4,000 mile oil change interval (with Synthetic) from now on.

It like this - I have a vehicle which I really like - Leather, sunroof, heated seates, navigation screen, DVD screen in middle row for the kids, handles very nimbly for a van (kind of like a sports car LOL), is really fun to drive, etc. Its an older model, but I really like it.
Just spend some money fixing the sliding doors. Just want to keep it another 10 years. Its a 2006.
Some people think I'm crazy, but I really like the vehicle. I watched a youtube video about how the transmission filter is easily changeable but usually no one ever changes it, and it disintegrates over time which goes into your transmission which is really bad. So I ordered the transmission filter from Honda for $28, and will have it installed. You just remove the battery and the air filter housing, and then it's easy to change.
Things like that are worth the money in my opinion. I get all my genuine Honda parts wholesale from internet, and have a good mechanic who doeesn't mind that I bring my own parts. Better in my opinion than letting some other mechanic buy cheap aftermarket parts and mark them up 100% on the invoice. If I get 1 bad caliper, I replace both, as when brake caliper fails, it fries the rotors and pads. I buy the new parts (not the remanufactured). Had a bad experience with a remanufactored brake caliper that only lasted 2 years. I change the air filter annually. As you say, it's good to maintain all aspects of the car.
 
One other unintended benefit from 4k oil changes is you are less likely to have a blown engine from not checking your oil and being unaware that your engine is using oil until suddenly you have 0 oil left in your engine. This happened to a few people I know. They were unaware that their car was using oil, just followed their Maintenance minder on dashboard, which was recommending something like 7k oil changes, and their engine ran out of oil.
 
It's really up to you, you are the captain of your ship, you make the decisions on vehicle maintenance and oil changes, etc. If you want to go 10k on an oil change, its your right. But whenever I buy a car for a my college aged kids, I always do the car fax, and the first thing I look for on the car fax is how often the oil was changed. The car fax does list that most of the time if people got their oil changed at dealerships or modern gas stations or Jiffy Lubes, etc. If I saw on the car fax that oil was changed every 10k miles, it would be a disqualifier honestly.
 
Bill7 said:
One other unintended benefit from 4k oil changes is you are less likely to have a blown engine from not checking your oil and being unaware that your engine is using oil until suddenly you have 0 oil left in your engine. This happened to a few people I know. They were unaware that their car was using oil, just followed their Maintenance minder on dashboard, which was recommending something like 7k oil changes, and their engine ran out of oil.
Click to expand...

People who don't check their oil for 7K miles are not likely to change it at 4K.
 
You would never want anything of mine, I don’t let the destructive dealer techs and quick lube places touch my stuff (although they tear up the company vans enough to make up for it), so no Carfax on them. Why not change it with cheap or free (clearance/rebate) syn every 1500-2000? I’m sure a cheap fellow BITOGer would take that used “Mobil 2” off your hands & run it!
 
Bill7 said:
I just wanted to share my "Zero-Sludge" strategy for oil changes going forward.
I'll be changing my oil every 4,000 miles with PUP Synthetic (5 quart jug from Walmart) from now on, and changing my PCV valve every 30,000 miles.
I started the regiment with an engine flush (Liqui Moly) to clean out the engine first.

I think oil testing labs that are telling people with 10k oil change intervals that their oil is still good for another X thousand miles, are missing the point.
The amount of sludge in your engine is proportional to how many miles you go between oil changes.
Sludge is that gooey black thick formation all over the inside of your engine which clogs oil passageways and causes lower oil pressure which can really
harm an engine over the long term.

I read so many posts on BITOG about people that are so proud that they are going 7500, 10000, 12000, 15000 OCI's and testing labs saying their oil is still good.
The focus should not be on how long you can go without an oil change, but instead how clean is the inside of your engine.

Think about it this way. If you were going to buy a used car, would you prefer the previous owner did 3k to 4k oil changes, or 15k oil changes.

Bill
Click to expand...
I don't exceed 4k either (usually 3k nowadays). Even doing 5-6k oil changes, after 100k I started seeing some deposits, I want my engine to last 500k or even a million miles, clean oil, along with sufficient viscosity is the only way to achieve that.
 
Bill7 said:
I just wanted to share my "Zero-Sludge" strategy for oil changes going forward.
I'll be changing my oil every 4,000 miles with PUP Synthetic (5 quart jug from Walmart) from now on, and changing my PCV valve every 30,000 miles.
I started the regiment with an engine flush (Liqui Moly) to clean out the engine first.

I think oil testing labs that are telling people with 10k oil change intervals that their oil is still good for another X thousand miles, are missing the point.
The amount of sludge in your engine is proportional to how many miles you go between oil changes.
Sludge is that gooey black thick formation all over the inside of your engine which clogs oil passageways and causes lower oil pressure which can really
harm an engine over the long term.

I read so many posts on BITOG about people that are so proud that they are going 7500, 10000, 12000, 15000 OCI's and testing labs saying their oil is still good.
The focus should not be on how long you can go without an oil change, but instead how clean is the inside of your engine.

Think about it this way. If you were going to buy a used car, would you prefer the previous owner did 3k to 4k oil changes, or 15k oil changes.

