Less than 200 Miles a year, Change Oil every 6 months?

[Ang]

I have a car which right now is going about 200 miles a year, its gone 80 miles since its oil change 6 months ago. average drive is 1.5-3.5 miles. I normally do 10 month oil changes, but should i be changing much sooner due to possible moisture and gas in the fuel? for the first time prior to the last oil change i actually saw moisture on the cap, and changed the oil immediately. it hasnt come back, but i know there is still moisture.
No i cant go take the car on the highway as a solution, so more oil changes is what it has to be if needed. i care about the car and want to take care of it, so that cost is worth it if i should do it every 6 months instead. otherwise i could let the car idle for an hour, but thats not great.

 

[BobsArmory]

Year make and model of car?
What area are you in? Climate?

 

[John105]

I really wouldn’t worry about it at all. At 200 miles per year imho nothing is gained by changing it every 100 miles. Get ready for folks to crawl out of the woodwork in disagreement

 

[Wireman1987]

Life’s full of hard decisions just do yearly oil changes

 

[Ang]

Year make and model of car?
What area are you in? Climate?

Honda 3.5L V6, the car sees both 100F and 0F

 

[Ang]

I really wouldn’t worry about it at all. At 200 miles per year imho nothing is gained by changing it every 100 miles. Get ready for folks to crawl out of the woodwork in disagreement

I guess that makes sense, it's 200 miles not 2000.

 

[eljefino]

If you can't take it on the highway spend a little time with one foot on the brake and one on the gas. Honestly it'll be good for keeping rust off the rotors.

You are right, idling is not great. But loading it up is.

 

[facility1]

get rid of car and use a ride share, or taxi etc,this maybe cheaper than paying insurance, have a relative or friend drive you etc.,,,the rest of the car may suffer by sitting a lot as the tires, transmission battery on and on.

 

[billt460]

I've gone to once a year oil changes. I last changed the oil in April. Since then I have only put just over 400 miles on each vehicle. So by next April, I should have right around 1,000 miles or so, give or take.

I live in a hot, dry climate. So it's no trouble at all to get the oil temp over 200 degrees.

 

[Patman]

If you’re only driving it 200 miles per year then the car is still going to last 50+ years no matter how often you change the oil

 

[himemsys]

I have a car which right now is going about 200 miles a year, its gone 80 miles since its oil change 6 months ago. average drive is 1.5-3.5 miles. I normally do 10 month oil changes, but should i be changing much sooner due to possible moisture and gas in the fuel? for the first time prior to the last oil change i actually saw moisture on the cap, and changed the oil immediately. it hasnt come back, but i know there is still moisture.
No i cant go take the car on the highway as a solution, so more oil changes is what it has to be if needed. i care about the car and want to take care of it, so that cost is worth it if i should do it every 6 months instead. otherwise i could let the car idle for an hour, but thats not great.

Once a year at the most is plenty. If the moisture on the cap doesn't make a reappearance, then you could safely go every 2 years or more.

 

[HemiBenny]

Well, I'm all for every 6 months, but that's for considerably more miles that are accumulated on short trips. This is the scenario for me, which is why I follow the "X miles/6 months" routine.
200 miles per year? Just fork over the money for a yearly oil change and be happy, if it concerns you that much. Age will start claiming things on that car before any oil-related issues or mileage.

 

[Ang]

get rid of car and use a ride share, or taxi etc,this maybe cheaper than paying insurance, have a relative or friend drive you etc.,,,the rest of the car may suffer by sitting a lot as the tires, transmission battery on and on.

This is a really dumb solution to my question I'm ngl.
The tires are fine, 6 years old now and aging well, zero dryrot. The transmission isn't going to suffer by sitting off, and the car has a solar panel and backup battery which maintains the lead acid now so that I don't have to charge it. It literally can't die unless the world went dark for 2.5 weeks.

 

[Eddie]

I'd change the oil every two years

 

[Ang]

Once a year at the most is plenty. If the moisture on the cap doesn't make a reappearance, then you could safely go every 2 years or more.

i plan on doing 1.5 years with my other car that never drives now since I did a year and the oil came out looking new. But I don't think I like the idea of 2 years..

 

[TiGeo]

2 years...maybe more.

 

[Dutchy491]

Let a good buddy take it work once or twice a month…
Hopefully that gets the engine and drivetrain up to normal operating temperatures. Then do annual oil changes besides the monthly wipe down.

 

[DougR]

Launch Google and type the following into Search: can a camshaft rust if a car isn't driven

 

[ammolab]

So a tank of gas lasts 2 years? Add fuel stabilizer at fill up and change the oil.

 

[Kira]

Would ethanol free gas eliminate the potential problem of separation?
Over 2 years, a fuel stabilizer might be useful...I do not know.