Change my oil Before or After road trip?

Am I the only one puzzled by the OP debating spending $25 on an oil change on a $35000 car?
My OCD kicked into high gear when the OP went to zero percent on the 1st oil change.

Well he did leave all that publicly-posted maintenance history out of the OP. And he stated that he paid $25k for the car, not $35k.

I hate to psycho-analyze someone, but it looks like all of his OCIs are about 12k miles. He will have about that much on this OCI and it seems most of it will be highway miles. There is no debate for me, if I were doing these 12k mile OCIs, I wouldn't even ask.
 
I drive a 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid. So, take note some of the miles below is in EV mode where the ICE is completely off.

On 3/22/2022, I changed my oil and filter when my odometer was at 49,494 miles.

As of today, I have put 3,000 miles so far on the oil. Know that atleast 500 of those miles has been in EV mode.

I leave on 7/28/2022 for a 7,500 miles road trip to Canada and back that would last 26 days on the road. 70% of the miles would be strictly highway miles doing 70mph to 80mph.

By 7/27, I am guessing I would have put about 5,000 miles on this oil and I know the oil still has a lot of life in it. My guess here is atleast 1,000 of those miles miles would have been in EV mode.

So, should I change my oil before I leave for this trip? Or should I just go ahead and go on my trip and add 7,500 miles to 5,000 miles and then change my oil when I get back home?

That would be putting about 12,500 miles on the oil. And I can guarantee atleast 3,000 of those miles would have been in EV mode.
I would change it before the trip.
 
Am I the only one puzzled by the OP debating spending $25 on an oil change on a $35000 car?
My OCD kicked into high gear when the OP went to zero percent on the 1st oil change.
My car is the base model. It is a 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid base model with cloth seats that I had the dealership upgrade to Katzkin leather seats.

I bought my car brand new and paid $25,100 out the door. It was a 3 weeka battle with the dealership who said no way they would sell the car to me below $28,000 drive out.

Well, I did not pay $35,000 for my car and it really does not mean that since I bought it cheap I want to neglect maintenance. I have a thread on the Accord forum where I meticulously document my maintenance on this car as I plan and wish for it to last me over 300,000 miles.
 
Well he did leave all that publicly-posted maintenance history out of the OP. And he stated that he paid $25k for the car, not $35k.

I hate to psycho-analyze someone, but it looks like all of his OCIs are about 12k miles. He will have about that much on this OCI and it seems most of it will be highway miles. There is no debate for me, if I were doing these 12k mile OCIs, I wouldn't even ask.
You are very observant and very correct on most of the things you said. That is cool.

Yes, I bought my 2020 HAH base model for $25,100 drive out. I put all the details on my thread on the Accord forum since I love documenting about my cars

As for the oil changes, you are right for the most part. But let me break it down how many miles I have gone on my oil changes.

1st oil change done after 12,000 miles
2nd done after 12,000 miles.
3rd done after 10,000 miles
4th done after 3,000 miles
5th done after 6,000 miles
6th done after 7,000 miles
7th..., still driving on it and have put 3,000 miles on the oil so far. This is the oil I am thinking of keeping until after my 7,500 miles road trip. But by the time I leave for this trip, my mileage would be about 5,000 on the oil.

So, I am wondering if I should add 7,500 to the 5,000 miles and end my trip with over 12,500 miles on this oil which will be way past Oil Life Monitor at zero. But since people say highway miles is easier on oil, that is why I was thinking of changing the oil only after my trip. Plus, since my car is a Hybrid, know that 12,500 miles is actually about 2,500 miles in EV mode only where the gas engine is off and the gas engine will have only about 10,000 on the oil.

So the question in my head is: Why waste an oil change if I do not really have to change the oil?

The oil has been in use now for exactly 2 months. When I leave for my trip, the oil would have been in use for exactly 3 months. When I come back from my trip, the oil would have been in use for only 4 months with over 12,500 miles.

I will change the oil immediately after my trip.

So, I am trying to see what other well informed people think. The oil will be in use for only 4 months but will have over 12,500 miles. Is this bad for the engine?

So, wondering if changing the oil at 5,000 miles in 3 months when I will change the oil again in 1 month after 7,500 miles, is wasting an oil change for nothing. When I could just use the same oil for 4 months and 12,500 miles and change it when I get home. Saving an oil change.
 
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At what point does it become a replacement cost avoidance vs what I paid discussion. Especially when it comes to maintenance on the most expensive component of a car.
You know all of us on the forum "over maintain" our cars. And you know this is a Honda. So, I expect it to be a bit more reliable and dependable even with some abuse and neglect. Though I do not plan to abuse or neglect this car. Also, this car is my road trip car that I have used to visit Canada 2 times now and driven to Mexico 3 times. Take a look at my thread on the Honda Forum and you will see my road trip pictures and blog. So, it has been out of the country 5 times already and that is how I put 34,000 miles in 1 year. I am taking it again to Canada in July and I need it to be very dependable to travel without a breakdown, so I do my part to take very good care of it.

