article says short trips only - change 3x per year

[[RT] ProjUltraZ]

unless you can take it out for an hour drive at least 1/month

article collection was posted in the coolant forum, great collection like a monthly magazine

Customizing Vehicle Service Intervals
By Sam Bell | February 2009

•Cars that make only short trips need their oil changed at least three times a year, regardless of mileage. If their service use can be changed so they’re driven at normal operating temperature for an hour or more at least once monthly, a 6- or even 12-mo. change interval can be implemented.

http://www.motor.com/article.asp?article_ID=1434

i love changing oil, God help me i love it so

 

[Jaymus]

Why do we love changing our oil? It gives me that satisfaction of just eating a steak dinner.

Does it really take an HOUR? Are they mainly talking about heating the oil up enough to get rid of any condensation? I figured 30-40 minutes would be plenty. I take my truck out for longer than an hour without ever shutting it off at least once a week, btw, so I don't really have anything to worry about according to their logic.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Not. My mom lives in Center City and does all short trips to the tune of 5k a year. 1x a year dino GTX changes are the norm now, since her car is kinda old.

 

[Mr Nice]

My 76 year old dad drives about 3K miles per year, all city stop and go. I just change it once a year and don't worry about condensation.

 

[Art_Vandelay]

Originally Posted By: [RT
ProjUltraZ]

i love changing oil, God help me i love it so


That's the greatest. The way you wrote God help me. I just can't stop laughing. It's as though you've tried to stop yourself but it's impossible to resist the next OCI.

 

[Steve S]

There are lots of articles that people read and regurgitate the contents as gospel even though they maybe no more than half baked opinion. Define short trip?

 

[firemachine69]

23mpg in a Yaris is what happens with very, very short trips...

 

[RoGuE]

I currently have Pennzoil Platinum in my Malibu (2.2L Ecotec) and I am almost at 1 year (in about 2 weeks) with the current oil. I would do an UOA but I don't really care enough. I make all short trips and have put about 4300 miles on it in the last year. I do give it a WOT run every once in a while.

I do also love changing oil so I will be switching to 6 month changes. It will probably be with Yellow Bottle, unless I can find Platinum on sale.

 

[FZ1]

6 mos is good. My oil is starting to smell like gasoline with only 5 mos. and 3k. I do alot of short trips but most of my mileage is highway. I think the "burn off" factor is overrated.

 

[demarpaint]

I'd hope the oil gets hot enough after a 20-30 minute run, one hour seems like a long time. If that's the case than anyone who does a 20 minute commute to work and 20 minutes back would need to change the oil 3 times a year, or make a trip that totals 1 hour/month. I guess my cars are all junk then.

 

[mechtech2]

demar - Right.
An hour MAYBE in super cold below 0F weather like we have been having, but certainly an hour in summertime is way overkill.

 

[Mkos1980]

My 04 Ranger sees about 1 mile round trip a day. (work is right around the corner) and with January being between -10 and 20* all month, I have so much condensation isnt not even funny. I remove my oil cap and Im greeted with 1/2 inch of white sludge. I've been trying to drive it longer. Drove it an hour the other day but with the temps being in the 15-20 range it basically did nothing.

 

[FZ1]

"Burnoff" just doesn't pass the "smell test" for me. My oil seems to smell the same before and after the long runs. Takes about 5 months to get to the gasoline like "smell stage". I'll run it another 750 then take it to the dealer for my annual inspection and semi annual oil change. I'll ask if there is a non invasive way to check my injectors. My 02 V6 Accord is perfect after 95k pulling my little Bass Boat for many of the miles. I'm just reluctant to let the techs mess with anything complicated. I watch 'em do the oil and filter changes with the oil I provide.

 

[JAG]

Originally Posted By: article
In many instances, these viscosity improvers may be depleted well before 7500 mi. of service life, resulting in a 5w30 oil becoming, effectively, a 5W-10 or even a 5W-5 oil.

I've never seen a UOA of a 5w30 oil that became less than a XW-20 oil and I've seen a lot of UOAs.

The recommended intervals in the article appear too generic for an audience such as us who often use UOAs to make such decisions.

 

[jldcol]

The base oil visc of a dino 5w30 is about 4cst., which is a 10wt. oil. Even broken vii's will still function to thicken oil just not as well. A 5w30 would be hard pressed to go much less than a thin 20wt. with a lot of vii shearing. A short trip could be defined as one which does not get the oil up to the 100degC level. I have seen several sources that typical daily mileage is low, 12k year is 1k month is about 30-35 miles a day. This is in smaller bits so really typical usage is almost always short trips. Even in summer it can take more mileage than this to fully warm oil. If the 3x yearly recommendation is for dino my minimum is 2x per year and if high usage really can't disagree with it.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I have a hard time getting a long run like that, even the 30-40 minute length. The suburbs to which I drive once or twice a week at highway speed are only about 12 miles/15-20 minutes away. If I could manufacture an errand farther out, I would. But driving here is so unpleasant (bad roads, bad drivers), and the summer so hot and long, that aside from my commute (9 miles, 20-25 minutes 5 times a week) and those rare other trips, I just don't drive that much. Twice a year, ~5000 miles OCI, is what I'm doing.

When I lived in Denver, now, I got good runs nearly every week. There were lots of things to do and see, good highways to drive on, etc., and I put a lot of highway miles on my cars. Back then, I still changed oil at 3K miles/2.5 months.

 

[[RT] ProjUltraZ]

thought you'd enjoy the Gen Patton ref

my point is, i do 80% city, 4 short trips of 2 miles each M-F, with traffic my oil is warmed up for a few minutes at the end of the 1st trip (based on 19-20 psi idle oil pressure).
Then the following trips in the day are only a few hours apart so the oil is not completely cold in 80-90 F ambient.

i've been doing 6 month changes, but darn 6 months is just so long to me. it's my autox camaro too and takes a beating. i'm going to 4 months

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Mkos1980
My 04 Ranger sees about 1 mile round trip a day. (work is right around the corner) and with January being between -10 and 20* all month, I have so much condensation isnt not even funny. I remove my oil cap and Im greeted with 1/2 inch of white sludge. I've been trying to drive it longer. Drove it an hour the other day but with the temps being in the 15-20 range it basically did nothing.


In over 30 years of driving and servicing my own cars I've never seen that white goo. I do see it in the snow-blower and on occasion in the lawn mower oil but never in one of my cars. We don't see the extreme cold here on Long Island but we do get our cold spells. I guess I'm lucky.