13,000 miles on cheap dino !!!

[hattaresguy]

A few years ago I remember a young guy bought a decent 500SEL on a Mercedes forum I read.

He wasn't the brightest light bulb in the box, and not a good mechanic but he had good intentions.

Anyway he got the idea in his head that the motor needed to be flushed for some reason after every oil change. So he would drain the oil, and refill the motor with kerosene and a little ATF, than run it for a few minutes and drain. That poor old M117 held up to this abuse two or three times, eventually the timing chain tensioner let go and the motor eat its valves at idle. Kerosene just didn't develop enough oil pressure to pump it up.

I guess you could say in the end he fixed it until it broke!

 

[greenbalot]

i remember a friend of mine pulling the dipstick to check the oil level for her mom's car and her mom acted like she was the best thing since sliced bread.

it's pretty sad seeing a lot of people who don't understand the value of maintaining cars : yes they are mechanical and are subject to failure, but a lot of times cars endure far more abuse than needed all because of ignorance.

 

[vtb]

My sister in law has a Ford Escape with around 30-40K on it. I asked her in December how she likes the vehicle, etc., when her last oil change was. She replied not since she bought it, which was in 2009. She's put over 25K on it in that time, mostly city driving, in the NE US.

I offered to change it (planned to give it Motorcraft and new filter), but it was at my in-laws house, and my FIL was nervous about me getting the garage dirty.

She went to a quickie lube a month later.

 

[MuzzleFlash40]

A firend of mine started working at the prison with me in 2007. We changed the oil in his 98 ranger. Now 4 years later and driving 50 mile round trips to work everyday and he is still on the same oil change. Thank the oil gods that we used mobil 1 and a mobil 1 filter but I would hate to think how many miles are on that oil change.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: MuzzleFlash40
A friend of mine started working at the prison with me in 2007. We changed the oil in his 98 ranger. Now 4 years later and driving 50 mile round trips to work everyday and he is still on the same oil change. Thank the oil gods that we used mobil 1 and a mobil 1 filter but I would hate to think how many miles are on that oil change.


This is why I would never buy a used car without service records..I would rather buy a high mileage police cruiser in good condition with service records then a low mileage private owner car without any records..Yet I see people here all the time buying cars with zero service records.

 

[MuzzleFlash40]

+1


I'm probably going to pick an old cruiser from the ohio state patrol. We can get first dibs on one before they go to auction. They all have about 100k. So it would be a great work car and save the wear and tear on my marquis

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: MuzzleFlash40
A firend of mine started working at the prison with me in 2007. We changed the oil in his 98 ranger. Now 4 years later and driving 50 mile round trips to work everyday and he is still on the same oil change. Thank the oil gods that we used mobil 1 and a mobil 1 filter but I would hate to think how many miles are on that oil change.


By my rough calculation, over 50k.

Honestly, I'd be more worried about the level of the oil, rather than the shape - I wonder if it gets topped off?

 

[TomYoung]

Originally Posted By: Winston

quote:

---

In shop class in high school we pulled apart some small block Chevies where the V underneath the intake manifold was completely filled with sludge.

---

In my shop class in high school, EVERY engine that was being rebuilt had to have the sludge scraped out with a putty knife from the, block vee, from the heads, from the oil pan. Back then, I thought that was normal.
Back then, it probably was normal!

 

[LeakySeals]

In the early 90's I was a field engineer for Sun Micro. They gave us all $400 a month car allowance. One guy on my crew bought a brand new Pontiac Firebird Formula with a 305. Break in oil only, he beat that car mercilessly for almost a year never checking the oil. 90mph for an hour in 100 degree heat, dead of winter in downtown Boston. Smoking the tires for no reason. One day I get a call to pick him up - at the scene of a car fire - the Formula. The odometer read 37,755. I will never forget that number.

 

[addyguy]

Bumping this AWESOME thread for the benefit of new members that won't have seen it.

 

[focused]

While in the service my '52 Ford made regular, high speed trips to the city, burning/leaking much oil in the process. I usually added cheap oil, but forgot to check the level one Friday before departing.

