Does It Matter What Time of Year You Do an OCI?

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Aug 16, 2019
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For those of us who do 1 OCI per year with synthetic or whatever type of oil, some have said it's best to change your oil in the Spring to get rid of the condensation that can form in the Winter months in colder weather, but if you drive the car enough, doesn't this condensation burn off at any time of the year?

I'd kind of like to do an OCI right now and do an OCI once a year from now on but I hesitate because of this possible issue with condensation.

TIA for your input.
 
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I like the idea of changing in spring, not so much for moisture as much as residue gas from "many" cold starts. For us, driving is typically a minimum of 15 minutes, more than enough to get some heat into the engine, might be enough to boil off any moisture--and very often much more than 15 minutes of driving at least once a week. So not a lot of condensation worries here.
 
I do both car and motorcycle in the spring, for the car I doubt it matters, for the air cooled bike engine that runs very low oil temperatures in the winter I think it matters a great deal.
 
Change it whenever it needs to be changed. Nobody is standing at the gates of salvage yards hemming and hawing that it could have gone longer if you did your OCI in a certain season.
It doesn't "need" to be changed right now. It's only been in the engine for 3+ months but I'm planning to switch to PP 0w20 FS and do an OCI once per year. I may wait a few more months. I'm sure my engine will hold up well until that time.
 
It matters to me, but not for any of the reasons you state. Living in FL, there is no way I want to be under a car in my {south facing) garage in the summer time. "Winter" here lasts from Nov. till May, and that's when I do as much work as possible.
Summers are meant for the Beach, the Pool, and maybe a beer!:p
 
Not at all. The only things I do to my car that are "weather dictated" are that I occasionally have to scrape windows after work, and I have a second set of winter tires which I'll be putting on shortly; but oil & filter, fluid changes & brakes, etc., I maintain an Excel spreadsheet and do when they're due. I also change my oil HOT; but I can do that in February.
 
I do mine whenever I feel it needs it so for the cars that don’t get driven much some I do in the winter and some in the summer or spring. Doesn’t matter in my opinion usually I do it on the warm winter days though lol which we are lucky to have down south.
 
It matters more to the person doing the oil change, in the middle of winter if you dont mind freezing your behind off and you warm the engine a little first the engine couldn't care less.
I'm in NE Tennessee and we get all kinds of weather here. It was about 60℉ yesterday which would have been a good day for an OCI, IMHO.
Today it's windy, cloudy, and in the upper 40s, which isn't a good day to do an OCI outdoors.
I'll wait for a better day. I'd prefer it to be a bright, dry day and not windy.
 
I do mine whenever I feel it needs it so for the cars that don’t get driven much some I do in the winter and some in the summer or spring. Doesn’t matter in my opinion usually I do it on the warm winter days though lol which we are lucky to have down south.

I live about 3 hours South of you on I-81.
 
I time mine with the Moon Phase.

Today, I don't feel like changing oil. So, I avoid changing oil during a waning gibbous...
 
It matters more to the person doing the oil change, in the middle of winter if you dont mind freezing your behind off and you warm the engine a little first the engine couldn't care less.
I have a garage though it's not heated (or cooled) and my wife's car was due for an oil change in cold January or February but it was too **** cold so it didn't get done until it warmed up. It went just under 10k miles... on an Ecoboost engine at that ! I normally change it around 7500-8000 miles or up to 9000 miles a time or two.
 
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