Oil Change Intervals 3k vs Longer with full synthetic

[Averroes]

The advancements in oil and the detergents that go in them has come a long way. Just think about how far cars have come along with airplanes.

I’m in the boat of 5-6k miles or one year, whatever comes first when it comes to engine oil. Oil is cheap as is a quality filter in the grand scheme of things. If you stick to this schedule (my opinion) your cars engine will outlast the chassis.

Any off the shelf big brand name oil will make sure your car does well with regular changes.

 

[Sberry]

Everyone should work on some old cars at the end of life or in a common shop. There are some exceptions with engines and cars and I started bout the time pcv did and really haven't seen engines booked the way they use to since before 70's really.
Like I said exceptions but the more people worry about oil the less they really know about cars. What costs. What stops them. What puts them in junkyards and very few today unless NEVER serviced or ran out has much to do with oil. Got a couple common Fords mid 2000's got religious changes in second half of life in the dirty rural world at 50k and run till the car is scrap.

 

[Hohn]

I was taught the old way of changing oil and filter every 3k miles as regular routine maintenance and i know oil has changed a lot over the years
Even though i run Mobil 1 Full synthetic in all my cars now i still have a hard time going over the 3k miles without doing an oil change
I would never consider going 7500 10000 miles ever and i know some people say that's fine to do but I'm not willing to take the risk
What are thoughts about 5K mile oil change intervals I run full synthetic Mobil 1 in the engines and usually run stock filters
Mopar in dodge, Mobis in hyundai, and i use napagold/wix in the wifes honda
My hyundai i will stick to 3k simply because its gdi and i spray intake valve cleaner into the engine every oil change to try to minimize carbon buildup on the valves. I also have a 20 year old pontiac that ill stick with 3k simply due to it being an older car now. is it worth sticking to 3k oil changes just to maximize engine protection?

3k made sense when cars were carbureted and engines had more internal variation in important clearances.

But in a modern engine where fuel is precisely metered and blocks and pistons are precisely CNC machined and honed, bearing clearances are under .001, and such, the 3k oil change no longer makes sense.

Engines have gotten much better along with the oils themselves.


But really, the OCI comes down to a balance of three factors: the engine in use (and it's pan capacity), the oil used, and how the engine is used.

This is why is dislike blanket mileage rules that fail to account for that balance.

A better rule of thumb is change the after burning 200x the oil pan capacity in fuel. This accounts for two of the three critical variables, but is usually sufficient even with petroleum oils.

 

[Sberry]

I have 1 was changed just before I got it 5 years ago, put about 50 hrs on it, good for 5 or more and added a gallon along the way, maybe.
I usually change a machine after I get it at some point, same for fuel filter etc mostly for "baseline" of sorts and to ensure correct juice in it.

 

[Bill7]

I was taught the old way of changing oil and filter every 3k miles as regular routine maintenance and i know oil has changed a lot over the years
Even though i run Mobil 1 Full synthetic in all my cars now i still have a hard time going over the 3k miles without doing an oil change
I would never consider going 7500 10000 miles ever and i know some people say that's fine to do but I'm not willing to take the risk
What are thoughts about 5K mile oil change intervals I run full synthetic Mobil 1 in the engines and usually run stock filters
Mopar in dodge, Mobis in hyundai, and i use napagold/wix in the wifes honda
My hyundai i will stick to 3k simply because its gdi and i spray intake valve cleaner into the engine every oil change to try to minimize carbon buildup on the valves. I also have a 20 year old pontiac that ill stick with 3k simply due to it being an older car now. is it worth sticking to 3k oil changes just to maximize engine protection?

If you have an engine prone to piston ring stuck issues, or an engine this is very hard on the oil, then 4k OCI with full synthetic is similar to 3k OCI with conventional oil.

If you have an engine which isn't too hard on the oil, then 5k OCI with full synthetic should allow you to reach 300k miles with the vehicle.
5k miles / 6 month is my limit for an oil change.

I like buying cars from very old retired couples who never heard of BITOG and barely know what an oil or engine does.
They change oil every 3k miles, which I like.

 

[Patman]

If you have an engine prone to piston ring stuck issues, or an engine this is very hard on the oil, then 4k OCI with full synthetic is similar to 3k OCI with conventional oil.

If you have an engine which isn't too hard on the oil, then 5k OCI with full synthetic should allow you to reach 300k miles with the vehicle.

With an engine that isn’t hard on oil and is driven mostly highway I think 10k intervals can get it to 300k. I am very confident that my Civic will get there with 10k intervals.

 

[Bill7]

With an engine that isn’t hard on oil and is driven mostly highway I think 10k intervals can get it to 300k. I am very confident that my Civic will get there with 10k intervals.

I wanted to learn more about the Civic's oil life monitor. At 10k miles of mostly highway miles, what percentage oil life does your Honda oil life monitor show?

 

[Patman]

I wanted to learn more about the Civic's oil life monitor. At 10k miles of mostly highway miles, what percentage oil life does your Honda oil life monitor show?

At that point mine is usually at around 5-10%

In my Corvette my oil life monitor is at 5% around 7000 miles.

 

[TomYoung]

It surprises me when I hear about members here who have one of these Kia/Hyundai GDI vehicles that are so failure prone unless you change the oil at such low intervals. Didn’t they do any research before buying? There’s so many other choices they could have gone with that aren’t so sensitive to oil choice/interval.

I agree. The engines on these cars are straight trash.

 

[TomYoung]

Well from what the lab told me if you're showing 0% fuel then the equipment is broken. Even my VOA showed slight fuel.

That’s not correct. 0 is a common value.

