Are early oil changes bad on new cars?

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The truly ironic part of the people claiming that they know the correct answer because they have owned 60 or 87 new cars...

...is - it doesn't matter for you! If you own your car for 2 years - who cares? You could have never changed the oil during the cars life - you're just going to buy another one soon.

Carry-on with another topic that will never be settled.

Oh, should we use 0w20 or 5w30 on our early oil changes?
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Originally Posted By: surfstar
The truly ironic part of the people claiming that they know the correct answer because they have owned 60 or 87 new cars... is - it doesn't matter for you! If you own your car for 2 years - who cares? You could have never changed the oil during the cars life - you're just going to buy another one soon.


Perhaps your assumptions are completely wrong. Maybe I own a lot of cars at any given time and many for long periods of time. For example I just traded a 2001 Ram I owned for 14 years. Perhaps you should stick to what you are good at... surfing.
 
Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
Originally Posted By: surfstar
The truly ironic part of the people claiming that they know the correct answer because they have owned 60 or 87 new cars... is - it doesn't matter for you! If you own your car for 2 years - who cares? You could have never changed the oil during the cars life - you're just going to buy another one soon.


Perhaps your assumptions are completely wrong. Maybe I own a lot of cars at any given time and many for long periods of time. For example I just traded a 2001 Ram I owned for 14 years. Perhaps you should stick to what you are good at... surfing.


So what would you say is your average years of ownership for those 87 cars, then?
 
Originally Posted By: surfstar
Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
Originally Posted By: surfstar
The truly ironic part of the people claiming that they know the correct answer because they have owned 60 or 87 new cars... is - it doesn't matter for you! If you own your car for 2 years - who cares? You could have never changed the oil during the cars life - you're just going to buy another one soon.


Perhaps your assumptions are completely wrong. Maybe I own a lot of cars at any given time and many for long periods of time. For example I just traded a 2001 Ram I owned for 14 years. Perhaps you should stick to what you are good at... surfing.


So what would you say is your average years of ownership for those 87 cars, then?


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Originally Posted By: surfstar
Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
Originally Posted By: surfstar
The truly ironic part of the people claiming that they know the correct answer because they have owned 60 or 87 new cars... is - it doesn't matter for you! If you own your car for 2 years - who cares? You could have never changed the oil during the cars life - you're just going to buy another one soon.


Perhaps your assumptions are completely wrong. Maybe I own a lot of cars at any given time and many for long periods of time. For example I just traded a 2001 Ram I owned for 14 years. Perhaps you should stick to what you are good at... surfing.


So what would you say is your average years of ownership for those 87 cars, then?


Never really sat down and figured it out. I would say that at I owned at least 10 of them for 8 years +. Some I turned over very quickly for a variety of reasons. Others I kept for a 3-4 years. The point I was making it that the basic assumption in your statement was wrong. All of them got their 1st oil change at the 1,000 mile point. At 70 years old with stage 4 cancer, I suspect my high volume purchase days are coming to a close.
 
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Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Does this have an oil cooler?


Yes, and based on suggestions from other places it is either constructed of copper and/or has copper plumbing running to it. Therefore I trust the copper numbers will decrease even more over time.
 
Originally Posted By: doyall
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Does this have an oil cooler?


Yes, and based on suggestions from other places it is either constructed of copper and/or has copper plumbing running to it. Therefore I trust the copper numbers will decrease even more over time.


This was he case with my previous vehicle with a factory oil cooler. Also, isn't Si pretty common in FF?

I don't honestly see justification for an early change in your FF UOA. No reason not to have changed the oil early, but nothing [censored] either, IMO.
 
I change it early, and will continue to do so. I've read hundreds of posts here over the years for and against it. I spoke to people who built engines as well as rebuilt engines and they reinforced my beliefs. I did my new vehicle oil changes early and decided I wanted the break in metals out early. Opinions vary, do your homework and make the choice you feel is best.
 
I didn't on my last new car, the 2014 Mustang GT. I took it to one year from the build date and changed it. Had 4,600 miles on it. From there on out I've used the OLM or one year. The one year has always come first. Car has 25,000 miles on it now. I'm not going to worry about it. I don't pretend to know more than the manufacturer of the engine and I've never seen any info on here or otherwise to convince me early oil changes extend engine life.

Most people will never keep their vehicle long enough to find out if early oil changes are beneficial. I think it's a waste of oil and money but hey, you have to do what makes you feel comfortable.

Wayne
 
Some will suggest to not change the oil because it may contain higher levels of molybdenum than usual. This is true on some Japanese makes, especially if they are imported from Japan. I am in the change it early group and do my first change at 1000 miles. If the moly is important to you, you can replace the oil with a high moly oil like Mazda Moly oil which can be bought on Amazon or from some Mazda dealers.

I have owned several new cars and each has had the factory fill dumped at 1000 miles. All have had long lives.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
... I don't honestly see justification for an early change in your FF UOA. ...


Maybe you missed the part about the oil being out of API/SAE spec.
 
[/quote]
Never really sat down and figured it out. I would say that at I owned at least 10 of them for 8 years +. Some I turned over very quickly for a variety of reasons. Others I kept for a 3-4 years. The point I was making it that the basic assumption in your statement was wrong. All of them got their 1st oil change at the 1,000 mile point. At 70 years old with stage 4 cancer, I suspect my high volume purchase days are coming to a close. [/quote]

May God be with you every second of every day , untill he carries you home .

Wyr
God bless

PS We bought a new 2015 Chevy Sonic a couple of years ago .

I was concerned , old theory of the early miles of operation wearing all the burs and rough spots smooth . Wanted to get all that debris out of the oil . Changed the oil at ~ 50% OLM .

