Annual oil change?

[NCGuy68]

Why does Amsoil and many others say to change the oil once a year no matter how FEW miles it has seen? I have a LS1 Camaro that only logs around 2K miles per year and I'am running Amsoil 2K series.

Why dump it annually? Am I missing something here?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Moisture condensation and oxidization?

If you're only doing 2k miles, I'd say don't bother with expensive oil. Then again, it's not like once a year oil change will break your bank, even if you use a more fancy oil.

 

[bakechad]

I have a new car that I put <3000 miles per year and I think I am going to use Amsoil. Since I will only change it once a year, I don't think $35 per year in oil is a bad investment.

 

[Drivebelt]

The time period specified for oil changes are really kind of a safety-umbrella to catch someone who does a lot of very short trips or tons of idling (ie. winter). It’s also in relation to the miles specified -- for eg., with a specified 7500 mile OCI, doing only 2-3 mile short trips all the time (harder on oil) might just push the oil a little too hard if one did this for the entire 7500 mile OCI. With a shorter specified OCI like 3000 miles, no problem, a specified time limit becomes less important as the oil has a good safety margin still left over even if it subjected to a lot of short trip driving.

2000miles/year of “normal” wouldn’t be that hard on even the new Group II conventional oils. With a synthetic, I would be willing to double that to 2 years 4000 miles.

My “target” OCI is … 8000km (5000 miles)/ 1 year (1987 Jetta 1.8 gas) with a 5w30 synthetic blend and I will adjust depending on the situation. Shorter km and I will likely go over a year. Been doing this for about 15 years.

My last 2 OCI’s were … (1987 Jetta 1.8 gas 125,000km) …

19 months 4300km (2700miles) … (2 winters lots of idling)
16 months 3800km (2400miles)

I pulled the Jetta 1.8 cam cover last summer (15 months into OCI) and things look very good -- the camshaft area was very clean.

 

[Drivebelt]

dp ...

 

[ARB1977]

This is my first run with Series 2000 ive been doing alot of shorter trips and sometimes more idling during this past winter since this was my first winter in Texas although the oil still looks ok im chaning it out every six months anyway...so i would think and engine that just sits there needs to have its oil changed every year.

 

[greaseball]

I have the same problem with my Corvettes. I don't put on that many miles per year, but The General states that your oil should be changed at least once a year. I did let one Vette go over a year with only 400 mi., so I will wait until Nov. to change it before next winter.