I’ll bet people spend way more money on wasted food than they do motor oil. Only the oil tightwads get up in arms about it “wasting” a couple quarts of oil.
Current relevance of time-based OCIs for low mileage drivers
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Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
In post #6 I said my oil is changed every 3 years and has been for a decade. My 97 Park Ave only drives 400 miles a year (200 highway, 200 city) and is stored in a heated garage. 100 miles city driving is short trips. The other 100 miles city driving is longer trips (30 min or longer per trip) in city. My engine never gets a fully cold start because car stored in heated garage. The coldest it ever cold started is 55F. Usually it's 60-70F at cold start. I think heated garage is an important benefit. See post 6 for full details.
I check oil level and condition every 3 months. Oil condition always looks dry and relatively clean. Oil still looks almost like new at 3 years. In hindsight, I probably could have gone longer than 3 years OCI, but I always chickened out at 3 years. I used Maxlife Syn for years, but switched to Maxlife Blend 5 months ago to slow a minor leak. Blend did slow the leak.
New Info: Earlier this week a valve cover gasket was replaced to resolve the minor leak. My mechanic told me today that "Valve train looks exceptionally clean" (for a 28 year old car with 105K miles on it).
That confirms my 3 year OCI has been working well for my car and situation. My mechanic was impressed by the cleanliness. He was shocked when I told him my OCI.
I didn't tell him my OCI until after he told me the valvetrain is exceptionally clean.
I check oil level and condition every 3 months. Oil condition always looks dry and relatively clean. Oil still looks almost like new at 3 years. In hindsight, I probably could have gone longer than 3 years OCI, but I always chickened out at 3 years. I used Maxlife Syn for years, but switched to Maxlife Blend 5 months ago to slow a minor leak. Blend did slow the leak.
New Info: Earlier this week a valve cover gasket was replaced to resolve the minor leak. My mechanic told me today that "Valve train looks exceptionally clean" (for a 28 year old car with 105K miles on it).
That confirms my 3 year OCI has been working well for my car and situation. My mechanic was impressed by the cleanliness. He was shocked when I told him my OCI.
I didn't tell him my OCI until after he told me the valvetrain is exceptionally clean.
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i change my oil every spring & fall. usually april & october. my tires also get rotated every fall. engine & cabin filters get changed every spring. i have a stash of full synthetic 5w30 i managed to get on sale. few years worth of QSUP & castrol edge BB & GB. only use m1 or motorcraft filters, depends on which wally has on the shelf. i live close to work and town. i usually do around 2500 miles during the 6 months. rarely go over 3k. this is on a 22 ford ranger 2.3 ecoboost.
WiskyBadger
Site Donor 2025
I do this same thing in April and October. Makes it easy to remember and it’s always decent temps. One of our rigs is usually around 5,000 miles at that time and 2 aren’t.
4,000-5,000 miles a year, mix of city/highway with high speed runs at least weekly. I use M1 EP HM 0W-20. Currently running a PIAA Twin Power filter. I change the oil every 18-24 months. I've run long-interval extended OCIs for 30 years without issue.
Current vehicle is a 2012 Mazda3 HB with 2.0L Skyactiv G engine. Currently at 138,000 miles. This is the same car on which I ran three 30,000 mile OCIs with microGreen filters.
I was running 10,000 mile OCIs back in the early 90s in my 89 Accord. I used whatever 10W-30 synthetic was on sale. I personally drove it 353,000 miles before an accident ended the relationship.
Current vehicle is a 2012 Mazda3 HB with 2.0L Skyactiv G engine. Currently at 138,000 miles. This is the same car on which I ran three 30,000 mile OCIs with microGreen filters.
I was running 10,000 mile OCIs back in the early 90s in my 89 Accord. I used whatever 10W-30 synthetic was on sale. I personally drove it 353,000 miles before an accident ended the relationship.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
I think for you (without a heated garage) I recommend once a year or at 3500 miles would be appropriate for both cars, IMO.
Any more than that is just wasting oil and filter, IMO. Also, changing more than necessary might actually accelerate wear because there's a several seconds dry start while oil pump has to fill oil filter before oil pressure and circulation begin.
