So one more time . . . how often do you change motor oil? New car, 90% highway driving, 5W30 Dino. I always did 3000 miles, but the book says 5000. What are you folks doing? rocketman
And also . . . what if I went to full synthetic? rocketman
I change every 5,000 miles.
Look in the owners manual. If there’s no mention of extending oil changes if synthetic is used then change it at the recommended intervals. Failing to do so can void the warranty.
Tester
Until the warrantee expires, go by the book.
On my 09 Pontiac I change at about 50% or 3000 miles with dino. On my 12 Acura, I change at about 50% at 5000 miles with 0-20 syn. On my Olds, I change once a year at about 10 miles. On my lawn mower, I change at 20 hours now with syn. My generator once a year or so but still on the list of things to do. Our cabin mowers and blower gets changed once a year whether it needs it or not.
Synthetic or Dino. Change it by the book and keep records so that they can not void the warranty if there is a question.
If you do it yourself, keep the receipts to prove oil and filters were purchased on a regular basis.
Yosemite
Five thousand miles intervals shouldn’t be a problem unless you live in an area where it’s very dusty.
The book for my car says 5000 miles or 6 months, so that’s what I did during the warranty.
Every 6 months came to 1200-4000 miles.
Now out of warranty I do 5000 miles, which happens in from 2 weeks (road trip) to 9 months.
Dino oil.
On my early 90’s Corolla with 200K, I’ve always used regular ol’ Pennzoil 10-30W every 5000 miles.
This is my personal experience. I buy a new 2001 Chevy Silverado - 5.3 engine - and at 2500 miles change the oil to Mobil 1 with a Mobil 1 filter. Then I change the oil at every multiple of 10,000 miles, with the first one at 10,000 miles. I only use Mobil 1 oil filters and synthetic oil. I am now at 239,000 miles, and the engine does not use one quart of oil total between oil changes. Go figure.
I use 4000 to 5000, but this is one of the most debated and widely disagreed upon subjects on this forum. Your best bet is to follow your owner’s manual recommendations as the maximum limits, and change it more often if it helps you sleep better. Fluids cannot be too fresh, only too old.
I have a 05 Tundra 320k, changed the oil every 10K with Valvoline full synthetic. Trans and diff drain and fill every 60k with Toyota trans fluid. Coolant every 100k with Toyota coolant. Truck still runs great. Only problem I have had with the truck is the cd changer went out about a month ago and the fan clutch went out at about 300K. I used to do lots of highway driving in this truck. My Lexus and F-150 I do at 7500 mile intervals again using Valvoline full synthetics, I change them sooner since they see more short trips and traffic than the Tundra. Opinions will vary widely on this subject, your safest bet is to follow the manufactures recommendations.
@The same mountain bike.
Fluids cannot be too fresh, only too old.
Worded perfectly!!!
Yosemite
One of the very few advantages of two stokes. Change the oil ? It is great “winterizing” the trimmer, brush cutter, hedge trimmer and chain saw…all two strokes. Just set them on the upper shelf, out of the way. The Venza we have does use synthetic while truck, mineral. One thing you notice in the winter in the Venza is how quickly the motor turns over in the coldest of conditions.
I would change the oil at 5K for normal driving and forget about synthetic oil. That’s what I do.
I’m a fanatic about synthetics but I’d feel comfortable with 5000 miles for dino oil for pretty much anything. I think that is earlier that any car’s recommended changes (except for severe service) these days.
Usually, if the car has an oil life monitor, when the light goes on, new synthetic goes in, For cars without monitors, synthetic goes in at 7500 or one year, whichever is first. That pretty closely matches the turbocharged car (with 100k on it) in my driveway’s oil life monitor.
@Mustangman … I too was a fanatic about synthetic oil for a short time. I’m semi-retired now and every penny counts since we still live the same lifestyle basically as we did before we retired. My wife loves retirement but I detest it. There is nothing wrong with synthetic oil but there is nothing wrong with dino oil either. I would use synthetic oil if my owner’s manual required it but I rarely purchase those kinds of vehicles.
I hope that the OP is not forgetting about the Elapsed Time Factor, which is just as important–perhaps even more important–than the odometer mileage factor.
Overall, I think that a 5k oil change schedule is fine–for most people.
However, if you do a lot of short-trip local driving or if you do a lot of driving on dusty dirt roads, it may be too long an interval.
Personally, I adhere to a 4k oil change schedule, simply because as a retired person, my car doesn’t get as much use as it used to, and about half of its use is in short-trip local driving. In my case, accumulating 4k miles works out to approximately every 5 months, so I guess you could say that my regimen is every 4k miles/5 months.
I drive a lot and on my Mazda CX-9 changing the Motorcraft semisyn 5-20 at 3500K miles is becoming a pain. The manual calls for 5K in stop and go/dust and 7.5K interval otherwise. I am now headed to do the oil change, this time with Mobil 1 synthetic and hope to extend the interval to 5.5-6K. I drive mostly on the fwy, but in So Cal the fwy is somewhat stop and go and I guess we have desert dust.
I have done the math and with the synthetic if I change it at 5-5K, I would probably save some money too.
Just a comment but if you were buying a used car, would you rather buy one that had 5000 mile oil changes or one that had 10,000 mile oil changes? The answer may determine your change interval.