Royal Purple High Performance/Extended Life - How Many Miles can I go before next oil change?

Maintenance/Repairs
102

And that’s the second part of the renewable energy equation - Wind Farms.

The may be problems NOW…but that doesn’t they’re not solvable. Not everyone needs to charge their vehicles every day. Assuming that every 10,000 cars charging on the grid will add 1% to electric grid load…it’s doesn’t mean that if there are 100,000 electric vehicles that the grid load would be 10%. If they have a normal commute and you can travel over 200 miles on a charge then the grid load would be less then 2% every day.

103

Well that’s a big assumption, no?

EV’s, solar power, and wind power have been around since I was born (maybe before). But I’m still pumping gas for whatever reason.

Don’t get me wrong. If I can get free power, I’m all for it. But I’m not seeing it on the horizon from where I am. Most of it seems like a “hey look at me, I’m saving the planet” while taxpayers fund the effort sort of thing.

104

As far as synthetic, and longer intervals, several posters have made good points about perceived maintenance costs/hassle and larger oil capacity contributing to the extended OCI.

My point that synthetic oil (in part) has led to the extended OCI was derived from the fact that several Toyota engines (if I’m not mistaken) switched from a 5k mile OCI to a 10k mile OCI with no apparent changes to the engine other than the recommendation went from 5w30 (Dino…or synthetic) to 0w20 (synthetic…or synthetic blend, apparently). Maybe they changed the sump capacity also on the Toyota 5.7 and 3.5 at that time. I honestly don’t know. But I don’t think the engines changed much in that period.

I agree with Mike that the main factor is perceived ease of maintenance. Made possible, I believe, by synthetic oil (and a larger sump capacity, but I didn’t catch that, Twin Turbo did).

Oil threads are fun. And there’s never a definitive resolution. :grin:

1 Like
105

I’ve been changing my own oil for 35+ years, and the oil always looks much darker pouring out of the drain hole than it did on the dipstick.
Not that appearance means much.

That people have different opinions and do what makes them feel comfortable?
So run a discussion group like a Homeowner’s Association?

106

I live in a suburb of Buffalo NY. Ice storms or high winds taking down trees are not at all rare here. People getting stranded in their car on the NY Thruway for 24 or more hours happens every few years. As far as solar goes, Cheektowaga outfitted one of their neighborhoods with Solar street lights that they had to rip out after the first winter because they all went dark. Because of the wind, we have a lot of wind turbines here but a lot of them are not moving because the company that makes the blades and bearings has gone out of business. None of them have paid for themselves or turned a profit, the only reason they were built was to get the subsidies.

I did get a notice from National grid that i can save 5% on my electric supply by signing up to buy solar produced electricity. I already save more than that by signing up with an alternative supplier. I pay the alternative supplier for the electricity and then pay national grid almost twice as much to deliver it.

I would advise you not to visit our area in the winter with your electric car.

1 Like
107

Renewable energy is only the cheapest if you consider hydro power the cheapest. I drove many field trips to the Niagara Power Project and with the water they divert from Niagara fall, they are generating electricity for one cent per kwh. It runs almost through my back yard to downstate businesses that are paying 2 to 3 cents per kwh while I am paying a total bill with delivery charges and taxes of 14 to 16 cents per kwh.

108

And don’t forget the “jerk factor” . . . guys who are “saving the planet” while driving like dangerous jerks

One hand on the steering wheel

The other hand patting themselves on the back

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

3 Likes
109

Hey, you solved a puzzle for me… now I know WHY :slight_smile:

110

There are time delay fuses, slow blow fuses, standard blow fuses, fast blow fuses, current limiting fuses, explosion proof fuses, different voltage ratings, different ratings for AC or DC. Fuses also fail from vibration and fatigue. Selecting a fuse is often a compromise between safety and nuisance blowing.

111

Oil made from a fossil source contains some Sulphur. Cars driven short distances which never warm up the engine never evaporate the water, condensation from the oil. The water combines with the Sulphur in the oil making sulfuric acid. Synthetic oil contains no Sulphur. In reality the oil itself never wears out only the additives get depleted. My wife’s Jeep gets an oil change every 5000 miles. My 2012 Camry also every 5000 miles. It takes about a year to put that much mileage on either car. The Jeep has a 5.7 L engine and uses about a quart of oil in a year. The Camry has 104,000 miles and doesn’t use oil at all in 5,000 miles. I use the correct viscosities of Mobile 1 in both.

112

Oil is actually a bit of science.

While the general rule is to hold on to manufacturer recommended oils and oil intervals, there are choices that you can make. Performance oils do exist and they indeed will last for many many miles. The general rule for those is that you get those miles quick, because that oil still does age. That means, if you can’t reach the oils limit within a year, it becomes more or less pointless to have it.

