What does your owner’s manual say about the proper mileage interval for oil changes? That should be the ultimate authority, not Click and Clack, and ESPECIALLY not the guys who work at Jiffy Lube (or the like). On the tree of knowledge, the guys who change oil at Jiffy Lube are the fertilizer. It isn’t that they are stupid. I would never call anyone stupid until they have proven it to me personally. They do, however, have a conflict of interest. If you change your oil as often as they say (probably 3,000 miles), that is almost twice as often, and they get twice as many chances to screw up your car and sell you stuff you don’t need.
in england virtually all our cars have an oil change interval of 10,000 miles or 1 year(whichever comes sooner)and the odd manufacturer will actually say 20,000 miles!!!so dont worry,5,000 is fine!!just use a quality oil such as castrol,duckhams,etc…because those really cheap oils are not as good at protecting your engine,i use a semi synthetic 5w 30 ford oil in my ford puma.but remember oil goes off with time as well as mileage,so,for example, if you did only 1,000 miles a year,you should still change the oil and filter after 1 year.hope this helps!
Your Castrol is very likely a different formulation than what we buy in the US.
Duckham’s? Not sold here, guv’nor!
The ultimate authority is in the glove box. Check the oil change interval in the maintenance schedule. Some state that 5,000 miles is good, others suggest 7,500 miles. If you drive to work every day, I’d stick to the ‘severe duty’ schedule. But, I’m assuming these clowns are worried more about their pockets than your car.
My 1990 Toyota P/U recommended 5,000 mile changes on the severe duty schedule. I did this religiously, and the engine lasted 325,000 miles. Using dino oil. Actually, past that. I sold the engine, that was burning no oil, after a retaining wall ended the best run with a truck I’ve ever had.
Have you all got a Wal Mart? That’s odd, I’ve never had a problem finding it. When I bought my wife an Expedition, it called for 5W20 oil and at the time Havoline didn’t make a 5W20. I went with Kendall on it and have had good service so far.
On my diesels, I run Rotella mainly because the others my mechanic changes oil for run Rotella. We buy it by the barrel and keep it at his shop and just put money in the kitty for every gallon we take out when it’s empty, someone has to make a run to Sams to get a new barrel.
That story is true on that coal truck. It was a late 60’s model or early 70’s Ford F700. He retired in 88 and I rode with him quite a bit. His idea of a dump bed was a cast iron grain scoop and someone had to help stack and someone had to help shove it off the truck. That old truck is still running today although I’m almost certain it’s been repowered with what sounds like a Navistar diesel. The guy that bought it from him cut the tandem off and put a wrecker bed on it. I saw it on the interstate not long ago hauling a UHaul off the road. The short block in it at the time he sold it had around 600,000 miles on it and the heads had around 300,000.
Skip
You have not messed up by waiting, look in your owners manual for the recommended oil change interval. Now that you have the synthetic in there, you can go for 7500 miles to recoup some of your money. Find another mechanic while your at it.
Just wondering, does the UK still have the MOT when a car is 7 years old? If I remember correctly, the MOT inspection was pretty tough to pass, i.e. a car could fail for torn upholstery or minor rust. What is considered an old car in England? A car could probably make it to 7 years on 10k oil changes, but would it make it to 10 or 15 years?
Ed B.
the first mot test is at 3 years old,then every year thereafter in the uk,and its pretty strict,but theres lots of 20 year old cars still running around here in sunny manchester,uk!i guess i would class an old car to be 10 years old?but with all the rain and road salt in winter,we get a lot of old rust buckets here!!fords seem to be the worst for rust,but my ford puma is 6 years old now and is ok!but ive only done 33,000 miles.
Have you all got a Wal Mart? That’s odd, I’ve never had a problem finding it. When I bought my wife an Expedition, it called for 5W20 oil and at the time Havoline didn’t make a 5W20.
We have WallMarts…And I’ve yet to see Havaline there. Kendall I can find. But I’ve been using Mobil-1 or Castrol for the past 20 years.
10,000 miles? Bloody hell! Wouldn’t go that long with dino . . . not even synthetic. Rocketman
I’ve had 1 vehicle that I’ve used Mobil 1 in. It is an 87 Trans Am and the engine calls for it by name. IMO, it’s out of line price wise and don’t see much of a benefit to using it v’s regular oil.
Rotella has a new synthetic out, and I’ve thought about using it in my Dodge, but somehow, I just don’t see paying another 6 bucks a gallon for it above the regular. Dodge/Cummins says to break the motor in on regular oil, not synthetic. They actually have that printed in the manual not to use it through 12,000 or 18,000 miles, I don’t remember which. I know I’m past it now by about double. That Cummins had the oddest break in I’ve ever seen on an engine. Ford always cautioned the crap out of me about not towing, not winding it up to 90 on the interstate, and varying my speed for the first 2000 miles. The Dodge dealer said, “Hook the heaviest trailer you own to it, hit the interstate and run it as hard as you can run it for 500 miles.” I thought, you’ve got to be conning me somehow, looked it up in the manual and that’s what it says to do. So I hooked a 21’ Ranger bass boat to it and went to Okeechobee and back.