 

[TomYoung]

Everyone should work on some old cars at the end of life or in a common shop. There are some exceptions with engines and cars and I started bout the time pcv did and really haven't seen engines booked the way they use to since before 70's really.
Like I said exceptions but the more people worry about oil the less they really know about cars. What costs. What stops them. What puts them in junkyards and very few today unless NEVER serviced or ran out has much to do with oil. Got a couple common Fords mid 2000's got religious changes in second half of life in the dirty rural world at 50k and run till the car is scrap.

Plenty, probably most people here work on their own cars or cars of friends. This thread started off on oil change intervals, which is not quite the same as the question of what puts cars into the junkyard, but i will say that enthusiastic an thorough maintenance of a car is what keeps a car out of the junkyard. In most cases, a car will fall apart around a running engine. Assuming that we are not talking about out of warranty Hyundais, or totaled cars, cars show up in the junkyard because they have depreciated to the point of being beyond economic repair. Change your oil at 5 k.

 

[ChrisD46]

The advancements in oil and the detergents that go in them has come a long way. Just think about how far cars have come along with airplanes.

I’m in the boat of 5-6k miles or one year, whatever comes first when it comes to engine oil. Oil is cheap as is a quality filter in the grand scheme of things. If you stick to this schedule (my opinion) your cars engine will outlast the chassis.

Any off the shelf big brand name oil will make sure your car does well with regular

I agree. The engines on these cars are straight trash.

Not that easy - when I bought my 2017 Sonata Theta II 2.4L there wasn’t much factual information available regarding Theta II 2.4L engine issues other than if was only a concern for earlier model year Theta II 2.4L GDI engines (2011 - 2014) . Who knew at that time the Theta II engine concerns would continue on to later model year engines ? 4K mile / 6 month max OCI for GDI with a good 5W30 synthetic oil. My current favorite is M1 0W30 or 5W30 ESP for higher viscosity and higher HTHS . My driving habits changed recently - totally flip flopping from 90% City / 10% Highway to now 90% Highway / 10% City (due to move). I will see how this new driving regiment impacts UOA results (using 4K mile / 6 month OCI as a base).

 

[thetricky]

I’d personally get rid of any vehicle that “needs” 3k oil changes. The risk of failure and the increased operating costs over the life of the vehicle make less sense than getting rid of said vehicle for something less fragile.

Thanks for saying what some of us are thinking! I’ve only really realized it since I started browsing this forum, how many people buy terribly engineered vehicles and justify these crazy low OCI’s with top shelf oils. Why waste TONS of hard earned money on junk? Every manufacturer has their hiccups with engine/transmission families, it’s inevitable, however, why buy when they are known to be in that bad run?

 

[Sumboodie]

250hrs which is around 10k miles.

 

[OVERKILL]

I was taught the old way of changing oil and filter every 3k miles as regular routine maintenance and i know oil has changed a lot over the years
Even though i run Mobil 1 Full synthetic in all my cars now i still have a hard time going over the 3k miles without doing an oil change
I would never consider going 7500 10000 miles ever and i know some people say that's fine to do but I'm not willing to take the risk
What are thoughts about 5K mile oil change intervals I run full synthetic Mobil 1 in the engines and usually run stock filters
Mopar in dodge, Mobis in hyundai, and i use napagold/wix in the wifes honda
My hyundai i will stick to 3k simply because its gdi and i spray intake valve cleaner into the engine every oil change to try to minimize carbon buildup on the valves. I also have a 20 year old pontiac that ill stick with 3k simply due to it being an older car now. is it worth sticking to 3k oil changes just to maximize engine protection?

I posted this in the other, similar, thread, seems like it's germane to this one as well:

Oil doesn't age in miles.

What ages an oil are the various inputs: heat, oxidation, contamination (fuel, soot, acids...etc.) and its ability to resist these inputs is dictated by sump size (dilution) and formulation (additive package, base oil selection).

A vehicle traveling a specific distance says nothing as to the impact of those inputs on the lubricant. It's like buying new shoes every 4 months without taking a look at how they have worn; with absolutely no consideration given to how they were used.

IOLM's (IE, not mileage counters) are programmed to account for operating conditions so that you are changing the lubricant when it's likely to be reasonably contaminated, based on those inputs and not dumping perfectly serviceable product for no reason.

The caveat of course is that IOLM's are programmed based on whatever standard the OEM calls for. That could be Dexos, API SP...etc. So it has no way of being adjusted for oils capable of drains beyond what those minimum standards dictate. This is where UOA's enter the picture.

 

[FlyingTexan]

That’s not correct. 0 is a common value.

That’s from Caterpillar directly saying it.

 

[HouseTiger]

Don't know about the rest, but my wife does very short hops, mostly under 4 miles in stop & go traffic. Occasionally she'll do the 10-plus mile jaunt (going to Crapco or Sam's Club). I run Pennzoil Platinum and give it about 4,000-6,000 miles at the outset.

 

[tired]

Thanks for saying what some of us are thinking! I’ve only really realized it since I started browsing this forum, how many people buy terribly engineered vehicles and justify these crazy low OCI’s with top shelf oils. Why waste TONS of hard earned money on junk? Every manufacturer has their hiccups with engine/transmission families, it’s inevitable, however, why buy when they are known to be in that bad run?

Honestly probably a lot of reasons. People buy before they know a lot about engines or maintenance.

You can also buy a lot of oil and oil filters for the cost of car depreciation on a newer, more expensive car.

 

[Sberry]

I agree with post 55. It doesn't know miles and doubt it knows age, a year 2 or 3

 

[ltslimjim]

With an engine that isn’t hard on oil and is driven mostly highway I think 10k intervals can get it to 300k. I am very confident that my Civic will get there with 10k intervals.

I’m at 340k on my Fit doing pretty much that. 70% highway miles, 27 mile commute twice a day. 20 miles interstate. Granted this thing is like 100HP to the wheels but still!