12,335 miles between synthetic oil changes! Never again!

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I dug up this old video of mine where I'm changing the oil and filter on a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5 S sedan. If you watch until the end, you'll see the mileage since the last oil change which is 12,335 miles. :oops: I only did this once, and you can see how dark the old oil was! I normally change every 7500 miles or twice a year. It doesn't matter if I use dino oil or synthetic or which brand is on sale. I just change it and call it a day. The car has over 212k miles on it today.

 
I dug up this old video of mine where I'm changing the oil and filter on a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5 S sedan. If you watch until the end, you'll see the mileage since the last oil change which is 12,335 miles. :oops: I only did this once, and you can see how black the old oil was! I normally change every 7500 miles or twice a year. It doesn't matter if I use dino oil or synthetic or which brand is on sale. I just change it and call it a day. The car has over 212k miles on it.


What does the blackness of the oil tell you? Do we judge how an oil performed by the color?
 
What does the blackness of the oil tell you? Do we judge how an oil performed by the color?
I know what color new oil is when I pour it in. That tells me that the old oil had a ton of impurities suspended in it, which is one of the reasons why you change motor oil. The motor oil itself might still be OK, but why keep particulates circulating around your engine for so long? I'm not working extra to pay for another engine or another car!
 
I know what color new oil is when I pour it in. That tells me that the old oil had a ton of impurities suspended in it, which is one of the reasons why you change motor oil. The motor oil itself might still be OK, but why keep particulates circulating around your engine for so long? I'm not working extra to pay for another engine or another car!
The only way you could tell is to do an Used Oil Analysis. Anything else is just guessing.
 
The only way you could tell is to do an Used Oil Analysis. Anything else is just guessing.
I agree. This change was done years ago, but I'm not going to wait so long between oil changes. I was using Mobil 1 Synthetic then. I just use whatever is on sale nowadays.
 
I ran 12,397 miles on my 99 Civic using Chevron Delo xle 10w30 which is a synthetic blend, great oil if you can find it but has been getting scarce and price has increased as well, used to be able to get it at Walmart for $12-$13 jug which was even a good deal back then.

It only used 2 qts for topping off.
 
I know what color new oil is when I pour it in. That tells me that the old oil had a ton of impurities suspended in it, which is one of the reasons why you change motor oil. The motor oil itself might still be OK, but why keep particulates circulating around your engine for so long? I'm not working extra to pay for another engine or another car!
With that logic, you should change the oil in diesel engines every 1,000 miles.

Seriously, get a UOA. Some engines are totally fine with longer intervals, some are not.
 
I'm doing 7,500 mile intervals on my '16 Versa so it's good to see you've got higher mileage out of your Nissan using the longer OCI. I'd been doing 5,000 mile intervals for years and just recently started doing 7,500 miles on conventional oil. I'm more concerned about problems with the CVT longevity than I am the engine and am doing 30,000 mile CVT fluid/filter changes.
 
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With that logic, you should change the oil in diesel engines every 1,000 miles.

Seriously, get a UOA. Some engines are totally fine with longer intervals, some are not.
I'm not saying change it as soon as it gets dark. I'm saying change it to get rid of the suspended contaminants that make it dark. At some point, even a filter isn't going to be enough even if the oil itself is still OK. Not going to get a UOA, the car has 212k+ miles. I'll just change it every 7500 because there's always a jug on sale.
 
I'm doing 7,500 mile intervals on my '16 Versa so it's good to see you've got higher mileage out of your Nissan using the longer OCI. I'd been doing 5,000 mile intervals for years and just recently started doing 7,500 miles on conventional oil. I'm more concerned about problems with the CVT longevity than I am the engine and am doing 30,000 mile CVT fluid/filter changes.
Oh yeah, the CVT is the weakpoint in Nissan vehicles. I switched to Valvoline CVT and use the same interval as you, 30k miles or 3 years. I haven't changed the filter, too lazy to figure out where it is. I just unbolt the pan and let it pour out. The owner's manual doesn't even list capacity or interval, no wonder Nissan has so many problems with that generation! People got tricked by the "forever fluid" scam.

 
I'm not saying change it as soon as it gets dark. I'm saying change it to get rid of the suspended contaminants that make it dark. At some point, even a filter isn't going to be enough even if the oil itself is still OK. Not going to get a UOA, the car has 212k+ miles. I'll just change it every 7500 because there's always a jug on sale.
Stop defending yourself . No matter what you do , somebody here will take exception to it .
 
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