Also, I do hypermile in city driving thereby treating it very gently and getting a lot of EV miles that is not putting a lot of work on the oil.
Please, take a look at my mileage history for my city driving.

I average 56mpg over 682 miles from my 12.8 gallon tank
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On the current tank of gas as of today, I am averaging 59mpg after 432 miles so far. I am still to see how many miles I will end up with on this run. This is 50% city driving and 50% highway driving with top speed of 65mph.
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My best hyperming number till date has been getting 66mpg and getting 810 miles from my 12.8 gallon tank.
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So, I do take care of this car's engine. Trust me.
 
So the question in my head is: Why waste an oil change if I do not really have to change the oil?

I'll address this question-

I'm to a point in my life where I try to take care of things, fix stuff and maintain things so that my life is not impacted by break downs or "could happen" very much. Things don't always go as planned. You might encounter some reason on your trip that does not put you back home in your planned 12,500 miles.

I didn't plan on making 26+ trips to a hospital almost 3 hours from my house in 2021, but we did. My daughter was admitted to the hospital in early May and discharged in November. We spent nearly every single weekend during that 181 days at the hospital with her while her mother stayed during the week.

Anyway, I think it would be wise to change the oil before the trip and move on to worrying about something that might matter.
 
I’ve been wanting to change my oil before our big trip, but it won’t have but 2500 or so miles on it before we go. My goal was to switch my 3.6 Chrysler to 5w-30 before we left, but I just can’t dump good oil, even if it is 5w-20. This oil was put in around Christmas 2021.

It’ll be a good 4000 mile round trip, so I’ll have the oil waiting for me when I get home.

I’m usually a change before the trip person, but I think I’ll wait this time.
 
I'll address this question-

I'm to a point in my life where I try to take care of things, fix stuff and maintain things so that my life is not impacted by break downs or "could happen" very much. Things don't always go as planned. You might encounter some reason on your trip that does not put you back home in your planned 12,500 miles.
Anyway, I think it would be wise to change the oil before the trip and move on to worrying about something that might matter.
Fixed it for you. The other part is irrelevant to his conundrum
 
I decided not to change the oil before my road trip that starts in 11 days. Here is my post about my road trip on the expedition portal.

16 US States and 4 Canadian Provinces, July 2022 Road Trip

Getting my car ready for my 8,000 miles road trip that starts in 11 days. I topped off all fuids today. Next week I will balance and rotate my tiresand then go for an alignment. And set my psi to 45psi.

I have put 5,000 miles on my current oil and was debating if I should change the oil before my 8,000 miles road trip or not.

But I changed my mind today and decided I will use this same oil and drive for 8,000 miles more and change the oil when I come back from my road trip when the oil would have been in use for about 13,000 miles and 4 months. It would be way past the oil monitor life of zero.

I will change the oil when I get back home. I will also change my transmission fluid, even though it is not time yet to change it again.

My car takes 0W20. But I have been using 0W16 and today, I topped it off with 10W30 since I was almost half a quart low. I topped it off and will take the remaining 1/2 quart bottle with me on this trip to top off if needed.
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When I get back home, I will use these 4 quarts below to change my oil. I have no problem mixing oil weights. My car calls for 0W20, but it will be fine mixing this combo of 2 quarts of 0W16, 1 quart of 0W20 high mileage and 1 quart of 10W30
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I ended up changing mine, but only because I wanted 5w-30 in it for the trip. It had 3000+ miles on the oil, and 6 months in the engine. I debated on saving some for my mower and leaky Beetle, but decided storing 6 quarts wasn’t worth it. Advance Auto will recycle it properly for me.
 
I leave tonight at 9pm for my 8,000 miles road trip. My Oil Life Monitor says I still have 60% oil life left. So, that made me not want to change my oil before this trip.
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I currently have exactly 5,000 miles on this oil so far and my road trip will be about 8,000 miles. So, I may be at about 13,000 miles by the time I get back home. Which would probably have the oil life monitor way past 0%. But I should be fine as I plan to change my oil when I get home. I will change my engine oil, transmission fluid, air filter and cabin filter when I get back home.

I just filed up my gas this morning. On my last tank of gas, I got 58mpg and 700 miles out of my small 12 gallons tank. This is 40% city driving and 60% highway driving with top speed of 65mph and my tires set at 45psi, instead of Honda's recommendation of 33psi. This Accord is doing great with gas savings during these times of very high gas prices.
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Usually before I head to brothers place in Boiling Springs PA I’ll change the oil via Mighty Vac. Will probably do that this Friday. Either Harvest King all fleet 10w30 CK/SN or some EDGE 0w40 will go in
 
I would probably drop an extra half or full quart in it before leaving. When you're knocking off 500+ miles a day cruising that is the easiest miles on oil so probably safe to do this, but right on the edge of what I would be comfortable with.
 
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