O.T. Oil change intervals car

I drive a 2003 Ford Focus with about 130k miles. I have been using full synthetic oil in it, as that is what the previous owner said he used. I change the filter every time I change oil. I drive 60 miles round trip to work. I live 5 miles out of the nearest town. The only short trips I usually take are at noon from 1 to 5 miles total. What are your recommendations for oil change interval.
I haven't checked the owners manual at this time, but probably will tonight.
Thanks for your time.

I think most of the synthetic say to follow the owners manual recommended change schedule. They are not willing to stick their neck out and say to go 10,000 or 1 year like on the cars that come factory filled with mobil 1 say to do.

IA Roy,

My thinking only...

Cars get "docked" for every onuce of oil/grease/gas they consume. The only way manufacturers get away with it is to use synthetic oil, no grease zerks, and exaggerate their oil intervals.

D,

I do what the manual says and haven't had any failures.

Synthetic can help w/ breakdown, but not w/ the amount of dirt/contaminants that get in your oil.

Do you live on dirt or paved roads?

I use the dead-dino juice and change at the "severe driving" recomdations, but I

take short trips (10 miles is normal drive),
in extreme cold (SD),
and live on a dirt road

Any one of these is "severe", so even if I paid for the synthetic I'd still have dirt and combustion by-products in my oil, and water that isn't getting boiled out.


That said, I haven't lost a vehicle to oil-failure since I spun a rod in my old air cooled VW in the 1980s. My wife can kill a transmission while the engine is still pulling strong, or the car rusts away, body integrity fails, etc.

I've started just changing the oil when it tells me to (light on dash) for my "new" (10 year old) Honda. I do my Dodge truck every 3k or every year. The other vehicles (tractors, trucks, SUV) get changed by the calendar rather than by the hour/mile since I've got several older vehicles that don't get driven as much as the truck and the Honda.

That's pretty ideal driving situation, especially if you keep it in an enclosed garage, I would run it as many miles as the manufacturer recommends. Does it have an onboard computer that calculates oil life?

Everything with an engine and wheels is kept in an enclosed garage.

When the oil life on the 2004 Malibu computer shows it's time, the oil will look like tar and be a quart and a half low. I change it every 3k. At 4k it will be a half quart low, at 5k it will be a quart and a half low. So my cars and truck get changed at 3k. So much for trusting the computer.

As for tractors and mowers, I watch the color of the oil and when engine begins using oil. Some engines the oil will turn dark and begin using at 60 hrs, others will go 100 hrs.

Things that don't get used a lot, 4 cycle weed wacker, Generators, leaf vac, mowers, pressure washers get a change once a year

One tractor only had 60 hrs on it in 18 months. I recently changed it and and there was condensation in oil and on the oil fill cap. So frequent oil changes won't hurt a thing. May save an engine in the long run. Oil changes is cheap, can't see pushing it.

My 2014 Focus has the automatic reminder that changes the interval depending on the type of driving. My wife used to do a typical 15 mile commute and it would indicate a change every 10-11k miles. The owner's manual does stipulate using a 'blend' oil (half synthetic and half organic).

JF, synthetic blends may have as little as 5% synthetic and 95% dino oil. Check bobistheoilguy.com and do a little research on "blends".

I used to change car and truck at 2K and tractors at 50 hours. Now I change the Sienna at 10K and the truck at 7500. I do the tractors at 100 hours or everything once a year.

I change engine oil every 10k miles on my current truck. Just as I did on my previous truck. Both Tundras. Both V8s. 4.6L & 5.7L respectively. My son has the older one with about 460000 miles on it and the "new" one, which I have is just coming up on 310,000 miles. I use 0W20 Mobil 1 and Toyota filters. Why not? $5.50 cheap. The engine does hold 8 1/2 quarts of oil which helps a lot. The oil coming out looks as good as the oil going in. If I had an old tractor sitting around, that's where that drain oil would go!

2001 Focus, DOHC engine, 5 speed, 340K miles.

First 7 years of it's life, had a 70 mile round trip commute, plant closed, now it's a 135 mile round trip.

Mobil 1 every 12k miles, still doesn't burn any oil.Couple small leaks, I overfill 1/2 quart (4.5 qt capacity, 5qt jug) still at the full line or above when I change oil.

Parked outside, got a mile of gravel road back to the house. Change air filter every other oil change, blow it out otherwise.

Car doesn't owe me a dime, only left me on the side of the road once. My fault, heard a whine under the hood, thought"i'll get to it this weekend" cost me $350 to have it hooked to a dealership to get a $20 idler pulley replaced.

My 2 cents

Fred

I change oil & filter in my 06 Chevy Impala 3.9 V6 every 3,500 miles with 10-30 conventional oil. The 97 GMC K 1500 with 5.7 V8 also gets oil and filter changed every 3,500 with Rotella 15-40 oil.

(quoted from post at 14:29:19 03/14/16) Synthetic can help w/ breakdown, but not w/ the amount of dirt/contaminants that get in your oil.

Do you live on dirt or paved roads?

I use the dead-dino juice and change at the "severe driving" recomdations, but I

take short trips (10 miles is normal drive),
in extreme cold (SD),
and live on a dirt road

Any one of these is "severe", so even if I paid for the synthetic I'd still have dirt and combustion by-products in my oil, and water that isn't getting boiled out.


That said, I haven't lost a vehicle to oil-failure since I spun a rod in my old air cooled VW in the 1980s. My wife can kill a transmission while the engine is still pulling strong, or the car rusts away, body integrity fails, etc.

