OCI on Higher Mileage Cars

[actionstan]

Hello,

I was curious if it is ok to push a higher mileage car OCI to 4-5k at least, without worrying.

I have a 2003 buick century with 186k on the clock, and a Saturn sl1 with 126k on the clock.

The buick has almost always had 3-4k oci on conventional, The saturn is unknown Because I have only had it 6 Months, but I have been keeping the OCI at 3k to try and clean the engine some.


I was thinking of starting to run the buick AT least 5k miles between OCI, and the saturn 4k maybe 5k, This will help save a little money and time.

Please give me your thoughts and opinions, and if there is any potential risk for this?

 

[SatinSilver]

I'd go 5k on both. Don't over think it too much. As long as you're not taking a year or more to put on 5k miles.

 

[NMBurb02]

Does the Buick not have an Oil Life Monitor, telling you when to change? If it does, I would just go with that. If it is a 3800 series engine I would think you could easily go 6k as the supercharged 3800 in my Grand Prix with 136k miles on the odo has more than 6k on the current fill and the OLM is showing about 30% life remaining.

I would think the Saturn could do 5k easily.

But it all depends on driving style, city/highway mix, lengths of trips, climate, etc. Provide some details on those and some more knowledgeable members could probably dial it in much better for you.

 

[tommygunn]

Don't those cars have the oil life monitors? When the car tells you to change the oil.

Because in that case you can just use the OLM suggested intervals.

Any 5w30 will work for such an interval.

 

[Kuato]

What are your driving habits? Stop and go traffic, or mostly highway?

Unless you are in an urban area all the time, agree with tommygunn that any quality 5w30 conventional should be fine at 5000 miles, and might even go further.

If you are concerned about going further, for peace of mind get a used oil analysis done at your next oil change.

 

[actionstan]

The buick has a Olm, the saturn does not.

To be honest I don't really trust the Olm, if it fails ill have no way of knowing.


Both vehicles are mainly highway driven 25 miles one way, twice a day. Where I live even in towns and cities stop and go traffic is rare.

 

[surfstar]

4-5k OCI is not extended - do it with no worries! That sounds like a super easy (on the engine/oil) commute.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: actionstan
...
Both vehicles are mainly highway driven 25 miles one way, twice a day. Where I live even in towns and cities stop and go traffic is rare.


With that kind of driving, 5000 is easy peasy with any quality dino. With a used oil analysis, you could probably even go to 7500 or more. There's one BITOGer that is going 10000 miles with dino and has good results.

In both of our vehicles, Valvoline conventional was tested at 5000 miles, and the used oil analysis showed it could have gone much further. Our driving pattern at the time was pretty much same as yours; we had 25 miles highway to get to town.

 

[andyd]

UUUhhmn , Aren't certain models of Saturns s'posed to have sludge issues? I am on a few boards to share knowledge about the cars I have. I'm sure there is one for Saturns

 

[Errtt]

High mileage, older vehicle, 5k sounds fines and easy to remember using a good conventional oil. And if it is known to be a sludge'r motor, I'd probably use something like Pennzoil conventional. MaxLife might be a viable option.

 

[SuzukiGoat]

Eh, my old.scion got 10-12k oil changes with the flavor of the day synthetic out to 230k until I totaled it. And that was seeing 6500rpm daily and cruising at 3300 on the highway.

My Suzuki didn't have me driving the first 160k and likes to leak oil...its what they do, I swear the pans are porous. But, the recommended oil length on Dino is 7500.

Now that its very quickly approaching 200k...and technically is way beyond that considering I never defeated... I change the oil between 2-5k miles. If I'm headed on a longer trip, it gets changed. If I do a bit of towing, I change it.

Some would say excessive, but oil is cheap. At 9$ a gallon for delo, who cares.

 

[JohnnyZ52]

The Buick can go 5K on a quality oil easily but the Saturn, as someone mentioned, is one I'd be hesitant to do that on. They had some weird issues and I've read in the past it was best to keep their OCI down.

 

[rrounds]

On our 2000 SSEI we go 10k miles on oil(Mobil 1 5w30) before we change it. We have put all 247k miles on it and the supercharged 3.8L engine runs like a top and passes CA smog with flying colors every two years.

ROD

 

[901Memphis]

Follow the oil life monitor on the buick, if it's not been tripped then do 7500 miles. Gm oil life monitors are spot on for conventional oil changes with port injection. I trying to confirm it but in my manual for my 2002 Century I believe it's 7500 miles for normal interval.

I don't have an olm for some reason. The light is there, but I think it's not hooked up. The previous owner replaced the cluster with one from a regal that had a tachometer so I'm not sure if that affected it. I see the light come on when you first power on though.

I'll be doing 7,000 mile syn runs until I'm sure it's clean enough. It's pretty clean down my fill hole but I haven't pulled the valve covers to confirm.

 

[artificialist]

I would continue to do 3000 mile oil changes on the Saturn. Even at 3000 mile oil changes, those engines tend to varnish.

 

[MrQuackers]

The most I will normally do on my SL2 is 4k. I stock up on specials so the cost is peanuts anyway.

 

[tig1]

I do 10K OCIs from day one to 200-300K+. I have friends doing 15-20K with engines well over 300K.

 

[147_Grain]

Originally Posted By: tig1
I do 10K OCIs from day one.


Don't you even change the original factory fill oil and filter early?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Follow the oil life monitor on the buick, if it's not been tripped then do 7500 miles. Gm oil life monitors are spot on for conventional oil changes with port injection. I trying to confirm it but in my manual for my 2002 Century I believe it's 7500 miles for normal interval.

I don't have an olm for some reason. The light is there, but I think it's not hooked up. The previous owner replaced the cluster with one from a regal that had a tachometer so I'm not sure if that affected it. I see the light come on when you first power on though.

I'll be doing 7,000 mile syn runs until I'm sure it's clean enough. It's pretty clean down my fill hole but I haven't pulled the valve covers to confirm.


My 2000 Century has the OLM light, and its working exactly the same as yours. In the 8 months I've owned it and the 12,000+ miles I've driven it the light hasn't come on. I change the oil based on miles. I was curious to see if/when it would come on, no cigar. I wonder how many people buying that car used, and seeing that light in the cluster would actually follow it, and never change their oil? Or wreck their engine waiting for it to come on, then realize it doesn't work, after it's too late?

 

[SteveSRT8]

^^^That's some crazy stuff!

What, is the light burnt out? All our vehicles now except toys have OLM and we use it. Engines easily outlast the truck they are in...