The oil was dark , which I read is not automatically a bad thing . Can not remember seeing any metal in the oil .

The car is the 1.8l 4 cylinder . It uses a paper cartridge filter , so I do not have to cut open a metal filter . Can not remember metal in the / on the filter .

http://www.rockauto.com/info/342/PF2257G_Primary__ra_t.jpg

I am guessing , this whole topic depends on many things .

A How cleanly the engine was assembled & how clean the parts were .

B Quality of the engine / parts material .

C Maybe , the specific design of the engine / parts .

D If the engine was " broken in " at the factory , then an oil / filter change done . How such " break-in " was done .

E How smooth the parts were finished to and how tight the tolerances were held .

The days of the flat tappet cams seem to be gone , for new vehicles . So , some of the concerns of " break in " oil may be gone also .

This is only the 2nd new car we have owned . So , I am far from an expert . I have many more questions , than answers .

God bless
Wyr
 
Originally Posted By: Russell
I occasionally see posts that state early oil changes are not good on new cars? I have about 6,000 miles on my 2017 Subaru outback limited 2.5 and have changed the oil and filter twice. The first time was at 890 miles. I just feel it would flush out any manufacturing residue if any. Gives me peace of mind at least.
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Russell,

I have a 2017 Legacy Sport 2.5 and changed the oil in January at the 6 month mark with ~2800 miles due to Subaru telling me that oil changes had to be done every 6 months or 6000 miles. I bought the car in July of 2016 and as of now I only have 4200 miles on it. Looks like I will be doing changes every ~3000 miles since I don't drive the car that much. I have another car that takes a majority of my weekend miles driving to gigs, etc... I didn't see anything in the oil that made me worry and I didn't cut the filter open. My assumption and guess is that if someone really had to worry about metal shavings they could just change the filter more often in the beginning and then just top off the oil.
 
Originally Posted By: Wheel366
Originally Posted By: Russell
I occasionally see posts that state early oil changes are not good on new cars? I have about 6,000 miles on my 2017 Subaru outback limited 2.5 and have changed the oil and filter twice. The first time was at 890 miles. I just feel it would flush out any manufacturing residue if any. Gives me peace of mind at least.
smile.gif



Russell,

I have a 2017 Legacy Sport 2.5 and changed the oil in January at the 6 month mark with ~2800 miles due to Subaru telling me that oil changes had to be done every 6 months or 6000 miles. I bought the car in July of 2016 and as of now I only have 4200 miles on it. Looks like I will be doing changes every ~3000 miles since I don't drive the car that much. I have another car that takes a majority of my weekend miles driving to gigs, etc... I didn't see anything in the oil that made me worry and I didn't cut the filter open. My assumption and guess is that if someone really had to worry about metal shavings they could just change the filter more often in the beginning and then just top off the oil.


I am in the same position as you as we only drive about 6,000 miles per year. Mostly very short trips. We mostly service by time.

I have heard about just changing the filter. I wonder how well that works with oil in the engine and the Subaru 2.5 where the filter is on top the engine.
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"If the engine was " broken in " at the factory , then an oil / filter change done . How such " break-in " was done ."



Engines are not broken in at the factory. The original owner will be doing that as they drive the car for the first several hundred miles. With that said, engine manufacturing has gotten very good over the years so the break in is not like it was say 3-4 decades ago. Still, the first driver should drive sensibly and follow the manual regarding the break in period.

There will still be metal fines produced by the break in process. The question of whether to change the oil early or not is a polarized one. There are members on either side that will tell you to change or not to change. I like to change it out. Yes the filter should catch the fines but when I dump the factory fill I usually see some metallic evidence. I feel better having it out.

Either way you will be okay. It is a personal preference.
 
Right, but your new vehicle does not have a rebuilt engines. Look, here's the reality: manufactures are telling us it's a waste of time and money. Nissan does as far to say that there is no reason to change early in the service manual. Why wouldn't they just be "silent" on the issue if they were somehow trying to be cheap? I don't think there is a conspiracy here folks, there is just no evidence that early changes do anything. For some, that is not enough and "feels" are more important.

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
I change it early, and will continue to do so. I've read hundreds of posts here over the years for and against it. I spoke to people who built engines as well as rebuilt engines and they reinforced my beliefs. I did my new vehicle oil changes early and decided I wanted the break in metals out early. Opinions vary, do your homework and make the choice you feel is best.
 
Originally Posted By: ejes
I just follow the owner's manual for this. Simple.

I understand. However, in this case, my peace of mind is more important than the cost of an oil/filter change.
 
Originally Posted By: Russell
Originally Posted By: ejes
I just follow the owner's manual for this. Simple.

I understand. However, in this case, my peace of mind is more important than the cost of an oil/filter change.


I think you miss my point. It isn't about saving a buck or two. It is about doing what the manufacture recommends in order to stay within warranty.
 
Originally Posted By: ejes
Originally Posted By: Russell
Originally Posted By: ejes
I just follow the owner's manual for this. Simple.

I understand. However, in this case, my peace of mind is more important than the cost of an oil/filter change.


I think you miss my point. It isn't about saving a buck or two. It is about doing what the manufacture recommends in order to stay within warranty.
Perhaps I did. However, changing the oil early or more often would not be a negative re the warranty on my Subaru. After all, my dealer changed the oil early for me saying a lot of owners request an early oil change. Subaru requires an oil change every 6,000 miles or 6 months. We drive less than 6,000 a year that means the oil is changed about every 3,000 miles to stay in warranty. In any case, my initial less than 1,000-mile change was more for my peace or mind than warranty concerns.
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