Patman
Staff member
Why 4500? Might as well round it up to 5000
New here, need advice. It would be much appreciated.
- Thread starter Dragoslav
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Fair point. Because 5,000 often becomes 5,500. Or more. I'm pretty anal about maintenence. Cars are expensive.
Patman
Staff member
Even if it snuck up to 6000 you’d be fine. A short OCI for me is 6000. And the only time I’ve done it that short recently was during my use of Valvoline Restore and Protect.
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Or 10k
You may be right, but I believe in shorter service intervals. I have been accused of being over-conservative in caring for my vehicles.
Our beloved '06 TSX with the mighty K24 has 242K on the clock; it has seen 4,500 mile services with Mobil 1 5w30. It does not go through a drop between services and is uber clean under the valve cover. I recently put a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S rubber on.
I would drive this car to NY right now and not bother to check the oil level.
Edit: She's at 4,100 miles since the last service, so I would change the oil before heading East... My bad!
Or 1M K. Go big or go home, right?
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If you plan on getting rid of the car in the next 3-5 years, I'd say whatever the dealer or Jiffy Lube will put in it, or whatever's cheapest on the shelf at Wal-Mart. You can run Valvoline Restore and Protect from the get go if you really want to.
If you plan to keep it until the wheels fall off and you want to change the oil yourself, go with a good quality oil like AMSOIL Signature Series or HPL PCMO.
If you plan to keep it until the wheels fall off and you want to change the oil yourself, go with a good quality oil like AMSOIL Signature Series or HPL PCMO.
Back in the mid-'70s when I started doing my own oil changes, I decided on 2000 miles instead of the standard 3000.
This in the days of conventional oil and leaded gasoline.
After five or six short-interval oil changes I took my car (a '71 Corolla 1600) to a shop for some work, and when I picked it up the manager, marvelling, said "It's all white inside! I never seen an engine that clean!".
Even then, short OC intervals cleaned up an engine nicely.
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Or flip it daily
I know a lotta people feel that way, and you can certainly make a case for that.
I often pass my cars on to friends or family. I take the same care regardless of plan. It's just what I do.
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I use to be in the 3-5 years camp and didn't really care too much about the subject. Now that I have what I want to keep, I'm very strict on maintenance.
You're doing your friends and family well by making sure they don't get unknown lemons from a stranger
What's funny is, if you trade in your vehicle, the dealer could care less. But selling it yourself, gifting, whatever, you can show them your records which offers confidence, etc.
But even with the dealer, you can take satisfaction in knowing you are passing on a well serviced vehicle. Zero regrets. Maybe even good karma?
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
Driving long distance highway doesn't dirty oil much, nor wear engine much. You could safely drive to NY on the oil you have in it now. It wouldn't hurt your engine a bit. That'd only put your oil at 7000-7500 miles, and the last half of that would be all highway miles.
You might want to change it before driving back to CA, but that might be optional.
However, if you wanted to change it yourself in your own garage, then changing before the trip makes sense to me. Oil and filter are minor costs compared to driving across the nation. So why not.
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My nearly 4 year old Mazda 2.5 L has been doing just fine on Quaker State Ultimate Durability and Mobil 1 extended.
I am the only person who has serviced this car since new. I've found the MityVac works very well on the K24. Easy peasey.
I have been diligent about this car's care. So far so good.
I've run Mobil 1 Extended Performance exclusively @6 month/5k miles but I never get close to 5k miles in 6 months more like 2-3k except when I do my yearly drive down to Tampa. With that said you'd be fine with the Pennzoil or the Valvoline as well as it's more about doing timely maintenance over splitting hairs between different synthetic oils which obviously your doing if doing a break in oil change. Try all 3 if ya want and then stick with whichever ya think feels better.
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No you wouldn't. Even if it was just changed you would check it on the way when buying gas or when you get there. Your OCD would be like HAL in 2001 Space Odyssey. "I'm sorry Jeff, you can't do that" - paraphrased.
Guilty as charged, your Honor. 30 days in the hole!
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