OCI in the "new normal"

My '19 GMC Terrain Denali with a 2.0L DI Turbo inline-4 engine, that uses 6 US Quarts of GM Dexos 1 Gen 2 spec synthetic motor oil:

Pre-COVID-19: Would give me a OLM (Oil Life Monitor) prediction of about 10,000 km / 6,214 miles mostly highway driving.

Now, not driving as much.
Only locally 5 to 15 minutes at a time.
The OLM predicts as low as 4,800 km / 2,983 miles.

The owner's manual says to do annual oil changes, if the OLM doesn't trigger.
 
Most of my driving was commuting to work. I had been averaging 12k miles per year on both my car and my truck. I was switching between the two and put 6k on each per year. Because of Covid-19, last March my company directed me to work from home full time and the way they are sounding it's likely to be permanent. Since then I have put 750 miles on my car.

I normally would change the oil on my car late May/early June. By that time I'll only have about 1,200 miles on the oil. Do I still change the oil at that time or is that wasteful?
Wasteful as in the cost of oil and a filter? Only you can declare that.
 
The guy with over 1,030,000 miles on his 2015 Subaru Crosstrek changes his oil every 12,000 miles with 0W-20.
 
The guy with over 1,030,000 miles on his 2015 Subaru Crosstrek changes his oil every 12,000 miles with 0W-20.
Didn't he have to replace the engine after like 600k? [Yep, looks like it.] No surprise that the engine didn't last, everyone knows that 10k is just too long for oil to do its job.

:cool:
 
Oil changes are cheap. Change it once a year with a full synthetic and be done with it.
You are going to get all kinds of condensation inside the crankcase.
 
Most of my driving was commuting to work. I had been averaging 12k miles per year on both my car and my truck. I was switching between the two and put 6k on each per year. Because of Covid-19, last March my company directed me to work from home full time and the way they are sounding it's likely to be permanent. Since then I have put 750 miles on my car.

I normally would change the oil on my car late May/early June. By that time I'll only have about 1,200 miles on the oil. Do I still change the oil at that time or is that wasteful?
Wait and see what happens with the Lockdowns. If they get lifted wait for the end of summer or the early fall for your OCI. If not well in the fall sometime I'd pull the filter and use some top off oil to replenish it until the next spring.
 
Didn't he have to replace the engine after like 600k? [Yep, looks like it.] No surprise that the engine didn't last, everyone knows that 10k is just too long for oil to do its job.

:cool:
When he replaced the original engine on the Suharu after 630,000 miles and went back to it later the old engine just needed to have a burnt valve replaced. He replaced the valve and kept the engine as a spare.
 
I've done oil analysis on my car with mostly highway driving and mostly city with short trips. Highway driving, I was doing 1500 miles a month and when I changed my oil at 6000 miles (4 months), my TBN was 1.9. City driving, I did 250 miles a month and changed at 3500 miles (14 months) and my TBN was 1.9. In both cases I used Pennzoil conventional 5w-20. So I agree with the others about getting as many highway miles in as you can. Go for a 50 mile round trip highway drive a few days a week, listen to music or podcasts, just have fun.
 
When he replaced the original engine on the Suharu after 630,000 miles and went back to it later the old engine just needed to have a burnt valve replaced. He replaced the valve and kept the engine as a spare.
Yeah but frequent OCI's work as a talisman against all sorts of failures. I read that on the internet so it must be true. :)
 
Most of my driving was commuting to work. I had been averaging 12k miles per year on both my car and my truck. I was switching between the two and put 6k on each per year. Because of Covid-19, last March my company directed me to work from home full time and the way they are sounding it's likely to be permanent. Since then I have put 750 miles on my car.

I normally would change the oil on my car late May/early June. By that time I'll only have about 1,200 miles on the oil. Do I still change the oil at that time or is that wasteful?
You could go as long as you want, even two years. Its kind of like wondering if one should wax a car, will it matter? Most likely not, but maybe so.
Im not sure why the "wasteful" part. Most of everything we do is wasteful including 50% of the population with what they eat or someone buying a new vehicle before it has 150,000 miles on it.
Nothing wasteful about maintaining an internal combustion engine according to manufacturer requirement. Its actually can be quite wasteful not to follow the manufacturers requirements.

For me, I would never go past one year. Oil is cheap, chances are your owners manual suggests 1 year as well.
 
Wasteful as in the cost of oil and a filter? Only you can declare that.
Three years OCI.. Motor Oil is stable and it has a DP to neutralize acid. If you can't go 3k mile OCI over 3 years you must be using Non Detergent API SB oil. Also note that my lawnmower that has had, maybe, five oil changes in 30 years should be long gone - dead. But it runs like new.

This is NOT a Value proposition. There is absolutely NO value in changing earlier earlier than three years with your circumstance.

NONE.

And understand the enormous BURDEN on the environment with the 100's of million cars if they have the oil changed out too early or too often.

Plus, new oil causes MORE engine wear as the new detergent competes for critical surface area "hot zones" with the "protective" anti-wear and extreme pressure anti-scuffing and anti-spalling compounds.

I've been EXTENDING the OCI in my Wife's Subaru 50-75% beyond factory recommended interval and multiple UOA data have shown MUCH LOWER than average wear in our engine than the average data from those who change the oil at normal intervals or less.

So NOTHING good will come from changing the oil too often.

Find another more enjoyable activity.
 
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