Bill
Click to expand...
Bill7: That 4K OCI should work well. But wondering what your driving patterns are like and what your prior OCI and OLM % remaining were before this new oil change regimen. Photo is of my 06 Odyssey 3.5 VCM engine with 155K miles. Has had regular synthetic oil changes since the beginning. Just replaced PCV valve on it over the weekend. Note how the hotter front bank gets varnished much more than the rear bank which does not run as often due to VCM.

B2455BC2-1103-43EC-B032-F8D1FA4D44CB.jpeg
 
Causes of Sludge.
Engine problems.
EGR
Check engine light
Thermostat staying open
Short trips under 3 miles
Humidity
Dusty Condition
Fuel in oil
Wrong oil spec
And lastly oil change interval
You can run the best oil and change monthly and still get sludge. After 40 years I have seen all kinds of Sludge from Toyota, Chevy, Dodge, Ford you name it. Lots of used engines have sludge from sitting in junkyard. I do once a year or 200 hours although last was 239 hours. Engine is clean as new. Brother had a Chevy V8 in his 96 that got changed at 3k and it was full of Sludge with 240k all interstate. Remember oil is just one factor of many. I am sure I missed something.
 
Bill7 said:
I just wanted to share my "Zero-Sludge" strategy for oil changes going forward.
I'll be changing my oil every 4,000 miles with PUP Synthetic (5 quart jug from Walmart) from now on, and changing my PCV valve every 30,000 miles.
I started the regiment with an engine flush (Liqui Moly) to clean out the engine first.

I think oil testing labs that are telling people with 10k oil change intervals that their oil is still good for another X thousand miles, are missing the point.
The amount of sludge in your engine is proportional to how many miles you go between oil changes.
Sludge is that gooey black thick formation all over the inside of your engine which clogs oil passageways and causes lower oil pressure which can really
harm an engine over the long term.

I read so many posts on BITOG about people that are so proud that they are going 7500, 10000, 12000, 15000 OCI's and testing labs saying their oil is still good.
The focus should not be on how long you can go without an oil change, but instead how clean is the inside of your engine.

Think about it this way. If you were going to buy a used car, would you prefer the previous owner did 3k to 4k oil changes, or 15k oil changes.

Bill
Click to expand...
I find once every quarter (approx 2,500 miles) works well for me.

It's especially helpful because it removes the crud and moisture which occurs during different seasons. Winter/Spring - dumps moisture accumulation. Spring/Summer - removes moisture if it stays cold if spring comes later and I want the oil to be in good shape for hot summer driving. Summer/Fall - The oil is surely spent because the summers in Atlanta are just brutal on an engine. The humidity is really bad and I'm sure some of it gets past the rings via blow-by. These direct injection engines just use so much pressure. Fall/Winter - Sometimes we get "Indian Summers" so the temp can be higher than normal consequently I want fresh oil in the sump which can handle moisture accumulation during the winter.
 
I believe I drive in a manner which is easy. I do not "beat on" vehicles.
I've been "blessed" with needing to make regular 4 hour trips all my driving life.
My 7,500 mile OCIs on synthetic oils have yielded good oil analyses which claim I have "20% life remaining" (paraphrasing)
Tomorrow I set out on a trip which'll get my oil to 8,500 miles old.
The following analysis will set the world straight.
Watch for it.
 
Bill7 said:
It like this - I have a vehicle which I really like - Leather, sunroof, heated seates, navigation screen, DVD screen in middle row for the kids, handles very nimbly for a van (kind of like a sports car LOL), is really fun to drive, etc. Its an older model, but I really like it.
Click to expand...


I just bought a vehicle that I've always wanted. It's in quite nice shape. A few more options than I'd prefer. But lets face it, it's a daily driven NY car. It will rust out before anything else wears out.

I'll give it 6K mile changes using ST synthetic (factory interval is 5K) and go up from there. There's plenty of data that my engine is quite easy on oil (Ford 4.6 2v modular). I don't see a reason why I can't do yearly (10k) oil changes on this vehicle and have engine outlast the body.
 
The other thing is that an "optimal" OCI is highly dependent on the engine design and operation, and also dependent on the particular oil being used. An oil with demanding approvals is going to be a better oil than one without.

Here is a thread I started when I changed out the valve cover gasket on my old 1NZ-FE engine at 280,000 miles. This engine has had an average OCI of about 10,000 miles since new. As a contrast, over the years I have posted pictures of my equally old 1MZ-FE engine (now at over 450,000 miles) and that engine has had a much shorter OCI than the ECHO. The pictures from the 1MZ-FE seem to have been lost to the vagrancies of 3-party hosting but they showed a very different story.

So a blanket statement that some arbitrary OCI is optimal for everything is not warranted.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/1nz-fe-under-valve-cover-280-000-miles.306384/
 
Over the years I have found that some brands of oil (can't explain why) simply turn dark within a short period. When I changed oil brands this did not happen. Did some research and found this is exactly a characteristic of certain oils. Of course we don't want dark oil so I stuck with one that does not turn dark so quickly. When my oil looked like it was turning dark in the past, I always wanted to change it soon regardless the miles.
 
OCI on the wife's impreza crosstrek 2 litre driven 1700-2000 miles per month with a 2 hour (rt) daily commute.
With the right oil engine was clean as a whistle. Of course, I didnt remove the pistons and look at the ringlands
since it was operating well and providing good power and excellent F.E.
This is not a "problem' engine.

Problem engines and driving habits need special care and feeding, unfortunately
 
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