Low Speed, Short Trip Driving

[Shel_B]

My car is used almost exclusively for low speed, short trip driving in town. Frequent idling at stop lights, running errands with several stops/starts per trip. I suppose that this is considered to be "severe" operating conditions. I change oil about every six months, about 2,000 miles. I use only synthetic oil, Castrol Edge Extended Performance or Mobil 1 Extended Performance/Annual Protection. This gets a little spendy since I have to pay a shop to do the change for me ... cost for the change, including oil/filter, is around $75.00 - $90.00.

Can I extend the interval by adding a few long trips to my driving routine, say fifty or so freeway miles? Might I be a little compulsive about the six month oil changes? Can I safely go a year using these oils? Any thoughts on changing the filter every other oil change?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[OppositeLocK]

My car is used almost exclusively for low speed, short trip driving in town. Frequent idling at stop lights, running errands with several stops/starts per trip. I suppose that this is considered to be "severe" operating conditions. I change oil about every six months, about 2,000 miles. I use only synthetic oil, Castrol Edge Extended Performance or Mobil 1 Extended Performance/Annual Protection. This gets a little spendy since I have to pay a shop to do the change for me ... cost for the change, including oil/filter, is around $75.00 - $90.00.

Can I extend the interval by adding a few long trips to my driving routine, say fifty or so freeway miles? Might I be a little compulsive about the six month oil changes? Can I safely go a year using these oils? Any thoughts on changing the filter every other oil change?

Thanks for any feedback.

Depends on the car, engine, and tranny in it.

People tend to focus only on the engine when short trips are involved, but don't forget about your tranny and diffs as well. I expect your battery to go quickly as well.

 

[oldhp]

You will get a variety of answers. "If" it was mine I would use Castrol GTX and change it every 6 months, which should lower the price.

 

[OppositeLocK]

You will get a variety of answers. "If" it was mine I would use Castrol GTX and change it every 6 months, which should lower the price.

I'm not a fan of time interval changes when annual mileage is low. I think with 2K miles, he should push it to 12 months.

 

[PimTac]

One year should not be a problem. As I mentioned in another thread of yours, take the car out for a nice run now and then.

 

[ABN_CBT_ENGR]

My car is used almost exclusively for low speed, short trip driving in town. Frequent idling at stop lights, running errands with several stops/starts per trip. I suppose that this is considered to be "severe" operating conditions. I change oil about every six months, about 2,000 miles. I use only synthetic oil, Castrol Edge Extended Performance or Mobil 1 Extended Performance/Annual Protection. This gets a little spendy since I have to pay a shop to do the change for me ... cost for the change, including oil/filter, is around $75.00 - $90.00.

Can I extend the interval by adding a few long trips to my driving routine, say fifty or so freeway miles? Might I be a little compulsive about the six month oil changes? Can I safely go a year using these oils? Any thoughts on changing the filter every other oil change?

Thanks for any feedback.

You can do whatever suits you and it will be as fine as you believe it to be.

The oil ( and filter) will remain serviceable until it wears/degrades/contaminates to the point it doesn't anymore.

The only way to reasonably "know" those benchmarks is a good PM program including an OA program. ( even then OA is not an absolute)

Without "knowing" then one guess with no supporting analysis or data is just as valid/good/worthless/right/wrong/best/(insert preference here) as any other

 

[Leo99]

My in-laws do the same type of driving. I don't think their car has seen a highway or gone over 45 in 15 years. Their 96 Corolla still keeps chugging along. They don't do anything special. Maybe change the oil now and then.

 

[OppositeLocK]

My in-laws do the same type of driving. I don't think their car has seen a highway or gone over 45 in 15 years. Their 96 Corolla still keeps chugging along. They don't do anything special. Maybe change the oil now and then.

Might not be the same situation if the car was a modern audi

 

[MoneyJohn]

I don't know the car here, but mine is 2006 Sentra, an econobox with ~115K on the odometer. Most of the driving is just like this. The lifetime average speed of my car is 14mph. I change the oil once a year. Until now, I used the cheapest oil I could find, usually Pennzoil Platinum with a $10 mail-in rebate. Now got Mobil 1 5qt 6-pack synthetic so that will last me another 3-4 years.

The way I was told, the oil is usually fine but the moisture build-up due to short trips is the problem. If you can make highway runs once a month so that the oil reaches operating temp and stay for some time, you will evaporate all moisture and you should be good. I started doing this since last year.

