Working from another angle: I’ve owned a number of 4 cyl cars with sumps ~4.5 qt.
For all of them I’ve done 5000 mile oil changes.
By the formula they’re well maintained as long as they get >22 mpg.
Only my current Hyundai Tucson gets less than that in short trip city driving.
Agree! After reading all the comments and theories, I’ve settled on 5000 mile intervals which happens to be what Toyota recommends in the owner’s manual.
Now that I drive much less, 5000 miles cover one year, so we do an annual oil and filter change.
I use Mobil1 synthetic oil.
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I always thought that the “odometer” should record hours run, rather than miles driven, like planes do.
You can have a vehicle that idles all day (like police cars), or get stuck in traffic all day (city cars and taxis) that need oil changes far more often because they are running many hours.
I gotta agree with that. First thing I did was put one on the lawn mower and snow blower. I think they were around $25. So on a car, can’t see how it would cost more than $10-15 to add that feature and would certainly be useful. In fact come to think of it, the computer already will record hours for trip A or B. It would just be a matter of adding the extra page that couldn’t be reset.
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My 2004 GM truck has a hour meter as well as an odometer. The owners manual doesn,t specify oil change intervals in hours, just miles and months.
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Oil change intervals in hours is what is given for our Honda outboard, the 100hr oil change can be done with the boat in the water.
My dealer puts a sticker recommending oil change at 3k miles, though the manual calls for 7500 or checking oil life monitor, I am good with 5k.
It can cost nothing except some coding on electronic displays.
The trip odometers on my Tucson include hours.
I reserve one for oil changes, the other for gas fillups.
It’s a starving dealer ploy. Do whatever the manufacturer recommends.
Maybe not. Doing this would minimize oil degradation by frequent short drives. The start component of the cycle is the most damaging. When airplanes fly, the do it for a lot more time than most cars run. 15 minute drives are common. When was the last time you heard of a 15 minute plane flight?
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Good point. We don’t use snow blowers or boats in rush hour traffic, or to commute, or for cross country drives. A decent oil life monitor, or, second best, a miles limit, would seem better to me.
Wouldn’t a regular odometer minimize it too?
1000 miles 3 at a time would be recorded the same as 250 at a time; without accounting for idling.
Going by fuel consumption can account for extra fuel used during warm-up and idling.
It would also be affected by extra stress in high speed and aggressive driving.
Yes, that’s why I use the OLM to determine when my oil should be changed. An OLM has worked well for us for 18 years.