Skipper
I’ve had 1 vehicle that I’ve used Mobil 1 in. It is an 87 Trans Am and the engine calls for it by name. IMO, it’s out of line price wise and don’t see much of a benefit to using it v’s regular oil.
There are benefits.
- I can extend my oil change interval. This means a lot since I put anywhere from 30k - 45k miles per year.
- Very cold winters with some days reaching -15 OR LOWER…Synthetic is GREAT for this weather.
- I keep my vehicles a very long time. Usually 250k+…with several over 300k miles. Daughter is still driving my 98 Pathfinder with well over 310k miles. When she comes home this weekend I’ll check to see exactly what the mileage is.
- BJ’s Warehouse sells it for about $4.50/qt.
just to let you all know,im currently driving a 2008 peugeot van,for my job as a delivery driver,in england,and the oil change interval is…20,000 miles!!!believe it or not.you guys worry too much about your cars!on my personal car,a ford puma,it says 10,000 miles,so as ive said before,use a quality oil,like castrol,and stop worrying!oh,and enjoy your very cheap petrol,(i mean gasoline),because we have to pay over ?5 a gallon!!thats about $10!!!i wish i lived in the usa,what a wonderful country you have.
Most later model cars can probably go 5K to 7500. It’s not uncommon for an owner’s manual to specify 7500 miles between changes for normal conditions. My G6 has a driver center and one of its functions is to monitor oil life - based on engine temp and driving conditions. I’m having oil changed this weekend - and the “oil life” is at 13% (about 7K). Service rep said an indicator will go off at 10%. The one benefit to going every 3-4K miles is that your car gets looked at - fluids, etc., and that’s a good thing. Of course, it should be someone you trust who really does check those things.
Do you mean miles when you say miles, Stephen? 10,000 kilometers is about 6,200 miles, a reasonable oil change interval. I would not go 20,000 kilometers…perhaps 15,000, but only if it was all highway miles. I would also change the oil more frequently than yearly.
I will stick to my 6-month or 3,000-mile intervals, especially because my driving consists mainly of short commutes to work and the occasional highway trip.
The British are on the metric system, but thet still use miles for sentimental reasons, I understand.
European oil drain intervals are driven by environmental rules about minimizing waste oil disposal; they are not the best for long engine ife, in my opinion.
I googled “British oil change interval” and a lot of the results I got had people discussing how their manuals say 10,000 to 20,000 kilometers, so I thought Stephen might have misspoken. I did see some that said miles, though. I was just curious what the manual actually says, since I saw conflicting things online.
There’s a huge market for used oil to be rerefined or used as a fuel source. I just read (since my last post) that the UK is a leader in used oil collections…I’m surprised they seem to be extending oil change intervals at the possible expense of the vehicles when much of the oil can be reused.
yes we do use miles here in england,strangely enough!!!and changing your oil more often than the manufacturer states can only do good to the engine!i only drive 3,000 miles a year in my own car and i change the oil and filter yearly,i personally think 20,000 miles as stated by peugeot,is a bit over the top!!but i honestly think that modern engines using quality oil can easily last 10,000 miles between changes.
I agree with those that suggest you check your manual. The manuals for both of my vehicles list a regular service interval and a severe service interval (things like lots of stop-and-go driving, operation in extreme hot or extreme cold weather qualifies as severe service). On both cars, the regular interval is 7,500 and severe is 5,000. If you’re the cautious type, or you actually meet the definition of severe service, use that interval and you should be fine, regardless of what the guy at the quick-lube place says.
i agree with most everyones advice above (walmart - whatever) heres what i would do.
- find a good mechanic - ask people at work, look in mechanix files, ask your new neighbors
- never ever ever ever ever use the quickie places for all the reasons listed above
- read your owners manual - whatever they say (probably 5000 mi) is what you need to do, unless you do extreem driving (ie off roading, drag racing, etc etc). im a little anal about my vehicles so i change every 3000 mi.
- unless your owners manual specifically says you should use synthetic, you don’t need it. (corvette, bentley, ferarri etc etc)
- also if your car has higher miles, and it hasn’t always had a synthetic product. you could cause adverse effects. synthetic molecules are smaller than regular oil. so if your parts are somewhat worn (bearings, seals, rings etc) synthetics can seep through, because their smaller and cause leaks etc.
- as far as the quick change place selling you synthetic without your approval i would go down there and ask for the difference back as you didn’t want or ask for the “upgrade”. you probably won’t get it but it may make you feel better to vent. good luck.