 

[simple_gifts]

My father had that regimen in the prius in my sig below, 5K/year, all short trips; he did yearly oil changes @ the dealer with conventional oil.

There was a fair amount of varnish around the oil fill hole, but the engine has not suffered for it.

I would just use conventional oil w/ yearly changes if a MPFI engine.

Just say you are using Kirtland or Supertech oil, the cult following @ BITOG will come over and change the oil for free.... lol

 

[carviewsonic]

Our '03 Park Ave is short tripped 7 days a week, with a 1 hour return hwy trip to the next town every 3 - 4 weeks. It has been used like this for two years now, and runs great. Oil is changed once/ year with regular M1.
If your car has DI, or if it doesn't get on the hwy every few weeks for a good run, then a six month OCI makes sense to me.

 

[blupupher]

Seems a waste to use a top tier oil for such a short interval.
I would either stretch it out to a year or use a cheaper oil.

My last OCI on my F150 was 13 months, 3,400 miles. Mostly around town with a rare highway drive.
I have driven 700 miles since my last oil change 4 months ago.
I mid-tier synthetic oils (Magnatec, Pennzoil Platinum, Quaker State Syn, etc) that I get on sale/clearance/rebate.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Seems a waste to use a top tier oil for such a short interval.
I would either stretch it out to a year or use a cheaper oil.

The better oil is better in severe service vehicles. Expensive well my average oil change with full synthetic runs me under $25 including the filter. Last few in fact have been under $20.

 

[wpod]

I would probably would do once a year oil change if you run syn oils because you probably will get rid on the car from age before miles. 4,000 miles a year, 40,000 miles in ten years and 80,000 miles in twenty years , Does the engine reach operating temps for a while when used?

 

[PimTac]

Seems a waste to use a top tier oil for such a short interval.
I would either stretch it out to a year or use a cheaper oil.

My last OCI on my F150 was 13 months, 3,400 miles. Mostly around town with a rare highway drive.
I have driven 700 miles since my last oil change 4 months ago.
I mid-tier synthetic oils (Magnatec, Pennzoil Platinum, Quaker State Syn, etc) that I get on sale/clearance/rebate.

Technically yes but if I can get EP or AP for just a few dollars more than the regular M1 then that’s a no brainer, especially for once a year. Some people lose more than that in change from their pockets that goes missing.

If I was changing much more often then something like the Havoline Pro DS would be a better economical choice.

 

[Leo99]

Might not be the same situation if the car was a modern audi

You are correct but I'm assuming the OP has a 2011 Camry and they seem to do well with "little old lady" driving.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

I think you could double the oil change interval.

Your driving pattern sounds similar to my commute, except I spend 10-20 minutes on the highway occasionally. My 2001 Silverado 5.3 V8 has an oil life monitor that assumes conventional oil. I use rebate-priced Mobil 1 and basically double what the OLM says, by clearing the reminder once and then changing when it comes on again. This works out to about 15 months and 5-6000 miles per oil change.

Knowing the car and engine and where you live could help with more specific suggestions. And no matter what oil you use, it's probably good to do some longer trips if you have cold winters.

 

[Shel_B]

You will get a variety of answers. "If" it was mine I would use Castrol GTX and change it every 6 months, which should lower the price.

I'm really wedded to synthetics ... been using them since about 1985 or so. The difference between 5qts GTX and 5qts Edge or Mobil1 is between $6.00 and $8.00, the real expense is having the work done. Shops around here charge between $100.00 and $150.00 an hour.

 

[jstert]

my sw desert snowbird yaris came to me used in 5/2016 at 42k mi. it is garaged on a battery tender 4-6 months at a time. i drive it mostly in the city with a few 1 hour, 60-70 mi highway runs when im there. i ended up on a 18mo/4k mi $20 oci schedule using kendall now valvoline 5w30 semisyn at a local superior tire franchise. the yaris is doing fine but those simple little beasties are pretty much indestructible anyway.

 

[SZR48207]

My vehicle is driven roughly the same.. about 90% within the city doing 45mph between lights. Using a 5k mile interval on oil changes with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum oil, my last UOA showed a TBN of 3.2 which is right at 65% depletion (based on VOA TBN of 9.0). So at least in my case, severe conditions seems to line right up with 5000 miles of use.

Hard to say if your vehicle is the same case, but you can always get a Wix oil analysis kit on Amazon for about $13 and then ship it in to them for another $4 to find out how long you can stretch your oil changes.