. Easy to remember by the odometer.
The way I drive that’s about 2-3 months, except on road trips.
I’d either sell or otherwise dispose of the car or install a replacement engine. In the future OP should remember as the effective employer to check the work quality of his employees (the oil change staff) after oil changes, by inspecting the dipstick before leaving the shop, after arriving at the next destination, and again the next AM before starting the engine.
I check mine about every two weeks. That’s 800 to 1000 miles for me.
Though I do check whenever I am going on a long trip.
If I buy a used car or truck, I check it every day for a week then once a week to determine if it uses excessive oil. If not then I can resume my normal routine of once every two weeks.
Yosemite
I check mine a couple of times a week. When it gets down 1/2 qt, I bring it back up again.
I got in the habit of checking it often when I commuted, 62 miles round trip every day, in my old pickup with a few hundred thousand miles on it (at that time). I never used much, even when it had 338,000 miles it still only used a qt every 1200 miles or so, but I like to think that my conscientious monitoring of the fluids is the reason it was never an oil burner, rather than using the low usage as an excuse NOT to check the fluids. Now I only drive perhaps less than 100 miles total every week, but I still routinely check the fluids a few times a week. No reason to change.
Now I only drive perhaps less than 100 miles total every week, but I still routinely check the fluids a few times a week.
I’m all for checking things regularly, but every 50 miles? I suppose old habits die hard. You’re going to wear out your hood hinges, Ha!
I did once drive an old Chevy pickup that burned a quart of oil every 100 miles.
Ha! Not if I keep the hood hinges lubed!! {
Better too often than seldom or never at all.
As a teen I had a 1951 Chevy that burnt oil so bad, when I stopped for gas I’d say “check the gas and fill the oil.” I was about 17 then and we drove that beast all over on the weekend and come Saturday night we only came home because the case of oil was empty. It burnt some and leaked the rest.
I should have just make a roof rack for a 55 gallon drum and opened the spicket before starting the engine.
My dads always said that it was cheaper to buy oil by the case than to spend the money on rebuilding the engine.
I only paid $300 for it and as a teen, I was thrilled to just have my own wheels.
I finally put a rod through the block…probably because I didn’t check the oil in the last 50 miles.
Yosemite
It’s also happened with many vehicles that an oil or coolant leak can spring up suddenly and go unnoticed by the driver until it’s too late.
Some older Subarus were prone to oil pump leaks due to a round O-ring deforming and taking on a crescent moon shape. This would partially open up a pressure port on the pump and oil loss could happen very quickly as some discovered a bit too late.
I know from experience that you can lose oil pretty fast. I was on a long trip years ago and had checked the oil before leaving. I had forgotten to replace the fill cap and because I was cruising along at 65+mph I never smelled the burning oil on the hot engine. I was lucky that I had decided to pull off the freeway for food and I then smelled the hot oil when I slowed down.
I pulled over to find the underside of the hood and the engine covered with oil. I nursed the truck to a nearby gas station without getting the engine rev’d above 1500rpm and it took 3 quarts of oil to fill it back to the full line.
Had I gone another hour I may have done serious damage.
Yosemite
I had a 1953 Chevrolet in my hot-rodding days… I took off the air cleaner and the fan blade, and loosened the distributor so I could adjust it for maximum rpm at idle it would run 35 in first, and just under 70 in second. Once just before I left for the Army in 1964, I ran it down a really long hill and hit 96 indicated in 3rd.
Most folks had never seen a 1953 run anything like that. But, of course, it wasn’t really too good on the motor. Engineers had reasons valid to themselves to put on air cleaners and fan blades and set the timing where it normally was on that engine. I had other priorities…
It ran great as far as running, but the last few months before I was drafted, it took a quart of oil every 30 miles. I would wait until the oil gauge dropped on a hill and stop immediately to add several quarts.
I came back from Ft. Lewis on leave and put in a rebuilt motor and transmission but left all the stock set-up on it because my hot-rodding days were over. I drove it around a couple days, then drove 2050 miles to Ft. Lewis in 50 hours. That 50 hours included an ice storm in Wyoming, and two full blizzards in the mountains. The trip also included a hitch-hiker named J. Heck whose mom lived under the Aurora Bridge in Seattle. They kept shutting down the highway behind me due to the extreme blizzard I drove back from Ft. Lewis when I was released and drove it for another year, then gave it to an older brother and bought a 1967 Chevy II.
It’s probably good I got drafted when I did. The way I was driving my number could have come up at any time.
I didn’t drive like that much after the Army. Well, once with our 1988 Chevy Nova it was snowing and very slippery. I showed my son how one could snap it 180 degrees almost instantly. but told him if he ever did it on my insurance he would be back to a bicycle. I mostly tried to give a great example on driving well but sometimes a dad has got to let his kids know he wasn’t always an old man.
I had a friend that was a farm kid, and his dad gave him an old Dodge that was not worthy for the road. At 14 years old we would drive that thing all over the farm and i’m not sure how we ever survived.
For some reason the front bench seat had no bolts holding down the front. We’d fly through the field to jump a little ditch and when you’d land…if you didn’t have a good hold on the wheel you’d be laying in the back seat on impact. It was a fun ride…why ruin it with bolting down the seat good.
It finally said this is enough, when we hit that tree…the fourth time…it just wouldn’t budge.
yosemite