Originally Posted By: silverrat
I think the opposite happens often, where people take some sort of pride in spending inordinate amounts of money on engine maintenance. The term "it's cheap insurance" has become a pet peeve of mine. Vehicle maintenance should not be based on emotion. I
I use ST 5W30 DINO inmy '98 S10, and either P-Classics or Wix (P classics are farther away so it's often Wix, because the gas to get to the P Classics eliminates the savings) but the thing no one seems to put a lot of stock in, is the fact the longer you go on oil, the more crud you have in it and no matter the oil, there's still a LOT of crud in it at 10,000 miles. Furthermore MOST of the media tears being found in oil filters of varying brands seem to be on extended OCI/OFI. Not ALL of them, but most of them. The list of BITOG "Approved" filters gets smaller and smaller, and more expensive every day. Every new report of a failed filter (look at people defending Fram in the Fram-Cartridge failure thread in oil filters) and you'll see yet more filters "unapproved."
Yes, Purolator and Fram both have problems, and with luck they'll be rectified but I still don 't understand the competition, and responses in THIS tread reveal the competitive nature of people defending this or that OCI/OFI.
Engines make crud. Most of the crud is removed from the engine at the oil change. The longer the OCI/OFI, the more crud in the oil, and the more will be left behind. The genesis of sludge.
Right now, I'm using a 7.5K OCI/OFI on my wife's 2012 Fusion (full syn oil), to see what it all looks like when I drain it out and cut it open. I expect I'll drop it back to 5K after this run, because I'm conservative about oil. I'm massively liberal about politics but conservative about oil, electric guitars, amplifiers and single-engine airplanes. . I do NOT trust any manufacturer's statements, it's all lies and bullpuckey. Even Purolator who told me they hadn't heard of filter tears. But unless the filter on MY truck tears, I'll keep using them with my 3K DINO oil intervals. It IS cheap insurance. Nothing makes me happier than that smooth run when the oil is new. No ticking for me.
But based on the replies in this thread, many (though not all) of you are indeed, in competition with each other to see just how much you can cheap out on oil and filters. This makes NO sense, given the cost of new cars these days.
But hey, knock yourselves out. Now that I understand it more, it's easier to just let y'all flail pointlessly. It's like arguing politics. You will never be convinced, and you'll never be satisfied. I'm convinced about my protocol and I'm satisfied with the results.
Rock on!