often than the manufacturer recommends.
Today’s cars and oils are a lot different than they were back in the 1960’s when I was first driving. I have also seen some test that show new oil does not provide as much protection as slightly older oil.
So what is best?
I suggest that we should all change oil based on the manufacturer’s recommendations. Note, that includes paying attention to the severe conditions notes. However I suggest there are more important things we should be doing rather than doing additional oil changes.
Since oil related damage to an engine is very rare, except where something else happened like a loose drain plug or the wrong oil, or not changing it, I suggest that it is best not to change the oil soon, but to save that money and use it for other forms of maintenance. For those with automatic, I would suggest an occasional transmission fluid change, for example. We certainly see the results of not servicing an automatic transmission, yet it seems it is seldom done until there is a problem.
Sorry duplicate, please ignore this thread
I don’t think oil changes need to be done as often as Iffy Lube would have its (uninformed and possibly not-right-bright) customers believe. Many newer car makers suggest a 7500 mile change interval.
I remember a study that was mentioned by Click anhd Clack several years ago where they ran New York taxis at various intervals over several years. It was found that a 10,000 mile interval caused no more wear than a 3,000 mile interval.
I think that modern oils are far better that old ones. Thirty years ago a 100.000 car was a rarity. Today 100K is nothing. 200K is common, and even 300K pops up once in a while.
I would change it according to the manufacturers recommended changes. No need to change early…but don’t want to change later either.
Last I read…less then 20% of new car owners keep their vehicle past 100k miles. Of the 20% that keep their cars past 100k miles, less then 20% keep them past 200k miles.
If you’re buying a new car and you sell it before it reaches 100k miles then you can probably extend the oil changes beyond what the manufacturer recommends. I sure wouldn’t like to buy that used vehicle though.
If you’re like me and you keep your vehicles past 250k miles then I wouldn’t be messing with the manufacturers oil change recommendations. I keep up on all fluid changes. If I didn’t, not sure I’d have been able to keep them to 250 or even 300k miles with 0 engine or tranny problems.
In general the car makers recommendations work however most people don’t realize they fall into severe service not normal. I personally would trust the modern oil life monitors.
That being all said I use 5000 miles max on my vehicles which center between severe and normal service and easier to remember.
My answer is NO. Oil is a limited resource. Cars with modern motors run much cleaner and the oil is not contaiminated quickly due to the few nasty by products of combustion in today’s cars vs those of 10, 20, or 30 years ago.
The quickie lube recommendations of 3,000 mile oil changes is bogus for all but a very few special situations. Drivers of newer cars should read the mfg recommendations in the owner’s manual because the oil change intervals are changing and are different from car to car. A blanket every 3,000 or 5,000 or any thousand recommendation is no longer appropriate. Some cars specify full synthetic oils and recommend 10,000 oil change frequency. That is what the owner shoud do. Changing more often with a full synthetic waste money. Changing more often with a regular oil would not be recommended by the mfg because the conventional oil might not provide sufficient protection say if the motor has a turbo charger.
Cars with oil monitoring systems are effective. Owners should follow the advice of these systems and not panic when the car goes beyond the number of miles they are used to for oil changes. Just keep driving until the monitor says to change the oil, regardless of miles.
There are motivations in the car service industry to maintain the 3K interval such as more profit for oil changes, and more opportunity to sell extra services upon each visit for an oil change. The better “safe than sorry” mentality has kept many people coming in for frequent oil changes.
I agree that the extra money spent on too frequent oil changes could take dollars away from other needed maintenance. Bottom line is that the driver is responsible to take the car in for service, the car can’t drive itself to a service center. The recommended interval for service and what should be serviced is in the owner’s maintenance guide provided with all new cars.
Where the service can be performed is variable, the auto dealer is one option, jiffy places are another option, as are independant mechanics. Where to take the car is another topic, but quickie lubes is at the bottom of my list. These places are the ones that push the too frequent oil changes and extra profit services before they are needed and screw up too many cars in the process.