Even if you prefill filter (as I do) it's never fully prefilled if the filter isn't vertical with hole facing up. So there's still some dry start time.
Changing oil filter more often than necessary means more dry starts than necessary. Does that sound like it'd be reducing or increasing wear?
I have an attached garage but no heater inside. So it doesn't freeze, but it's still not fun changing oil in the winter.
I think that the prefilling the filter is outdated advice. Modern engines are designed to account for this. There is no increased wear during the startup after an oil change. In fact, prefilling the oil filter could be more detrimental than not as you're circulating unfiltered oil.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
Unfiltered brand new oil for a few seconds. I think that's better than no oil pressure for a few more seconds, IMO. To each their own.
Whether you prefill filter or not, I still think changing filter more often than necessary is wasteful at best, detrimental at worst.
Changing oil more often than necessary is wasteful, but not detrimental to engine. How it affects environment, I'm not sure.
I'm a low mileage driver who's been changing oil and filter every 3 years with great results. However, I have a passively heated garage which helps a lot because car is 55-70F at cold start, which reduces engine wear and helps oil stay cleaner. Also my engine is Buick 3800 (not a snowflake engine like a lot of modern fragile engines).
If I switch from HM Blend to HM EP Syn in future (now that my oil leak is fixed) I will change oil every 4 or likely 5 years. I visually monitor oil condition every 3 months.
For your vehicles and driving style (without a heated garage) I think an annual oil change is appropriate.
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I don't think it really matters either way. There's an oil film on everything at start up and the time till the filter fills is very short. The old saw about "most wear happens at startup" should be changed to "most wear happens during warm up."
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
My car sometimes sits for 1-3 months between drives. Do you think there's still enough oil film on the topend parts after 1-3 months of not driving? I'm not being a smart butt. I'm sincerely asking your opinion. I'm sure the excellent additive package in Maxlife (or any good HM oil) coats the upper engine parts indefineately, but oil film?
My heated garage gives me a headstart on engine warmup. I think that's a big help for less wear and cleaner oil.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
There's arguments in both directions.
My filter is mounted such that it's impossible to prefill. I trust the Toyota engineers knew what they were doing.
Yep. No harm in pre-filling. Only positives. This is the way.
Yes, pre-fill the oil filter, if you are able. No brainer.
Patman
Staff member
On one of my oil changes this year in my Civic I decided not to fill the filter as I was in a hurry (it was cold and snowing so I only spent about ten minutes outside) When I started the engine with the dry filter it took quite a while (at least five seconds) for the oil pressure light to go off. Then on my last oil change a few weeks ago I filled up the filter, and the oil pressure light went out right away. That alone made it worth my time. I know that I didn’t have a dry start or anything but I still feel like it is preferable to have the oil pressure build up faster as opposed to having any kind of delay. I really see no negatives at all to pre filling the oil filter.
As the OP estimates driving only 1500 miles on one car and 3500 miles on the second, I would think that a quality synthetic would be more than plenty (Mobil 1 EP, Castrol Gold bottle etc) to last a year and change once a year in warm August. Would be quite unnecessary to do every 6 mo, I think.
If fuel dilution is a concern, better to take it out for a long 30 mile drive periodically - every 4-6 wks to get the oil up to temp and drive out any moisture. Cheaper spending on gas than changing out oil prematurely
If fuel dilution is a concern, better to take it out for a long 30 mile drive periodically - every 4-6 wks to get the oil up to temp and drive out any moisture. Cheaper spending on gas than changing out oil prematurely
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
I agree. Also, it's worth noting that Lakespeed Jr who made the video I linked to is a certified tribologist (oil expert) who scientifically tested prefilling vs not prefilling.
However, the OP said his filter is oriented horizontal and therefore can't prefill it. That somewhat makes sense. If the filter is horizontal then it can't be prefilled as much, but it can be partially prefilled.
When I had a Jeep 4L with horizontal filter, my cousin used to prefill the center hole. Then let it sit on a counter for 5 min. It would soak up the oil into the filter's paper. Then he'd mount it and none spilled. It soaked up about ⅓ quart of oil. It was a large ⅔ quart filter. So it is was 50% prefilled with no spillage when he horizontally mounted it.
