Posted on 09/12/2010 4:48:45 PM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
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.
The California Integrated Waste Management Board ran public service announcements for several years about “the 3,000-mile myth,” urging drivers to wait longer between oil changes. Although the information is a few years old, the board has a list of cars on its Web site and how often they need oil changes. The concern is not only the cost to
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Alot of good information and experiences. Thanks to all for sharing
My '98 S-10 comes from a fleet where I work, has 180,000 miles on it, and has had Mobil One all it's life. The mechanic at work said 15,000 miles unless it feels gritty or black.
I use extra capacity filters, and have gone 15,000 already. It runs like a top, but Mobil One isn't cheap. I also use Slick 50.
Not really, if you recycle motor oil properly, (I have been doing so since 1960).
Liberals are the wasters, conservatives simply don't waste, (it is less productive, and conservatives are producers), and recycled oil is useful.
Also, you will be the perfect conservative if you can get your wife to do the oil changes.
Post #4 and 10
LOL~, guessing you're divorced, j/k, L~
Nope, I'm henpecked.
You're in good company. I refer you to:
I am VERY lucky to be able to work from home 3 days a week and walk 3 blocks to the office the other 2 days. My 1996 Nissan Pathfinder 4WD is awesome, but remains parked most of the time. I get an oil (synthetic) change every summer, but am still hard pressed to clock 2-3k miles per year on the odometer.
I use a semi synthetic and change at 5,000-6,000. a 20 percent synthetic blend is cheaper than full synthetic and provides 90 percent of the protection.
Mobil 1. Change once/year. When my Taurus reached about 225,000 miles we decided that we would do a new short block when the tranny died. When we plastigaged the main bearings they were right at spec. (on the loose side of course).
Yup. I run Mobile 1 now and it’s $21 for 5. I’m running past 8K on mine current one and it’s a moderate brown. I also flush it every time I change. I’m spending less now in oil changes per year as a result and only have to do it about twice a year instead of 4 or 5 times.
We bought a 1990 Mazda 626 new. At 300K+ I burned a valve at a time when I had neither the time to repair it myself nor money to pay someone to do it. I drove it until it would not make it up the mountain on 3 cylinders. At 359K miles, when I finally pulled the head you could still see the hone marks on the three good cylinders. #4 was worn out from unburned gas (no compression, no burning) washing the oil off the cylinder walls.
We put a junkyard engine in it (~105K miles) and were aiming for 500K on the car when someone pulled out in front of me & it totaled the car at 426K miles.
The whole time we used Walmart brand oil, average change interval was 5000 miles.
(We have had 6 cars go over 200K miles. 3 Mazdas, 2 Subarus, one Mitsubishi. All used Walmart brand oil.)
I agree with the Mobil 1, i have used exclusively Mobil One in all of my vehicle and not one has gone less than 200K miles i used to change every 7500 miles, now I used the extended life and go 15K miles but change the high cap synthetic media filter at 7500 and add back the quart the filter holds,my Ford has 210000 on its original everything and uses less than 2 quarts in 15K miles including the added quart from the filter replacement. I had a S-10 vortec 4.3 go 285K original motor&trans still going strong when i sold it the guy who bought it wanted to run a compression check so i let him every cylinder was with in 5% of factory still i was impressed it also never drank oil couple of quarts over 15k miles which is about yearly for me, i also ran against Mazda’s recomendation MB1 in my RX-7 it went 225k before i blew the apex seals at 8000+ rpm racing it on the street, my jeep 4x4 went 225k before i rolled it mudding
when the problem began over a year ago, I upgraded to 89 (from 87) octane exclusively - which seemed to work for a while. But then even with that higher octane, and occasionally I'd put in super, it made absolutely no difference.
Yes, it's fuel-injected, and is definitely a ping (dealer describes it that way also).
I have no idea what the next step will be. Dealer said they'd be getting in touch with GM techs.
Question: 1982 Chevy truck with a 350, 87k miles, oil changed
religiously at 3k, runs like new. Can I switch to synthetics?
I would not switch to synthetic. You may get some leaks that are “plugged” up now. If it runs fine then stay with what works. Those old GM will be fine on most any oil.
I would not switch to synthetic. You may get some leaks that are “plugged” up now. If it runs fine then stay with what works. Those old GM will be fine on most any oil. Go over to bobistheoilguy.com and ask the experts over there if you want more ideas.
Thanks, appreciate the advice.
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