The motor became very hot and began to smoke, so I exited the freeway and pulled into a service station. When I lifted the hood, smoke billowed out, so I stepped aside to let the motor cool before I checked the level. A kid - maybe 10 or 11 years old - came over from the next car and started badmouthing my car.

Suddenly, the oil filler cap blew 20' in the air, and hot oil sprayed the kid from his head to his chest. My buddies and I couldn't stop laughing, and the kid was too surprised to even cry.

We added fresh oil but only got a few miles down the road before that poor, abused, car finally died.

 

[dave1251]

Why resurrect this old thread? 13K OCI's on conventional is only 5 years away from the manufactures recommended interval? Some are recommending 10K or more already.

 

[addyguy]

Because I like the stories of extreme OCI abuse, like many here do.

Just wanted to see if some new members had some.....

 

[dave1251]

OK you want a abuse story. I know someone who buys vehicles that are at least 10 years old and have around 180K on them each time. Then proceeds to change the oil to 20W-50 or 25W-60 thicker the better and then drives 6 miles or less 95% of the time and with no more than 5 gallons of gas in the tank 100% of the time and then never changes the oil. Also he will keep the oil topped off and will keep the transmission fluid topped off also but only with either type A or type F the lower the spec the better. Transmissions slip all the time and it takes about a minute to accelerate to 60MPH but the amazing part is they do not fail completely and engines will run 6 years and 50K on average. Also he will not spend more than 1K on a vehicle so I believe this should be the definition cheap transportation. So after watching this go on for 10 years I understand most peoples needs to over maintain their vehicle because I have that need also. I also understand if you change conventional oil 1 year or every 10K on your engine it may not be ideal or may be depending on your operating conditions and engine. But even if you did that I will go on a limb and predict the engine will/could still last at least 10 years maybe more. Because I have seen some cars in not so good condition last at least 15 years with the at least the last 5 years of the cars life I would considered "abused".

 

[BrianWC]

Haha I did 12-14k mile OCIs easy in my Fit. My driving is 99% highway but still. Hey, that's when the MM said change it. It never looked dirty or anything. And thing is, I pretty much never used any 5w20 either. Mainly mixes of old pennzoil HM 10W40 SL mixed w/ MMO or a little arx. Think I also used some plain 5W30 SM Valvoline... and always w/ Supertech filters. Thanks for getting rid of those, Wal-Mart! My goal has been to deplete the stash that bitog influence me to accumulate. Except for the first few OCIs of my Fit and Odyssey, I've not bought any oil since a spree of buying up some clearance Maxlife Synth 10W30 in 2007...

Just saying, OCI isn't the only factor in many of these stories...

 

[addyguy]

Just bringing back this thread for the new year.

13k 'abuse' intervals seem to be becoming a hot topic again...LOL!

...althouth, if you listen to dnewton, it doesn't cause problems at all....

 

[snowflake]

as a tow truck driver, you would be amazed how many vehicles I pick up abandoned with locked up motors that have 2-4 empty quarts sitting on the passenger seat.

And how many people I actually see on the side of the interstate adding oil trying to get hte motor to turn over again...

 

[MinamiKotaro]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
Just bringing back this thread for the new year.

13k 'abuse' intervals seem to be becoming a hot topic again...LOL!

...althouth, if you listen to dnewton, it doesn't cause problems at all....


Depends on many things. If you an old Monte Carlo with a carbureted 305 and tried to go 13K on Accel 30ND, you'd have a bad time.

 

[FFeng7]

My brother is a person who doesn't do oil changes too. Well maybe once every two years or so. I used to help him with his car when he lived near me but he moved away so he's on his own for oil changes now. However he does keep his car topped off with oil and like many of the other stories in this thread he seems to have less car problems than I do in general. He usually keeps a car for a few years but not forever. So in the long run his cost of ownership has to be less than mine. Maybe I too over maintain my cars.

 

[Tim13]

How bout a story involving too much oil? I have an idiot bro-n-law who though you had to fill the oil right up to the bottom of the filler cap! He had foamy oil coming out of every seal in the motor!