Oh man, here we go again.
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How about sitting strapped to a chair for all eternity and having to listen to a non-stop loop of Debbie Boone singing âYou Light Up My Life?â
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I started all this, and I would like to repeat my original request. I am looking for references to actual data, as some have given. More pleaseâŠ
Thatâll be very hard to find, from a reliable source. You may have all youâll get.
Just do what makes you feel good about how often you change oil and filter .
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Iâm a physicist, so facts rule over feelings. We are not known for touchy-feely.
No offense but if you donât mind I wonât buy your used car. Iâd rather have someone that took care of their car just because it made them feel good. 
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The only player in the oil longeity game with anything to gain is the oil companies themselves. They would need to do the testing themselves so they could sell oil to car manufactuers⊠like Mobli 1⊠or the consumer. No one else benefits from the money spent for this kind of testing.
Car manufacturers want to spec longer oil changes but they also want to insure their cars will run a very long time. Engines blowing up after a 60K powertrain warrany is not good for business.
The test data would prove the longer change intervals are acceptable. So where is that test data? I canât find it on Mobilâs site nor Amsoilâs. The claims are there, but the data is not. Temperature stability data is easy to get as is the standard wear and friction tests. In car testing is very expensive since many miles are needed in many cars and trucks.
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Fleet owners could gain from running the tests.
There was a bill to mandate increased oil change length to save oil, it failed. Better t often than not often enough. The only time my car wanted an oil change was when the moniter was not reset. Sure I could have saved a few dollars waiting for the car to tell me to change the oil, but I did not.
[quote=âjtsanders, post:29, topic:175781â]
Fleet owners could gain from running the tests
Many could gain but are they willing to pay for that? No. A fleet manager could test extended changes by having oil analysis done and some do but why share that hard earned data? Selling it, however, might be considered like a trade for free oil from the oil companies.
But fleet use, in most cases, doesnât reflect consumerâs use profiles. Certainly, police cars donât. Rental car companies might be the exception but they donât keep their cars very long.
Some years back, Consumer Reports tested different brands of 10W-30 motor oil. As I remember, the oil brands were tested in taxicab fleets. The oil was analyzed and the engines were torn down and wear measurements were made. CRâs test was before synthetic oils were in common use. I think this testing was done back in the mid 1980s.
The one thing I remember was that some of the brands of oil.bought in different parts of the U.S. tested differently. In other words, a particular brand bought in an Atlantic state had different test results for the same brand bought in the Midwest. I rather suspect that a particular refinery may bottle the same oil and put different brand names on the bottles. CR hasnât done a recent test of oils. I think.oil filters may have been tested as well.
I always used the viscosity of the oil specified for my car, but used whatever name brand filter was on sale. One time, I bought Citgo oil on sale and with the rebate, the oil was free. I had a free oil change for the cost of a postage stamp.
I always change my oil during full moons.
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That is sort of what I was getting at, if Toyota thought that the longer drain interval of the synthetic needed a different filter, they would have put a different one on.
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Exactly⊠My Wifeâs 07 Lexus and my 14 Highlander have the same engine. Lexus oil recommendation is 5W-30 (NON synthetic) with a 5k oil change interval. My Highlander oilâs recommendation is 0W-20 (Synthetic) and a 10k oil change interval. They both use the EXACT SAME FILTER.
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Iâm very very leery of Consumer Reports testing. They are great at gathering customer data, but their testing is NOT what Iâd consider good.
You can however find tests of unused oil here:
@Triedaq - if I remember right, youâre combining two different tests. One was a test comparing 3000 mile changes to 6000 mile changes, using a taxi fleet. They found no difference in engine wear. The other test compared different oils (I donât remember how).
OOPS EDIT:
Well, I DONâT remember right, itâs exactly as you said, in 1996 they tested different oils in taxis. They found no difference between oils, and no difference between changing at 3000 miles or 7500 miles:
Consumer Reports: No Difference In Approved Motor Oils (apnews.com)
They also found that âquick-lubeâ oil change places put in the wrong oil about half the time, if you donât tell them what to use. No surprise there!
@texases You may be right. I think the test goes back to the early or mid 1980s. I think the oil tests were performed in a laboratory. I do remember comparing engine wear in a cab fleet with 3000 and 6000 mile oil changes.
@MikeInNH I trust Consumer Reports more when they do laboratory testing as opposed to gathering data from its subscribers.
For example, some years back, CR did laboratory tests of different makes of 60 watt incandescent lightbulbs. CR cycled the bulbs on and off and were able to predict the life expectancy in hours of the bulbs and there were differences. CR does lab tests of batteriesâauto batteries and the D, AA, AAA used in household applications. The published results to me seem more accurate than the repair data collected from CRâs subscribers about auto and appliance repair.
As a slob, however, most of the lab results from CRâs testing is lost on me. When I need AAA batteries for our TV remote control or my music stand light, I pick up a carton of 24 batteries at the grocery store sold under the Kroger label unless I happen to go to Big Lots and buy whatever batteries are on sale. Even on major items, I do look at Consumer Reports, but tend not to do a lot of shopping. A couple of months ago, we had to replace our 29 year old wash machine and 20 year old clothes dryer. I did look at CR, but in the end bought Whirlpool appliances at Loweâs because of the convenience of the location.
As far as motor oil is concerned, I bought whatever was on sale of the right viscosity when I did my own oil changes and used whatever major brand oil filter was on sale. Now that I donât do my own oil changes, I go with whatever the Toyota service dept pours in the crankcase.
Some years ago, Consumer Reports advertised for a position it had opened for an applied statistician. I have a degree in the area and had experience and published papers in the area. What really appealed to me was that CR had done testing of different brands of beers. They had experts do the taste tests. I wanted to be involved if CR ever ran the beer testing again.
@texases I was off by a decade on the date and off by 1500 miles on the longer oil change interval.
Somewhere in my memory, CR tested oil filters in their lab and Fram came out on top.