Hi folks,
I have 3 cars that for the past ~2 years have been rarely used ever since we were sent to work from home. In average each sees 2k to 3k miles a year. I do drive them at least 30 min once a month or more (not just a warm up). I recently changed the oil in 2 of the 3 cars after 1.5 years and it looked barely used (I always do it myself and haven't seen any milky deposits ever either). I'm not cheap and I don't mind changing it anyway for peace of mind, but I am environmentally conscious and I do hate accumulating plastic bottles and throwing perfectly good oil away. I've read other threads of people with classic cars that say that quality oils can hold up to 3+ years between changes. Is there any official word from manufacturers or independent testers to support that? There is a surprisingly lack of information available for classic/weekend toys/pandemic cars and such, especially from credible sources.
The hooptie fleet for context:
- 1978 Corolla with 400k miles or more (hard to tell, counter resets each 100k). Carbureted, 1.2L.
- 2003 Pathy R50, VQ35DE with around 130k miles.
- 1997 BMW E39 supercharged with ~120k miles.
I use full synth in all 3 of them and 10k+ miles filters. Usually stay with Royal Purple, Mobil 1 or Valvoline depending on what's available and the viscosities I need. I live in a year-round hot & humid place.
I have 3 cars that for the past ~2 years have been rarely used ever since we were sent to work from home. In average each sees 2k to 3k miles a year. I do drive them at least 30 min once a month or more (not just a warm up). I recently changed the oil in 2 of the 3 cars after 1.5 years and it looked barely used (I always do it myself and haven't seen any milky deposits ever either). I'm not cheap and I don't mind changing it anyway for peace of mind, but I am environmentally conscious and I do hate accumulating plastic bottles and throwing perfectly good oil away. I've read other threads of people with classic cars that say that quality oils can hold up to 3+ years between changes. Is there any official word from manufacturers or independent testers to support that? There is a surprisingly lack of information available for classic/weekend toys/pandemic cars and such, especially from credible sources.
The hooptie fleet for context:
- 1978 Corolla with 400k miles or more (hard to tell, counter resets each 100k). Carbureted, 1.2L.
- 2003 Pathy R50, VQ35DE with around 130k miles.
- 1997 BMW E39 supercharged with ~120k miles.
I use full synth in all 3 of them and 10k+ miles filters. Usually stay with Royal Purple, Mobil 1 or Valvoline depending on what's available and the viscosities I need. I live in a year-round hot & humid place.
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