However, there are some details to your car and oil that throw variables in to the mix. Your vehicle is at 250000km which is far past its prime. Also, 35$ Amazon oil probably isn’t quite the “performance” oil you are looking for.

Unfortunately I can’t tell precisely how you drive or where you drive but:

If you drive mainly short city drives, you are looking for shortened intervals, because your engine runs inefficient and cold. That oil is suffering, your car hates it, it’s generally a bad thing.

If you drive mainly motorway, no big jams, nice rides in efficient rpm, you could think of performance oils and longer intervals.

If you drive in mixed environment, you hold on to manufacturers intervals, because that’s what the manufacturer is rating.

If you drive hard and fast, you are looking for thicker oils - because you’re running hot. If you are driving slow, you are looking for thinner oils because you run cold.

At 155000 miles you can also consult with a mechanic whether it won’t be a good idea to go up in viscosity. Engines do wear over time, and clearances get bigger. Bigger clearances = thicker oil. Personally, I was planning to start feeding my 300000km Alfa Romeo 146 with 10W50, but unfortunately it was made of butterfly wings and that wild boar was heavy, turning it’s front in to a bunch of splinters before I could proceed with that plan. I tried similar thing with a Fiesta, having no issues, but seeing that despite my hard driving that thing barely ever really heats up, I went back down to 5W30.

Over all, I really wouldn’t recommend long oil change intervals on an engine that has quarter million kilometers on it. Performance oils are something that’s tested and demonstrated on new engines. And I have seen Škoda Fabia run single oil fill for 6 years straight (Because Škoda authorized service is so top they never changed it or the filter. Yes they are scammers.). But that doesn’t mean your very used engine will do equally as well on long intervals.

113

That’s comparing apples to shovels. Cost of solar panels made them cost prohibitive for most until about 10 years ago. Wind turbines are completely new technology then they were 30 years ago.

Good we need more funding. Saving the planet is a good thing. Fossil fuels are NOT good for the environment. We need renewable energy. If not then our grand kids or great grand kids will be in a world of hurt.

114

Nothing wrong with saving the planet, but if our grandkids are overtaxed to subsidize too many things, they’ll be in a worse world of hurt than what pain fossil fuels will contribute, in my opinion. I personally feel like I pay enough taxes at the moment. I’m not against funding green tech if I can be shown it works efficiently. I am against “more taxes cause it’ll be good for you in the long run.” “Trust me.” :flushed:

1 Like
115

The tax subsidies for renewal energy is less then 1% of the tax subsidies for oil and coal.

116

I’ll take your word for it. If true, that’s true currently. You did say “we need more funding”. And more funding is fine too, if the ideas actually work and taxes don’t go up to get that funding. But that ain’t happening. Someone will have to pay for the “more funding”.

117

Remove the unneeded oil and coal subsidies and you have your funding.

I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes. Renewal energy will benefit everyone. Maybe oil and coal subsidies were necessary at one time. They surely aren’t needed now. Coal is dying (as it should). Oil is NOT a forever.

You missed the point. Many parts of the planet may not be livable by the time our great grand kids are around if we don’t look at alternative energy sources NOW.

118

You should have added that:

Besides, why do we not work more on more realistic nuclear?
Most likely - because it would not allow to get that much on lucrative subsidies milk-cow.

119

Many places won’t be livable according to some. I don’t prescribe to that theory. Although many places aren’t livable now, no relationship to fossil fuels.

You missed my point also. People have to eat. Tax people enough (to fund green energy, or for any other reason), and they’ll have much more immediate problems than climate change. I’m not saying that’s the issue now, but I’m afraid some environmental zealots will throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak, in their zeal.

120

John , this thread will draw the attention of Carolyn soon. But before that happens you are completely wrong . We are definitely destroying our planet and having a moron president as climate change denier in chief is not helping.

3 Likes
121

According to MOST. Only an extremely small group of scientists world wide don’t believe this isn’t true. My daughter worked with a few of the worlds leading Climate scientists when she was an undergrad at MIT. The peer revue publications on the matter are a matter of public record. If you’re truly interested you can do the research yourself.

So why aren’t you complaining about the oil and coal subsidies?

There’s a difference between an environmental zealot and a environmental realist. Very few environmentalists are zealots. Most are realists. The other end of the spectrum is the deniers. They ignore science and cling onto what ever view is what Fox told them to think. There’s an island in Virginia that’s disappearing because of rising waters, yet the idiot mayor says it’s not due to rising waters, but because the island is actually sinking. Not one bit of scientific evidence supports this idiot. But he’s clinging to that theory because if he denied it he would then have to believe in climate change. Here in Boston we have parking lots that are now flooding every major storm during high tide. They NEVER flooded even 20 years ago.