Posted on 09/12/2010 9:59:05 AM PDT by posterchild
I STILL remember learning from my father how to carefully remove a dipstick to check the oil level in our cars. It was drilled into me — along with turning off the lights when you left a room and clearing the plates off the table after dinner — that oil needs to be changed every 3,000 miles or so.
I’m not sure what I thought would happen if I didn’t, but I vaguely imagined an unlubricated engine grinding to a halt.
Childhood habits are hard to undo, and that’s often good. To this day, I hate seeing an empty room with the lights on.
But sometimes, we need to throw aside our parents’ good advice. In March, for example, I wrote about how we should relearn the dishwasher and laundry soap habits we inherited from our mothers.
Add frequent oil-changing to that list.
“There was a time when the 3,000 miles was a good guideline,” said Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor for the car site Edmunds.com. “But it’s no longer true for any car bought in the last seven or eight years.”
Oil chemistry and engine technology have improved to the point that most cars can go several thousand more miles before changing the oil, Mr. Reed said. A better average, he said, would be 7,500 between oil changes, and sometimes up to 10,000 miles or more.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’m following the owner’s manual recommendations, except that I use the heavy duty use interval when I really don’t have to.
As I said, it’s (although not so cheap, in the diesel’s case) insurance.
I’d note that I’m an electronics guy, though, and so claim no special expertise in auto/truck maintenance. Too, as an ancient concept, I don’t use synthetics since I don’t trust their longevity, and they’re way to expensive for 6K change outs.
YMMV
Is that with the 5.7, 5.9 or a 6.7 liter engine?
The 6.7 was introduced that year in the P/U’s and there were some issues with the EGR that may have been the cause of the dark oil color...I have heard of others with dark oil, but I never had it on my ‘02 5.7 and my 6.7L ‘10 has clean oil at 7500mi, which is what Dodge recommends for change cycle.
I'll spend the $19.99 every 3,000 miles....thank you very much.
Oh....yeah....I've not had a car payment in over 8 years.
Read your owner’s manual carefully. While 7,000-8,000 mile oil change intervals are OK for “regular” service use, most of us especially in the Midwest and West routinely drive in conditions many owner’s manuals describe as “severe”. For example driving in excessively hot or cold temperatures, driving in dusty conditions, stop and go driving or driving only short trips where the engine doesn’t get fully warmed up are considered “severe”. Think of a typical soccer Mom driving the kids to school during the winter, driving a short distance to work or driving during hot dry weather when the wind kicks up dust especially in construction zones. I’ll stick with the 3,000 oil change interval.
Cummins recommended 6K oil change in the earlier 6bta engines. Yours may well be longer.
I am running 10K with a bypass filter, draining it, letting it settle and then dumping all but about the last 1” into the tank. Mfg states you can burn 5% waste oil.
I know people running diesels on almost pure waste oil in the summer.
Mine is an 04, they didn’t offer the insultomatic monitoring system until 05. Next phase, communist propaganda and location/activity monitoring via “Maostar.”
When I check oil levels, I look at the oil and feel it, smell it. It really depends on the specific car. I once had an Isuzu that never burned a drop of oil, and at 7500 miles, the oil looked very good, very clean. On the other hand, I had another car that within a few hundred miles, it looked like black sludge..
ANyone remember bypass oil filters? They would take about 10% of your oil and superfilter it? I never tried one of those, might be something to think about with a synthetic. I also never tried a pre-oiler, and I dont see those much on the market anymore either..
Communist location monitoring, I think I know what you are talking about, but would you mind expanding/explaining a little on that?
Back in the late '30's, there were a lot of weird oil filter materials used in the old type filter can. One was Fullers Earth. It was in a sort of sock that you put in the filter.
I worked on a couple of cars where the Fullers Earth sock had broken. Circulating Fullers Earth in the oil was incompatible with rod bearing life. In both cars the bearings burned out and connecting rods went right through the crankcase wall.
I still change oil and filter at about 3000 miles. Just habit, I guess.
That would be Communists operating Maostar keeping track of your location and activity.
Oil changes aren’t that expensive, I’d rather do it “too often” than not enough.
holeee cow, this thread is like a belly-button show-off. Bob is the Oil Guy. ‘Nuff said.
But she's still running despite having taken out at least two rear bumpers of other cars and two deer (both bucks).
My new 2010 Ford Escape goes 8,000 miles on oil changes according to the owner’s manual; in fact, I was required to initial some paperwork that I had been advised to that effect prior to leaving the sales office with the little “compact crossover suv,” actually classified as such.
I had always thought an actual “suv” had been a vehicle built on a truck frame/chassis, but this is not the case with the Escape (and others).
My previous ‘07 Merc Mariner had specified something like no more than 6, 000 miles between oil changes, and 3, 000 recommended. So apparently, there has been a change in oil change intervals lately.
I have always changed at about 3, 000 miles, though.
You haven’t had a doctor checkup since 1972?
OK, lessee... say the car gets 25 mpg, and gas costs $2.75 a gallon, and an oil and filter change costs $25.
If we change the oil at 3000 miles, then the car’s gas cost is $330 and that plus an oil change is $355.
If we change the oil at 6000 miles, then the car’s gas cost is $660 and the total is $685.
Since 2x355 is 710, the cash saving is 710-685, or $25 (surprise!). The percentage saving is 1 - (685/710), or 3.5%. I think I’ll stick with the shorter interval; a 3 1/2 percent saving isn’t very much, especially when the actual saving is $25 every four months (at 18,000 miles/year).
Every Haynes or Chilton book I’ve seen says to look in the car’s User’s Manual or under the hood. I’ve seen “7,500 miles” on Hondas and Toyotas for sure since the very early 1980’s.
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