Low mileage, when to change oil?

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Metfanant

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I have 3 cars, a 2003 Honda Civic LX, a 1994 Mustang GT, and a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 2.0....

I'm in the process of rebuilding the Mustang, so I'm not too worried about that, but I'm concerned about how often I should be changing the oil in the new Accord....

Honda's recommendations are to obviously follow the maintenance minder, when it tells you your oil life is low, or to change the oil every year of you don't hit the mileage...

I live 4.2 miles (round trip) from work, and I don't generally drive the Accord to work. I teach at a middle school, and after a week of having the car one of our lovely students drew a giant ejaculating [censored] on my door with a sharpie. So, I take the old Civic to work, and I drive the Civic in the winter as well...

Needless to say, I don't rack up many miles on either the Accord or Mustang most of the year...probably about 2500-3000 miles a year on each of them...

I will never get close to the mileage in a year to trip the maintenance minder in the Accord....I'm getting ready for my first change in the Accord, going with Amsoil Signature Series and a Fram Ultra Synthetic.

So, after that long story, do I just change the oil every year? Change the filter too?...it will take me years to reach the limits of what Amsoil or Fram advertise for lifetimes on the oil and filter respectively, so idk what normal operating procedure becomes at that point...

Thanks a lot for your help guys!
 
Oil yearly and if using the ultra run it for two.
 
You could change every two years or 6K miles if you get the oil up to operating tempature a few times a month like 30+ miles. Your cars will only benefit from this.
 
Do you guys still believe a year is enough if he uses Dino oil (castrol GTX), I ask because I am in the same situation?
 
Sorry to hear about your vandalism to your car. I would go annually with both oil and filter but downgrade from Amsoil SS to XL.
 
Originally Posted by anndel
Sorry to hear about your vandalism to your car. I would go annually with both oil and filter but downgrade from Amsoil SS to XL.

Any reason to downgrade other than cost?
 
I'm running 8k on a 17 Subaru Outback with M1 EP 5-30 and 6k on a 15 F150 wih M1 EP 0-20. Sounds like I'm anal...In your shoes I'd run synthetic anything with a quality filter (so many would do) to make me sleep at night. Frankly SuperTech would fit the bill and you'd have mileage to spare at a yearly change.
 
Doesn`t the oil minder take into account temps ect. It would seem Honda would use an all inclusive algorithym for short trip as well other situations. Perhaps a call to Honda.
 
Originally Posted by Dinoburner
Doesn`t the oil minder take into account temps ect. It would seem Honda would use an all inclusive algorithym for short trip as well other situations. Perhaps a call to Honda.

It's just recently (this week) popped up and said "change oil soon" as I'm approaching a year( next month)
 
Why even own a new Accord, if you put so few miles on it? It's not a Maserati, for crying out loud!

I'd sell the Civic and new Accord and buy a 5 year-old Accord.

//

To answer your question, I'd follow the MM or annually. I certainly wouldn't waste money on Amsoil in this case. Buy the cheapest synthetic that meets your requirements and you'll likely never, ever have an oil-related failure.
 
My wife is a teacher too*, and we live about two miles from the school. Hence the absurd low miles on the Avalon (70k on an 07 model, see sig below). I will preach what I practice on that car: just change it annually. It's a very different engine, a big, lazy V-6 which I doubt EVER gets up to operating temps except on rare 100 mi trips wife takes to visit her mother. Anyway, the oil always looks clean (I know, I know...) and what I can see inside the oil filler (decent view on the 2GR engine) is as clean as the day we first took it home. Respectfully recommend: 1) annual changes, and 2) don't even begin to worry about it!
wink.gif
If you're really OCD about it, you might do a UOA after one of the early years to make sure nothing strange is happening, but probabilities say that's not at all necessary. Fun, but not necessary...

* her students are sufficiently young that such Sharpie masterpieces are beyond their comprehension. Thank Heaven for that!!!
 
What if you do 1000 miles per year, driven 1-2x per month, and every trip is 15-20 miles straight at 1800-2200 rpm average? Still do an annual oil change using M1 and Fram ultra?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Metfanant
I have 3 cars, a 2003 Honda Civic LX, a 1994 Mustang GT, and a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 2.0....

I'm in the process of rebuilding the Mustang, so I'm not too worried about that, but I'm concerned about how often I should be changing the oil in the new Accord....

Honda's recommendations are to obviously follow the maintenance minder, when it tells you your oil life is low, or to change the oil every year of you don't hit the mileage...

I live 4.2 miles (round trip) from work, and I don't generally drive the Accord to work. I teach at a middle school, and after a week of having the car one of our lovely students drew a giant ejaculating [censored] on my door with a sharpie. So, I take the old Civic to work, and I drive the Civic in the winter as well...

Needless to say, I don't rack up many miles on either the Accord or Mustang most of the year...probably about 2500-3000 miles a year on each of them...

I will never get close to the mileage in a year to trip the maintenance minder in the Accord....I'm getting ready for my first change in the Accord, going with Amsoil Signature Series and a Fram Ultra Synthetic.

So, after that long story, do I just change the oil every year? Change the filter too?...it will take me years to reach the limits of what Amsoil or Fram advertise for lifetimes on the oil and filter respectively, so idk what normal operating procedure becomes at that point...

Thanks a lot for your help guys!

You are in a similar situation I'm in, except I'm retired. (3 cars and averaging only two to three thousand miles a year between them). The difference is you are going through frigid New York Winters, and only driving 2 miles to work. (4 miles round trip). That is what's killing your oil. You are never warming up the oil enough to get rid of all the moisture and condensation. I change my oil twice a year. Usually in Spring and Fall. And I always make it a point to drive my vehicles until the oil and coolant is up to operating temperature. Especially now in the cooler weather. In the Summer out here in Phoenix that's not an issue, because the engine, along with all the fluids come up to temperature very quickly. Especially with the A/C running full tilt.

But in January when the temp can get down to the lower 40's or high 30's in the morning, I find it takes at least 6 to 8 miles of driving or more, before the oil temperature in my Jeep gets up to 200 degrees. (V-8 with a 7 quart capacity). This also helps to get rid of any condensation in the exhaust system. But in the bowels of a cold New York Winter, it will take a much longer amount of running time to achieve those same operating temperatures.

Twice a year might sound a bit excessive. But when my mother was alive and working in Chicago, she had a driving scenario similar to yours. (Very short trips in a cold climate that never warmed up her car). She had nothing but trouble with her vehicles all the time. Hard starting. Rough idling. Poor fuel mileage and performance. New exhaust systems yearly because they rotted out from the inside, as well as the outside. And she all but never changed her oil. I did only when I could corral her long enough to bring her car over to my house and let me do it. And you don't want to know what that stuff looked like when I pulled the plug.
 
Originally Posted by Metfanant
Originally Posted by anndel
Sorry to hear about your vandalism to your car. I would go annually with both oil and filter but downgrade from Amsoil SS to XL.

Any reason to downgrade other than cost?

Annually with a cheaper oil. Filter every 2 years. Dino would do this with no sweat. Why? You are throwing perfectly good oil (Amsoil) in the trash. Those oils are for folks that drive a lot of miles and want to extend their drains.
 
Originally Posted by Bud
Oil yearly and if using the ultra run it for two.

+1 unless after 6 months you detect much gasoline on your dipstick or the oil level increases due to fuel dilution. Then I'd use a lower cost synthetic oil and do 2x a year changes, but still use the Ultra for two full years.

Did your school have video cameras to ID the creepy little vandal?
 
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