Oil change frequency for rarely used truck.

[SigShooter]

Last June my wife inherited a 97 Chevy S10 from her father that had passed away.It sat in Pa.until last November and then was driven to Michigan, its new home.I changed the oil and filter right away in Nov. and now there is about 700 miles on the oil and it still looks good.There is 37800 miles on the truck.It is a 4 cylinder automatic.How often should it be changed? If it still looks good is that ok or not?Most of the time when it is driven it is long enough to reach normal operating temp.Any thoughts?
Thanks---Dennis

 

[Ryan]

Well traditionally it is expected that you change it every 3 months if you have had it that long and not put 3,000 miles on it, but I wonder how that really works. I'm assuming that it is every 3 months if you did a lot of short trips with it causing the crankcase to get a lot of moisture built up...but if you rarely even start it to keep that from happening then I wonder if you would have to go by the monthly schedule. My guess would be to just wait longer.

 

[Ken2]

I change the oil in my mother-in-law's '86 Nissan pickup, 76,000 miles, once a year whether it needs it or not...currently truck gets about 2000 miles a year on it and often sits for weeks until I prompt her to take it for a 20+ mile drive. Her Honda gets the kind of service Ryan mentioned...a couple of 5-10 minute trips almost every day. That one gets 3 month oil changes.


Ken

 

[pruntyc]

I have an old 77 chey pickup, that I don't use much, about like you said, if even that much. It has over 100k on it and don't use much oil, for the kind of motor and miles. And I change it just once a year, don't care how the oil looks, good or bad. If you go to useing it a lot, then change it more often, if not, I think that it would be a waste of oil and money.

 

[digitaldrifter91]

i have a nissan 300zx 86 with 110k on it. it gets about 20 miles a month at most. i get gas about every 5 months for that car. alot of short trips..recently i found some sludge in there...oil wasnt changed for a year....im cleaning it out wiht auto rx but after that im giong to do an oil change every 3 months no matter what.

a year i get about 1000 miles =).

 

[Spector]

A co worker and I have been changing the oil once a year in his ole 87 truck, low miels 60,000 or so and gets 3000 a year maybe. Using synthetic. Inside has the varnish from previous owner but runs great.

Once a year is fine, if very cold winters maybe twice a year

 

[Jimbo]

The last GM owners manual I saw called for a one year maximum change interval. I use that interval for the Dodge and Ford that are both driven less than 4000 miles in a year. High-TBN 15W-40 is used, so I am not worried about condensation, etc.