The only place I’ve heard this is a person on bobistheoilguy who claims short oil change intervals increases wear.
He sites an SAE article. Here’s a couple of his quotes:
"If you buy/read SAE 2007-01-4133, you can see that using a decent filter (nothing super premium, just a normal filter) over an OCI stretching out to 15k miles has the wear rates going down. But the majority of wear is right after the OCI. Then the rates trend down as the tribochemical barriers are re-established. It is that chemical-physical film barrier that has the greatest affect on wear. Until it is upset, it just continues to get “better” for a long time. "
"Additionally, Ford/Conoco proved this as well. Wear rates DROP as the OCI lengthens. Check out SAE 2007-01-4133; buy it and read it! Ford tested wear at 0 miles, 3k miles, 5k miles, 7.5k miles, 10k miles and even 15k miles; the wear rates were highest upon the OCI and least after 15k miles!
Generally, there is a parabolic curve that is associated with wear rates. The are slightly higher initially, drop down to nearly nothing, and then escalate again after the oil is compromised past its point to deal with contamination.
The “uptick” in wear is due to the tribochemical barrier being removed by the “fresh” detergent package upon installation. Yes - believe it or not, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Now, DO NOT read too much into this; I’m not saying it will kill any engine. But what I am explaining, and what is abundantly clear in UOA data as well as supported directly with the SAE article, is that the wear is HIGHER upon the initial OCI, because the cleaning additives actually remove the boundary layer that protects the metal parts. Don’t believe me? Read the whole article. And review my “normalcy” article as well; there is CLEAR data that shows the wear rates drop the further out you get from an OCI event."
I haven’t seen the SAE article, but it seems to be based on used oil analysis, showing metal particle content.
I posted there once suggesting that since UOA is an indirect way of measuring wear perhaps something else is going on.
I think it’s possible the rapid increase of metal particles in fresh oil comes from being “washed off” of various surfaces in the engine, not from increased wear.
Of course my idea didn’t get a warm reception.
I think the only way to conclusively show the short OCI’s increase wear would be to run two or more engines under identical conditions but different OCI’s, tear them down and measure the wear.