5w30 Pennzoil Platinum, 2007 Mazda CX7. 1677 miles

[astraelraen]

5 month, 1677 mile oil change.
I was kinda suspecting my fuel would be a lot higher as this OCI was 99% trips less than 5 miles with barely any warm up over winter months, but its not. I suppose the viscosity is pretty low in the range from the numbers given. I am no oil guru though. Dissect as you will.

This may have actually been Mobil1 5w30, but I'm pretty sure its PP 5w30 as I bought some PP and don't have the jug anymore and didn't use it in my wife's car.

 

[Scott P]

Why such a short interval? Was it just because of the short trips?

 

[Bill in Utah]

With the engine still being new I'm not sure some of those numbers are not just break in.

No matter what oil I use *if* the car is being used for short trips, I WILL be changing the oil every 6 months AT LEAST.

My last UOA with the Subaru (a engine known to be easy on the oil) came back poor since it had 8 months on it.. (and only 4.4k miles) It had syn in it.

If you are only driving 1700 miles every 5k, I'd really recommend saving the $$ and just use any brand name SM oil and change it every 5-6months.

Wasting the $$ for syn here IMO unless you are paying under a buck a quart.

Take care, bill

 

[buster]

Quote:
No matter what oil I use *if* the car is being used for short trips, I WILL be changing the oil every 6 months AT LEAST.


I'm with you.

 

[sunfire]

You did an oil change in the January winter?

 

[Eddie]

See my CX7 UOA on this NG. I had 12,000 miles on my engine (6,000 mile UOA) and it is obvious that the engine is still in the breakin stage. I think you are doing fine for only ~ 5,500 total miles and too early to make anything more than guesses. My plan is to continue the 6K OC and do a UOA at ~ 24,000 Mi. I'm hoping the breakin wear metals will be very subduded by that time.

 

[astraelraen]

Originally Posted By: sunfire
You did an oil change in the January winter?


Its called a garage, I park my cars in it.

I drive about 7 miles per day back and forth to work. I rarely drive this vehicle on the weekend, although I have been more since this oil change.

The max OCI Mazda specifies is 6 months. I hit roughly 5-5.5 months and decided to go ahead and change it.

I put some German Castrol 0w30 in it this time. I'm seriously considering running conventional 5w30 next time if I don't see my mileage interval increasing all that much.

I could probably change out my oil 4x a year with conventional with some of the prices I've seen lately and still have the same cost as 2x a year synthetic.

If synthetic did fine over this OCI which was during the cold winter with 100% short driving with the engine barely if ever reaching operating temp, I would imagine conventional would be fine. I suppose I was "hoping" for more "dramatic" results.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: astraelraen
Originally Posted By: sunfire
You did an oil change in the January winter?


Its called a garage, I park my cars in it.

Same here. Time of the year does not matter to me.

Personally, I'd use 5w-30 (or 5w-20 if its spec'd in the manual) and change it out every 4-6 months.

Take care, bill

 

[astraelraen]

5w30 is specced in the manual. I think I just have a fear of using conventional oil for a 4-6 month OCI in a turbo application.

I suppose I fear the "turbo heat of doom" as I will call it.

I do not go around racing my car. But it sees practically 100% short trips and our summers are hot and the winters are cold. I believe my car is absolutely severe service. But I am trying to take the "normal" maintenance schedule of every 6 months or 7500 miles. Will conventional do this? I suppose the only way to know is to try it out.

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: astraelraen
5w30 is specced in the manual. I think I just have a fear of using conventional oil for a 4-6 month OCI in a turbo application.

I suppose I fear the "turbo heat of doom" as I will call it.

I do not go around racing my car. But it sees practically 100% short trips and our summers are hot and the winters are cold. I believe my car is absolutely severe service. But I am trying to take the "normal" maintenance schedule of every 6 months or 7500 miles. Will conventional do this? I suppose the only way to know is to try it out.


I'm with you on that, but I think Dino+AutoRX could probably handle it.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Does the manual state you have to run Syn?

I think most the time the problems with turbos and conventional oil is that the owner does not spool down the turbo after getting off the freeway. They just shut down the engine.

Plus most car turbos are water cooled I think.

