Oil changes: How often do you need them? (Marketplace)

Believe it or not, my 2007 car still specifies 3000 mile oil changes.

Is that the severe service recommendation or the regular one?

And to further inquire, what is the vehicle? I couldn’t find it looking at the user profile. Don’t look at those much, so may have missed it.

Lol I did change oil every 3,000 miles and I changed transmission fluid every 25,000 I take very good care off it and I put my new transmission in today car up and going again and car is 10 years old and I it has just hit 101,000 miles

@pyrolord314 it’s the severe service schedule. Which, let’s face it, is really the normal use schedule.
@Scrapyard_John it’s a 2007 Jeep Compass. When I don’t trust the car’s quality from day 1, I’m sure not going to scrimp on the oil changes.

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My Mustang calls for once a year or when the maintenance light comes on.
Thankfully, once a year is gonna be the norm because it takes 10 quarts of oil

In stationary equipment .like large diesels and natural gas engines, the oil sump often takes a whole barrel, and oil is changed once a year. In large marine engines the oil is constantly circulated, centrifuged and filtered.

In a moving vehicle there is a limit to sump size. European cars often have much larger sumps and go for the 20,000 mile or once a year oil change. The oil filter also has to be correspondingly larger. There is constant pressure by governments to reduce oil changes.

10 quarts? Wow. What year and engine? The 2013 5.0 equipped f150 I owned took around 7 or 8 quarts, can’t remember exactly. And I thought that was a lot!

I wonder how much a cruise ship engine takes. That ship off of Norway evidently stalled because the rough seas shut the engine down because the sensor thought it was out of oil. Seems like it would have been a normal thing to top it off but I suppose if it holds several barrels of oil, maybe not.

2018 GT 5L V8.
The available 2.3L T-4 takes 5.7 quarts.

QE2, " one gallon of fuel moving the ship around 15 metres"

Cruise ships have multiple engines, usually 4, which are coupled through a massive gear box. The reason is both safety as well as the ability to cruise slowly on one engine and up to fast with all 4 on open seas. The Norwegian vessel has 4 engines but it appears there were gear box and steering gear problems. It’s extremely rare for all 4 engines to be out of service at once.

A commercial freighter usually only had one massive engine with about 60,000 HP from 6 cylinders. These engines have massive crankcases. and oil is purified with centrifuges as well as filters. In other words, not all oil is in the crankcase; in cars in the past they called this “dry sump” lubrication.

All ocean going vessels have so called auxiliary engines to supply on-ship power for lighting , lifting, etc. Typically 3 large Caterpillar diesels with couples electric generators…

Changing oil and using the correct grade is extremely important. I have a 1992 Lincoln Town Car. I’ve been driving it for 2 years since the odometer stopped working at 287K miles. I’ve religiously changed the oil 3 times now, about every 90K miles, and added any grade oil I had laying around when it needed a topping off. The car stlll runs great. Probably due for a change again.

I change oil every 5000 miles on my Acura with synthetic and 3000 miles on my Pontiac with conventional. The Lincoln of that vintage should be in the 3000 mile oil change category. 90,000 for three oil changes is insane and consider yourself fortunate. Hope the money saved has been put aside for a replacement.

Consultant fee will be cheerfully refunded.

Something tells me Jeffrey is trolling us

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I remember when our 41 Studebaker got an oil change every 1200 miles. I also remember when Kendall Motor oil had roadside signs advertising itself as “The 2000 Mile Motor Oil.”

Those were the days of non-detergent oils without any additives. I changed oil in the family cars and truck faithfully every 1000 miles and the filters as well.

Today’s oils are 25% additives that collect dirt, neutralize acids and maintain the right viscosity so as to minimize wear.

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Mamy cars of that era did not have oil filters as standard equipment. On Chrysler products of the 50s, when they did have oil filters, the maintenance schedule called for an oil filter change every other oil change. I bought A 71 VW bus that came without an oil filter or fuel filter. Instead of a filter it came with a screen that would only keep out pebbles or larger.

You were supposed to remove a cover over the screen, clean and re-install the screen with a new gasket. Luckily there was a center bolt in the cover to drain the oil and I never disturber the screen again.

Our first family car, a 1941 Chevrolet, had the “optional” oil filter mounted external to the engine. It was a canister type, and every 1000 miles I had to take the cartridge out , clean the canister with a rag, and install the new one.

I must have done o good job, because after the car bit the dust, my brother in law was given the engine to build a gas powered welder. To this date he still has it in operating condition.

Everyone is going to change the oil when they are comfortable . As far as OLM they didnt just shove these things in . Major study was done on how to determine when it should be done and Im sure they went conservative with it . They cant risk major problems where they have to foot the bill to replace thousands of engines . I just did the oil on my new 20 Durango at around 5000 miles . It was still over 50% on the OLM just as an example so it would probably be 10k before the light actually came on . I dont see myself going that long even though with total synthetic oil it uses it probably could… When I changed it at 5000 miles it was still crystal clear and was still hard to even see on the dipstick. Old habits die hard .