My Buick's filter mounts with hole facing upwards at 45° angle. So he is able to 75% prefill it with no spillage during mounting. 50% soaks in, then he adds another 25%, then mounts filter with no spilling.
As for the concern some people have that prefilling might introduce contaminents, here's my thoughts. New oil is clean and free of contaminents (as indicated by common sense and also Lakespeed tested this and proved it in his video).
Contamination could enter filter during mounting whether filter is prefilled or not. The only thing we can do about that is be careful when mounting.
The most likely source of new oil filter contamination is low quality filters often have a few manufacturing material debris inside the center big hole (oil exit area). Sometimes that happens with high quality filters too. For examples... A few small loose pieces of metal, filter material, or loose pieces of glue can be in the big hole (as was previously posted by other BITOG members in other threads).
I recently found and removed a small, loose piece of glue from my Oreilly Microgard Select filter's center large hole (oil exit area) before it was installed. If I hadn't removed it, it would have gone into engine. That's a premium filter made by Premium Guard. It's same as a Napa Gold filter.
It's a good idea to always look inside filter center big hole (oil exit hole) to see if there are loose pieces of anything that can be removed before installing filter. That applies whether you prefill or not.
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I don't think I'm going to be able to convince anyone one way or the other on prefilling. It's akin to religion. Not worth arguing about. Just keep doing what you're doing; you're going to anyway! One of my filters mounts horizontal. The other upside down. I think if Toyota and Nissan engineers felt that it would make a difference, they would have placed it differently on the engine and also included instructions for prefilling in the manual. My oil light does not come on when I first start it after an oil change in either vehicle.
I appreciate all the responses. Seems like there's no perfect answer. You just need to change it at an interval that is comfortable to you. I think given the oil change history, I'll probably stick to shorter intervals to be safe. Maybe I'd consider annual changes after I get them cleaned up with VRP in a few years.
Now, a few other questions. Is 1500 miles even long enough on VRP to count as an oil change?? I think 3500 miles is for sure, but I wonder if 1500 miles is long enough for any real cleaning to occur.
Then, the question becomes could I do annual changes with a boutique like HPL or AMSOIL?
So many options.
I appreciate all the responses. Seems like there's no perfect answer. You just need to change it at an interval that is comfortable to you. I think given the oil change history, I'll probably stick to shorter intervals to be safe. Maybe I'd consider annual changes after I get them cleaned up with VRP in a few years.
Now, a few other questions. Is 1500 miles even long enough on VRP to count as an oil change?? I think 3500 miles is for sure, but I wonder if 1500 miles is long enough for any real cleaning to occur.
Then, the question becomes could I do annual changes with a boutique like HPL or AMSOIL?
So many options.
Patman
Staff member
IMO no. I think VRP should be run a minimum of 3k per OCI for full effectiveness. Ideally I think doing 4 intervals of 5-6k each would be what people should go with if they’re looking to reduce consumption significantly. If consumption slows down to an acceptable amount by the third interval then you could switch to something else if you like. After my current run of VRP, which is my third interval, I’m going with ESP X2 0w20 in my Civic. I went 5.5k on the first run, 6k on the second and will do 6k on this run.
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I’d probably look at like, it’s oil it’ll last a long time on a shelf, but when it’s sitting in an engine, occasionally being used? It’s not clean oil sitting in a bottle, it’s oil with carbon/soot/gas/and everything else sitting in your engine. I’d change it between 6-9 months.
The only thing I can add to that as a tech, the worst engines I see inside are the ones that have sat for a while before we opened them up (months). Dirty oil sitting in an oil pan tends to coagulate on the bottom. It looks darn ugly. But that’s usually really dirty oil that’s sat for a while.
The only thing I can add to that as a tech, the worst engines I see inside are the ones that have sat for a while before we opened them up (months). Dirty oil sitting in an oil pan tends to coagulate on the bottom. It looks darn ugly. But that’s usually really dirty oil that’s sat for a while.