3k miles, 5k miles, 10k miles, 15k miles… We can argue about the merits and drawbacks of all of the potential intervals, but lets forget all that for the purpose of this particular discussion.
Here is the question for you, how long have your vehicle gone on a single oil change? What oil did you use and what vehicle was it?
My personal highest is 10,250 miles on my 2013 Prius V. I was going to change it sooner then the 10k interval but then my wife hit a skunk and the car is tainted and its a lease so its going back and I don’t care. Plus the engine was not running all of those 10k miles since its a hybrid. The oil looked fairly clean even though it had 1 year and 10k miles on it.
Ok, my mother has a 2002 Dodge caravan, 2.4L 4 cyl. I changed the oil in june 2009 at 23,323 Miles using mobil 1. I changed it this week at 54,700 miles. My father says he changed it once but after looking at the oil filter its doubtful, I really think the van went over 30k miles and 5 years on a single oil change, the van was a half quart low and the oil looked fairly dirty but I have seen dirtier from an old vw beetle I had as well as a jeep wrangler I had that never seen more than 4k mile intervals its whole life. That jeep dirtied the oil quickly for some reason.
I can not confirm for sure that the van had 30k miles on its oil change however I am fairly certain. I know how lax my father is on vehicle maintenance and thats why I used mobil 1 ( not saying mobil one has some super interval or its ok to stretch the intervals using it, I just figured it would not hurt.). I told my father 3 years ago that the van had a timing belt and it should be changed and said " I know I know, we will have to get it done." A year later it broke leaving mom stranded on the interstate. When the shop did the belt I suggested that he have them change the oil, my dad said he was going to do it, and I don’t think he ever did.
I was going to send out the oil for a sample but I got lazy and I was short on time and i also had to replace the radiator in the van so I had to work quickly that night and i kinda blew the oil sample off. I kinda regret not getting a sample now, oh well.
I am not saying going 30k miles and 5 years is ok, I am going to start keeping on it since my father is getting older and obviously has no interest in maintaining the van.
The record in my family is 10,000 miles between changes in a 1990 Mazda Protoge, the regular shop gave mom a really hard time about going 2x what they recommend and actually gave my dad a call. Her '10 Prius has gone around 10k between changes but now her favorite shop has her on closer to a 7,500 mile interval. These guys helped her previous car go 19yrs and 194,000 miles before she had to upgrade and the car was still running great with maybe 1qt/3,000 mile oil usage.
I’m pretty Ho Hum boring. Vintage 1950s and 1960s vehicles were 2,000 to 3,000 miles. All others have been less than the manufacturers recommended. Oil and filters are still quite cheap compared to engine rebuilds!
I have the owners manual for my dads 1948 chevy. Its states to change the oil every 1000 miles as this car had no oil filter. As for my 89 Stang GT once a year with 15w-40 as it only gets driven around 3000 miles a year here in hot Florida. ( 99 degrees today ) Have 2000+ miles on the current oil and looks as clean on the stick when I changed it 8 to 9 months ago. Just for laughs it says avoid jack rabbit starts on the 48 chevy by flooring the accelerator on take off…Engine only had 90 gross HP probably less to the rear wheels under todays HP ratings.
I wanted to know the truth about oils and about synthetics. So, a few years ago, I deliberately let my 2002 Sienna well over 150,000 miles go 8800 miles. when I changed it I sent a sample to Blackstone. It had everything okay to go at least the 10,000 miles. Now, I change it once a year since I have gone low mileage here in Mexico. All this with Mobil-1 EP.
About 4k+ is the longest I’ve ever gone and due to conditions that makes me antsy even at that interval. Granted, this is a bit extreme but it’s from my neck of the woods just a couple of years ago. Dust is always an issue here and air filters don’t catch all of it.
My lawn tractor manual calls for oil changes and air filters at 30 hours. Good luck with that. About 3 or 4 hours and both are filthy beyond belief. Forget dusting the furniture in the house…
Oh wow thats a dusty environment. That would drive me nuts!