I do know at my last place of employment we had hundreds of turbos and they did a test to go to syn over the normal diesel oils we had been using for years and found no benefits of the syn and in fact a few problems with the more expensive oils. This was over quite a few engines and a lot of miles.

Since I live in Utah and I know about the heat and cold. I doubt with your use and where we live, that 7500 mile or 6mo is possible. The short trips really kill it.

I know in my NA Subaru (again, real easy on the oil engine) my last UOA (using 5w-30 PP) which was for 8-9 months and around 4k miles was not good. The previous UOA (Halvoline DS 5w-30) was much shorter time but more miles was better.

Here are the UOAs.

I doubt the air filter would be a problem, but it looked dirty so I changed it.

My plan with the Subaru is to change the oil in the next few weeks, (it will have about 2500 miles on it) put in more PP (since I bought a lot of it when on sale for 99 cents a quart) go on my trip to MT/Canada next month and run the oil out to 5k mile s or 4-5 months whichever comes up first. Then do a UOA on that oil.

If the UOA comes back bad, then I'll try halovine again and see where we go. In the mix, I think I have a coolant leak on the drivers side bank so if that is the case, I'll be doing some short OCI after they fix it....

Back to you... (sorry rambling)

I really think that the short trips hurt.

What does your manual state for OCI, oil type and such? (for severe service?)

Take care, bill

 

[astraelraen]

Synthetic is not required by Mazda for the engine.

Severe service is 4m/5k miles
Normal service is 6m/7.5k miles

I suppose that the cost of doing 3 or 4 conventional oil changes would be roughly the same or less than 2x synthetic changes, since I haven't seen those spectacular prices of synthetic.

I keep coming back to the same point though, if synthetic sees 4000 miles worth of wear in only 1677 miles. What will conventional look like? The only good answer I have is try it and find out. Then I ask myself the question if its worth it.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Well, I do feel that in short trip use no MATTER what TYPE of oil you use you need to get it changed out more often.

If you feel better with syn then use it.

There seems to be a mindset with some here that we are wasting our time with UOAs. (see other thread)

I have taken many an engine well past 200k using under a buck oil and changing it. Never did a UOA until I came here.

This board has cost me more $$ in oil and UOAs in the last 5 years than ALL of my oil changes for 25 years.

Do you have a Checkers up there? They sometimes have PP on sale for 99 cents a quart one case max (so 6 quarts) per month.

I've never had a turbo so I can not comment. I do know most turbos out there in passenger cars/trucks are lucky to see oil changes every 5-7k and they use whatever the Iffy lube puts in.

They seem to keep driving down the road. (I have a co-worker with a turbo K-car with at least 400k on it. Still running and rusting away...)

Maybe a blend every 4 months would be best? Maybe 75% of conventional and throw in a quart of syn?

Take care, bill

 

[MysticGold04]

Wow.. severe in the owners manual is 5k? No sweat here, I'd run what brand name you could get on sale (Pennz, Shell, Chevron) for the 5k or 6 month interval and call it good. Then of course UOA to verify all is well. Does your CX-7 have an oil life monitor?

 

[blackdiamond]

I wonder if Blackstone is comparing your engine to the standard non-turbo 2.3L. If so, that is like apples and oranges. I have a Mazdaspeed3 so I'm a little bit familiar with your CX-7 engine.

It's been a while since I spent any time on the forum, but it was looking like the 2.3L Turbo DISI was looking to be hard on oil and I would personally be somewhat conservative on oil choice. I'm running 5w-30 PP after getting a UOA done early on. I believe there is justification to use a quality synthetic oil for additional protection.

I love to drive a CX-7 and see how it feels compared to its little cousin.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Bill I would almost bet that this engine would do great on RTS 5W40!I know you like Dino but I think dino 15W40 would kill the gas millage until it was up to operateing temp and it would not be a year round oil as it might get too cold int he winter for that engine with 15W40. For $.99 a quart thought I do not see where you are not getting your moneys worth though! I would love to be able to get any synthetic for $.99 not going to move to Utah though just for good oil deals!LOL

It would be interesting to see how Rotella 10W30 dino oil did it is prety beefy in the additive department! Another contender for cool comparison would be Valvoline SAE30 SM.