Never change, Just add oil only?

My brother in law does that it drives me insane lol but he never changes the filter until about 2-3 years. He says you shouldn’t bother on a car with over 200,000 miles which I strongly disagree with him on.
 
I have a Yamaha ATV that had the factory oil and filter in it from 2000 up until 2015 when I finally changed it. It was run hard and often. Doesn't have an odometer but it had to have at least 20k miles on it. Never a single problem with sludge, burning or leaking oil. I don't even remember needing to top off the oil. I put Rotella 15w40 in and a new filter. Should be good for another 15 years.

Never did that to a car though. Never will either.
 
I am curious to see how many have owned a vehicle where the oil was never changed, but just continually topped off, due to leaks or consumption, or whatever.

Would one fresh quart going in every 1000 miles be sufficient, assuming the filter was changed on a regular basis?

Sooner or later this will be your result.

 
I remember a while ago there was a Cummins 5.9 engine that was basically new, like a year or two old, maybe 80,000? miles on ebay for super cheap. The catch? Nobody ever changed the oil. Ever. "As is" LOL It stayed available for quite some time...
 
:D I had a 63 Corvair like that but I was getting 200 mile/qt. It looked like an old city bus spewing blue smoke everytime you accelerated.
I kid you not, if you stood anywhere near the tailpipe when he started it,you'd get sprayed with oil haha!!
 
One of my first rigs as a kid was an Isuzu pickup with an oil leak from the front of the head gasket. Had to add a quart every 700 miles. I changed maybe once in all the time I had it because it never looked dirty.
 
I've heard of people that bought new cars and never changed the oil, just changed the filter by the maintenance schedule and topped the oil off as needed. I've personally never known anyone that did this so I can't speak to the longevity of an engine doing it. I've got a '97 Ford that I bought new that has 41K miles. Usually when it's started it's driven long enough to get the engine to full operating temperature. I change the oil at 5K mile intervals with conventional 10w40. Back in the '60's my dad had Mercury he bought new that got the same treatment for the first several years. When he sold it it had 168K miles and there were no problems.
 
I was doing this with my car, using a good A3/B4 oil, and topping up with similar every 3,000km. I was only doing about 5,000km a year, and was looking good. Then I went back to a 400km weekly commute, but doing a blotter test regularly, it was still looking good. Then I had to shift my daughters, 1,000km in a few days pulling a loaded trailer and my car packed too...4 trips. And then my oil wasn't looking very good at all ! 3 years and 30,000km, the filter wasn't the best either. So I think just puttering around you'd be ok, but if you are going to work the car hard, it's needs changing at more regular intervals.
 
A few years ago I rented a Penske truck and drove it across the country - looking at the maintenance info they left inside, it was still on the factory fill @ 12,000 miles of hard rental use in a box van. (It was a Chevy 6.0 or 5.3) It just made my bones hurt to read that! I then put another 3500 miles on it, so we were at over 15,500 and who knows if they changed it.

I added some cheap oil in Nevada because I just couldn't handle it anymore and I was going through a long stretch in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. It was still not at the full mark after I added a quart...

With that said Penske trucks tend to be in better condition than other rental brands, and you always see used ones around with tons of miles. I wonder if this is how they normally treat them or just a bad example?
 
My dad also does this on his cheap 1995 1.1 citroen daily car, i cringe about the idea but the car is almost worth nothing so thats why he does is it.
His daily route his 12 miles/20km to his work and 12 miles/20km back, all highway and the car is driven pretty hard.

However this car is fitted with an LPG system so the car drives on a propane like fuel. (common in some EU countries).
Just like when you put a cold pan on a propane fueled stove in the warm up stage it creates a lot of moisture.

The engine was pretty clean but the inside of his valve cover has a splash shield in it and it looks like his daily drive is too short to get that area above temp to vapour of the moisture.

This pic is the inside of the metal valve cover gasket, this is covered by a splash shield when it is installed.

I dont think any shorter OCI's help with it.
 

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The question I posed was not referring to a new car with a factory fill never getting an oil change. I twice specified 1 qt. added every 1000 miles, so, thats a 5 qt "change" every 5000 miles, essentially.
 
The question I posed was not referring to a new car with a factory fill never getting an oil change. I twice specified 1 qt. added every 1000 miles, so, thats a 5 qt "change" every 5000 miles, essentially.
A quart every 1000 miles is a lot of filling.

Does the car consume it, leak it or both?

The oil is designed to trap the dirt etc... to a certain amount to then be refreshed with an oil change.

If you never change the oil you will not drain the crap out, however i think a non turbo non high spec engine can grow old with it as long as it driven for longer distances most of the time.

When the oil gets up to temp it vapours of the gasoline dilution and moisture.
 
I'm at that point with my truck. It's started going through a quart between 150 and 300 miles depending on load. There is a constant cloud of blue smoke behind me. 90% of it is coming out the exhaust, some of it is the head gasket dripping on the exhaust manifold and smoldering.

Maybe I should try doing the TC-w3 in the gas again! I did that until I ran out of all of my TC-W3 . Then the oil consumption came back again.

I may change it in the spring to do a UOA but I've lost track of how many makeup quarts I have added at this point. I took a trip back in August with -- which will be the last long distance trip for that truck -- and I was putting in a quart of oil every fillup. But from here forward, it's just new filters every 3000 miles.
 
Mine's a 99 but doesn't use any at 150,000 miles. Must have gotten a good one.
He said late 2000s. Hes referring to the generation on 5.3 Vortec engines with displacement on demand and vvt. I think that began in 2007. I've seen quite a few that foul plugs with oil, get run low of oil, get lifters stuck in one position and eat a lifter and cam lobe. It isnt pretty. That's not to say they all do that, but it is an issue that exists. Chrysler hemis with DOD and vvt have the same issue. If you come across a Ram Hemi with a misfire that isnt ignition, computer, or fuel injector failure, put money on that cylinder having a destroyed cam lobe. They dont wipe one out, they disintegrate it.
 
A relative of mine from England did this. He never had any issues AFAIK, but my family here in the states lost it when he told us he just topped the oil off when it was low.
 
I am curious to see how many have owned a vehicle where the oil was never changed, but just continually topped off, due to leaks or consumption, or whatever.

Would one fresh quart going in every 1000 miles be sufficient, assuming the filter was changed on a regular basis?
When I was a lad working construction my work truck was a 65 power wagon that was 4 years old. Somewhere around 60,000 it started using about one quart at about 1200 miles so I just changed filters every 3-4 months. It averaged 50% highway. the 318 always performed well and never smoked but it did leak a little. Kept it 4 years and it never changed consumption or performance. Don't know the mileage.
 
The question I posed was not referring to a new car with a factory fill never getting an oil change. I twice specified 1 qt. added every 1000 miles, so, thats a 5 qt "change" every 5000 miles, essentially.
I'm so sorry your majesty. I didn't realize every single post here had to be personally approved by you.
 
He said late 2000s. Hes referring to the generation on 5.3 Vortec engines with displacement on demand and vvt. I think that began in 2007. I've seen quite a few that foul plugs with oil, get run low of oil, get lifters stuck in one position and eat a lifter and cam lobe. It isnt pretty. That's not to say they all do that, but it is an issue that exists. Chrysler hemis with DOD and vvt have the same issue. If you come across a Ram Hemi with a misfire that isnt ignition, computer, or fuel injector failure, put money on that cylinder having a destroyed cam lobe. They dont wipe one out, they disintegrate it.
Yeah I think cylinder shutoff has been problematic since the days of the Caddy V8-6-4. GM, Chrysler,and Honda have all had their struggles.
 
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