My lawnmower has 200 hours on it and the original air filter is still in it and its not that bad yet. It is a commercial Zturn mower so it has quite the air filter on it so that helps.
My relative has a 2001 Ranger with the aluminum 4 cylinder
Anyways, I did a bunch of work on his truck at one point . . . water pump, coolant reservoir, belts, oil change, etc.
20,000 miles later, his check engine light stays on, because of a lean condition. I replaced a cracked plastic intake manifold. I asked him if anything else needed to be done, since the truck was in my garage.
He thought an oil change might be due. I looked at the oil filter and realized it hadn’t been changed since last time I did it. There was more oil in the filter than in the crankcase!
The truck has racked up thousands of miles since then, and seems to have survived the neglect rather well.
It would be nice when people talk about oil change intervals they also added the type of oil. 5k on mineral oil and on some cars, 10k on full synthetic are considered equivalent by some manufacturers.
It can be pretty tough at times and just think how much dust gets inhaled by an engine in just a few minutes. Something like 30 or 40 cars got torn up in that one. Dust is an issue all the time here.
Some years ago me and a friend headed out late one afternoon for a motorcycle trip to Sturgis, SD.
Right after leaving town we hit a dust storm although not as bad as the one in the video. Ten minutes later it was light rain which of course turned the dust on us to mud. Soon after another dust storm which stuck to the wet bodies and clothes and not long after that more light rain.
Almost a 100 miles of this before it finally cleared out. People driving by on the highway probably wondered why several guys were standing on the side of a cornfield waiting for the regular rounds of the irrigation sprinklers.
We’ve even had heavy snow and dust storms at the same time and that makes a whale of a mess.
Brown snowflakes and the weathermen refer to it as SNUD; as in snow and mud…
I’ve gone slightly beyond 5,000 miles a few times due to health issues, but I’ve always been hyper vigilant about oil and filter changes, so that’s very unusual for me.
I’ve never owned a vehicle that required synthetic, so it was using dead dinosaurs & foliage. And I’ve always believed that keeping fresh oil and filter in the motor was much more important than the brand, so it’s always been either store brand or whatever’s on sale. For filters, I’ve always done the same, but I’ve noticed that Walmart no longer carries store branded filters, so I’m using Fram.
The only thing I’d never use is fleamarket or yard sale oils and filters. I have zero confidence that the contents actually meet SAE and API specs, and since I got my “gold Rolex” at a fleamarket for only $15… well, you get the idea.
Years ago when I worked in a gas station, we had a customer who drove 25K miles/year and who kept his cars for 100K miles. He never changed his oil, but only added it when needed. He only changed the filter every 25K miles.
He explained to us that maintained this practice because it worked for him.
Around 8k in a trailblazer 6 cyl, mostly highway, oil life monitor did not go off, I do spring and fall, probably around 5k between changes. I do not think I am using any significant amount of oil, the few times I have checked it it did not need any.
Longest was 6000 miles on dino 5W30 and shortest 1000 miles in the late 50s with a non-detergent oil in our 1952 Oldsmobile. I’m with mountainbike and am religious about lubrication. Last time I had internal engine work done was the summer of 1964 on a 57 Plymouth flathead 6.
Only internal work ever performed on an automatic transmission was in 1976 on a 1971 Mercury Comet with C-4 unit. Cost was $189.
The longest I’ve gone before changing oil is around 6K. I drove a 94 Cutlass Ciera to California and back from the east coast. I changed the oil before I left and changed it when I returned home. The oil was Castrol GTX 10W30. I think my little bulletproof V6 used about a half quart of oil in all those miles.
9800 miles and one year, changed when the oil minder in the car told me it was time (recommended 10K or 1 year whichever comes first), Saab 9-5 turbo, full synthetic Mobil 1 5w30. The car has 98,000 on it now. Doesn’t use a drop, runs as strong as when new.
I once had a 1981 Datsun (now Nissan) Maxima. The longest I went without an oil change (with that car) was about 12,000 miles. When I finally got around to changing it, the oil filter was bone dry. Not a single drop of oil in it. But, the car kept running. The engine out-lasted the body.