I've started just changing the oil when it tells me to (light on dash) for my "new" (10 year old) Honda. I do my Dodge truck every 3k or every year. The other vehicles (tractors, trucks, SUV) get changed by the calendar rather than by the hour/mile since I've got several older vehicles that don't get driven as much as the truck and the Honda.

Click to expand...

Early oil changes......That was a true statement in 1957... But far from it today... Cars are sealed up very well, no leaks, no open breathers, modern oil and NO SLUDGE from using a GOOD oil... Closed ventilation systems make is impossible for dirt to get into the oil. No parrifin or wax buildups.. No breakdown of good oils, detergents to keep microsopic particles from clumping together means the oil will stay almost clear for 5,000 miles, and have minor coloration at 7,500 miles.. Full synthetic oils on healthy engines can go the full 10,000 miles and some oil manufactures will even guarantee the 10k change. Run cheap oil, change really often. Have a worn out engine with lots of piston blowby, from running cheap oil, change it often. Run a high quality oil and CONSUMER REPORTS says your wasting your money if change more often than 7500 to 10,000 miles and even harming the environment by wasting oil. This assumes you can expect to get between 150,000 to 250,000 miles out of your engine. GOOD simi synthetic oils are everywhere and give 90% of the service of fully synthetic oils. Short trips dont burn off the condensation in the oil,, GOOD oils now have an extremely high base additive that prevents acids from building up. Reduced sulfur in the fuel also stops the creation of sulfuric acids as well. The closed crankcase with continuous vacuum on it also prevents the moisture build up. If you drive only short trips and your worried, change every 7500 miles. There are some test engines/vehicles out there that have run a million miles on hd oils. Two of them NEVER had oil changes, only makeup oil added when filters were changed... The quick lube places may or may not put a GOOD oil in your vehicle. If you change oil every 3000 miles you wasting your money. assumes a good engine). I had a engine in the 50s that burn a quart of oil every 500 miles, but it had tons of blowby and no compression. Didnt have to change the oil as it was always new.

I still change the oil in all my vehicles every 3,000 miles. It's been working for me for 45 years so I don't see the point in fixing what ain't broke. My kids have all lost engines listening to all the hype instead of remembering what the old man told them. One of these day's the old man won't be around to fix what shoulden't have happened.

I wouldn't push my GMC much past 3,500 mile oil change ( 15-40 Rotella). The truck has less than 80,000 miles and in top shape and pulls a 24 foot deck over weighing 4,200 lbs. with an 8,000lb tractor. The oil at 3,500 looks brown and is starting to break down and will start to use a little oil. If I change a 3,000 to 3,500 miles no problem.

Normal service 3to 4K in your case 5K. Synthetic does not extend the oil life. Extended oil change recommendations get the manufactures credits toward mileage, Those recommendations are are based toward oil conservation and emissions.

Your call its a high price to pay if your engine suffers from extended oil changes.

The manufacturers will also get mpg credits for adopting efficient technologies that often show no effect on the official test cycles.

http://www.caranddriver.com/feature...e-of-the-new-fuel-economy-regulations-feature

Agreed you don't get sludge using good oil - you get sludge from poor designs. Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen have had their share of sludge issues and it had nothing to do with the oil. But changing it more often would have prevented the sludge issues that plagued their designed and saved consumers millions (billions?).

Consumer Reports is the same outfit that declared Audis had the magical ability to accelerate in reverse, they are also the same ones that invented the Alar scare. Apparently the oil companies don't advertise with them enough to get favorable reporting.

The short of is that synthetics have the ability to carry more dirt and resist higher temperature extremes - nothing else. Your car's oil isn't "cleaner" because you run synthetic - driving it 5000-10000 miles simply means you oil is extremely dirty but hopefully isn't leaving it behind in deposits of sludge. The new variable valve timing systems use oil and oil pressure to control their cam phasers and they do not function well with dirty oil. GM learned this with their 3.6 engine, Ford learned it with their 5.4 engine - Chrysler didn't learn anything. If you have a "modern" engine with VVT 3000 mile oil changes are cheap compared to the repair cost these engines will need if you try to use extended mileage oil changes to save a few dollars.

i change oil in everything between 3000 to 3500 miles, everything means from the wife's 2015, which i havent even driven to my 5 trucks dating from the early 1990's back to 1971 , it works, i do it, dad did it, grampa did it,

So what did we learn? Absolutely nothing. I guess every man to his own opinion. Every car and every situation is different. I usually go every 5k and change filter at same time. All tractors at least once a year.

Another question where no one will agree and no one will be wrong.

Heck even the cars can't agree !
My wife and Daughter have the same exact cars just different colors. They have oil change indexes and my Daughters had a lot more miles on it at 30% oil life than the wifes ! It was really getting up there and I didn't like that many miles on it especially for the first oil change ! Were following the MFG recommendations so if/when it blows up I hope they will pay for it. Yea right ! LOL.

Consumers Report? I put as much faith in them as I do a politician!

I do 3K changes. When we traded in the last one, 2 years ago, it had 312000 on the odometer on the original, never opened up engine, GAS!!! Prior to that we traded one with 212K, one at 235K and another at 245K all with original never opened up engines. Consumer Report says between 150 and 200K? Guess I'm going to stay with a change interval that will allow me to do better than 150-200K.

Rick

Some people are still living in the era of carburated gasoline engines with manual choke, points ignition and leaded fuel.
Today's fuel injected engines burning clean unleaded gasoline do not polute the oil with contaminates.

What happens when it does. I can tell you once you have a oil contamination problem are issues cased by extended oil service intervals you are stuck with it, its to late to change the oil more often....