New Car, Oil Change interval?

Maintenance/Repairs
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42

Neither do it.

[quote=“Scrapyard_John, post:40, topic:111445”]
Using synthetic is wasted money on a 5k mile interval in my opinion, and in my conditions.[/quote]

You’re probably like most people who only keep their vehicles less then 150k miles. Then 10k oil change intervals will probably be OK. But we keep our vehicles past 300k miles. 10k oil changes are too new to know if it’s good for 300k miles. I know BMW is having problems with sludge in their engines with extended oil changes…and they specify full synthetic.

It comes as full synthetic or synthetic blend.

That’s a dumb argument. People who say follow the manual (like me) - say to NOT do anything less then what the manual says. You can always exceed the manual. 5k oil change interval vs 10k oil change interval is NOT hurting anything. Switching to an oil not recommended by the manufacturer can cause problems.

This whole discussion started when you made the statement that the only reason to use synthetic oil is for extended change intervals. I PROVED that that is NOT the case. There are other reasons to use synthetic. You can believe them or not.

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What makes you think they are using 5W-30?

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Having worked over 30 years in a division of a large international corporation, let me speak on manufacturer recommendations.

Do y’all actually think the smartest engineer in the company decides how often you should change your oil? Hee, hee. How funny!

Such decisions in the end are made by management people, who may or may not be engineers. And, the reasons for such decisions normally involve internal politics, and in some cases prejudices of key management personnel. “My grandpa did it this way and that is good enough for me.”

Memos are fired back and forth, meetings are held. And, in the end someone gets to make the decision. Internal politics is always a fear factor. If the person making the decision is the smartest engineer, all is well. If not, the results may vary.

I have previously stated my suspicion that new motor technology, cleaner burning and more efficient, also may dramatically extend oil life, which is the real reason companies are raising oil changer recommendations. Wasn’t it Toyota who suddenly increased oil change recommendations on one car, from 5,000 to 10,000 miles? Those long European oil changes may be correct, for all I know.

I do not blindly accept manufacturer’s recommendations except during the warranty period. It’s their motor then. After warranty expires, it’s my motor and I am going to make my own decisions. In general based on actual oil lab testing for my driving pattern.

The lab not only tells you the condition of your oil, but also gives you an extremely valuable analysis of the condition of the motor, such things as bearing condition; valve condition; cam; rings; almost all parts when going south are reported in the oil analysis.

Some years ago, sick and tired of non-scientific advice on this board in reference to oil changes, I let my 2002 Sienna, almost all long distance highway driving; go over 8000 miles and had the oil tested. Voila! The oil in all parameters would have been good for well over 10,000 miles.

I don’t trust manufacturer’s recommendations because I don’t know how they arrived at the recommendation. With a lab test, I trust my own interpretation of the lab results, and I certainly know the parameters I use for the decision.

Let me add here that I certainly do not always know what I am doing. If I did, I wouldn’t ask so many questions on this board. :smiley: But, with a lot of data and a lot of thinking, there are times when I come to a solid decision that suits ME. And, oil changes is one such issue.

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Well, what did you “prove”? Or where was something proven? 3.0 V6’s sludge? Yes…

I still don’t see a benefit using synthetic on a routine change interval. Perhaps there is one…but I didn’t see anything “proven”?

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One can change oil more often if one wishes, it will not void the warranty, thinking of paying out of pocket for 5k oil change when the 5k tire rotation is done under the 2 year free maintenance. Now we got a full size spare, imagine how that could screw things up 20k into mileage on the car!

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Go back and re-read the posts. If all you got was the 3.0 V6s sludging…then you missed a lot.

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Excuse my cynicism about dealers, but writing from experience here (Toyota and Subaru, great cars, dealers not so much…), low cost and “free” oil changes are loss leaders, like a newspaper or cheap quart of milk at convenience store…they hope to sell you something for higher profit like cigarettes or beer.

Each of the “free” services I tried (not many, I am not THAT stupid) came with a “75-point vehicle safety inspection.” Suffice it to say that it was a lot closer to a “75 places on your vehicle we could make some money…”

They did not try getting me to change the blinker fluid…really! But brakes that had been serviced by my very reliable local mech a week earlier?-- “Ready to kill me on the way home…these need changing NOW???” I don’t think so…

And on and on. And each dealer was a hour away. Go to them ONLY for Recall work, and then steeled myself to demand, and get, no “75-point vehicle safety inspection” and I had to sign special release forms for that denial! I think I got put onto a NAS list (not a sucker…) since they stopped asking me after a while, saving us all the breath.

Find, and cultivate an honest local mechanics shop–look on the Car Talk site for reader recommendations. Remember to bring brownies occasionally, and a holiday card is nice too$. I am trusting them with my life, they see and know me regularly, appreciate my business, I do not nickel-and-dime them about costs–maybe because they can explain in English what is wrong, my options for dealing with a problem, and the associated costs.

Be straight with me, and I am straight with you.

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Scrapyard John, While I don’t agree with all your conclusions, I like that you are willing to support them with reasons you have given a lot of thought to and are logical.

I suspect the real reason for the switch from 5W-20 to 0W-20 was to get 1 more mpg on the highway EPA test. If they moved the mpg from 34.4 to 34.5 it would round up 1 mpg.

I also agree that once the warranty is up it is YOUR engine.

I like the full synthetic because I am lazy and like changing oil once a year. At my age and 7000 miles a year I probably won’t get 100,000 miles on it and if I did it would be rusted out by then.

By the way, Northern NY near the Canadian border regularly sees winter temps of 35F below. I once saw 41 below on a bank thermometer driving through Malone one night. Not the worst weather I have ever seen up there though, one night just North of Watertown, it was -31F with a steady 50 mph wind and snowing so hard that when I got stuck pulling into Longways truck stop and grabbed a snow shovel by the pumps, I took a shovel full and threw it and the snow completely filled it in and I could not see where I had taken it from. We were stuck there for 3 days and the truck stop ran out of food and the state police commandeered a load of MRS Smiths pies and that us what every one ate the third day.

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FWIW, the Hyundai factory manual for 2001 model XG300 had an oil recommendation chart that warned against using 5W oils above 68*F or for sustained high speed driving regardless of temperature.

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