You should change your oil every 3000 miles - or should you?

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:19 pm

Automotive dealers in this country are really smart. They managed to create public opinion that gives them return service customers three times more often than in any other part of the world. Huge money are made on this. It is probably the biggest source of dealership income.

I got tired explaining to people in this country that they don’t have to change the oil every 3000 miles. I got tired explaining that this does not do any good to their engines and hurts their wallets and our shared environment. I got tired explaining that manufacturers spend millions and millions on research and testing to make cars more reliable and to decrease cost of ownership, including increasing service intervals and decreasing service complexity.

And dealers did not spend a penny on the research. They are smarter. They spend just small part of those huge sums on supporting the lie that became a common knowledge among American drivers. They get even smarter. When you tell them what your owner’s manual says about oil change interval, they reply “you know, we have severe driving conditions here”. In DC area?! Come on, this is not Alaska, and not New Mexico. But people keep going to dealerships every 3000 miles to waste their dollars and spoil the environment.

A quote from Honda website (bold mine):

Quote:

How often should I change my oil after the first service?

Refer to your owner's manual for the recommended service intervals. Separate maintenance schedules are listed for "normal service" and "severe service." Read the description of severe service carefully. Most vehicles will fall under the normal service category. Note that the service intervals are listed by time in addition to distance. Your oil should be changed at whichever interval, time or distance, occurs first.

There is absolutely no benefit in changing your oil more frequently than recommended in your owner's manual. This will only increase your cost of ownership, and create an unnecessary burden upon the environment by increasing the amount of disposed oil.

Do not exceed the recommended maintenance interval. Oil eventually deteriorates and loses its ability to protect your engine, due to heat, friction, and exposure to exhaust components. Engine oil contains special additives to enhance the oil's performance, and these additives are also broken down or consumed with distance and time. Engine damage can occur if the proper maintenance schedule is not followed.

Driver Joined: Sep 25, 2006 Posts: 107

hmmm

I've changed oil in a lot of different vehicles. In my civics, I've never had a problem waiting 5 or 6 thousand BUT...

My wife drove a 98 Saturn when we met. I started changing the oil for her and noticed that within 2000 or 3000 miles it turned to sludge. I don't mean that it stopped being clear. Its color and texture turned to something like chocolate syrup!

Not only that, but if you took off the oil filler cap and looked inside the engine, it was just BLACK from deposits.

I never did figure out what was up with that car. I just managed to get blue book value for it and walked away from Saturns forever!

btw.. I didn't cheat anyone selling the car. A tree fell on it scratching the heck out of the paint. I subtracted the insurance check from the price of the car when I sold it. Some guy loved saturns and was happy to drive away in a 98 for $1100

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:39 pm

I would say either you were using a junk oil, or it was a junk car. Or both Smile

And using junk oil is a flip side of this practice, by the way. If you change it after 3000 miles you don't really care to get the quality one, you care to get the cheapiest one...

Member Joined: Nov 15, 2006 Posts: 18

From the constant cold-hot cycles the oil breaks down, and losed it's properties. If you use quality parts yes it is possible to go for long periods of time, but why? Aged oil becomes sludge, it is a proven fact. I've seen cars that were super heavily sludged up from just sitting on a parking lot for a really long time. Most drivers, 5000 is fine, for me it is 3000. I like my car too much to not change my oil frequently, even if doesn't do much, I still feel better.

New member Joined: Dec 31, 2009 Posts: 8

Most newer vehicles have sensors built into the engine that can sense when it is time to change the oil. I recently bought a Chevy Equinox and it is supposed to need an oil change around every 10,000 miles. Always refer to your manual to find out if your change oil light is sensor activated, or if it is mileage activated.

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:59 am

But they still are saying you at the dealership you should do this every 3000 miles, just to be safe - aren't they? Wink

New member Joined: Dec 31, 2009 Posts: 8

Actually, my dealership told me it's every 10,000 miles. The OnStar diagnostic keeps track as well. I think the dealers may be easing up a bit to make the vehicles look more appealing.

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 5:34 pm

Cool, so may be my rant is finally getting outdated LOL

New member Joined: Dec 31, 2009 Posts: 8

LOL! I just think have to do anything they can to make the car sound appealing. GM in particular.

New member Joined: Mar 10, 2010 Posts: 1

I didn't know that you don't need to change your car's oil every 30,000 miles so that's good to know. Thanks for the info and I can see what you mean about how hard that can be on the environment when you have millions of people doing that.

LINK SNIPPED

Active member Joined: May 23, 2010 Posts: 54

OK, here's a question for you car folk...we live very close to my wife's work, so she doesn't put many miles on her car. This is in San Diego, CA, USA, so the weather is pretty mild year round.

It can take, just an offhand guess, over six months for her to go 5,000 miles. So, when it comes to changing oil is there a time frame that should be used for low mileage drivers? Three times a year? Or is mileage the only determining factor?

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 9:52 am

If you read your manual, most likely it says: "... or every half a year, whichever comes first". I use synthetic oil and shoot for every year Smile

Active member Joined: May 23, 2010 Posts: 54

Ok, thanks...I didn't know if I could trust the manual or not when it comes to oil changes. So once a year should be fine (with high quality oil). Smile