OIl life in the pan???

[HeavyAssault06]

Okay it's been asked around the boards I visit. Given just the simple question without all the variables.

IF someone were using synthetic oil and NOT driving the truck often. Could you leave the oil in the truck for 2+ years? Say the truck is driven under 7k miles during that 2 year time frame.

 

[tomcat27]

I vote "yes" - although at least one oil mfr says to change it once a year. (One of my trucks gets used only for long trips - and the QSUD has been in there for 2 years and 3k miles)

 

[Zaedock]

I remember a member running his toyota out to a couple of years on dino and the UOA was fine. I'll be doing two years on my trail Jeep, just because it doesn't get used much.

 

[Bluestream]

I'm doing 3 years in my BMW. It only gets used 2,000 miles per year. I'm 1.5 years in with 1.5 to go. Using Pennzoil 5W50

 

[Joseph_S37]

I'd say as long as the few trips the vehicle does get aren't short trips, as in when it is driven, the oil gets fully up to temp for a while... then I would say no problem leaving it in that long

 

[dnewton3]

If the vehicle is under OEM warrantly, you must consider the risks versus rewards.

If not under warranty constraints, then oils can last a long time in the crankcase. There is a UOA somewhere on here where a guy did 10k miles over 4 years with M1 in his dad's Tundra; all was fine in the UOA. I personally use dino HDEO for up to 3 years in some of my equipment, with no adverse effects.

ONLY a UOA will prove each circumstance to be valid or not. But often it's just cheaper to OCI than to UOA. As a generalization, if the engine is operated infrequently, but comes up to temp fully, two or three years is not unreasonable.

 

[Jim Allen]

Proven with UOA's, I run a variety of cars, trucks, tractors and small engines at one to three year intervals, depending on the situation. With my street driven car and trucks, they are basically on a mileage only OCI. Typically they get 5-7K miles on the car and newer truck. The older truck is recently "retired" from fron-line duty but I predict 2-3K /year at most. The more frequently driven rigs usually work out to 18 months to 2 years per OCI. Now that I have bypass filtration on the two trucks, some changes are in order and I will likely go to a three year interval, which will work out to 15K miles. I do run one 100 hp farm tractor out as far as three years. The UOA was good.

As mentioned above, this works only when the vehicle is not short hopped, i.e. when it's driven, it get a thorough warmup, and is parked in a reasonably good environment (not some dank shop).

 

[k1rod]

I ran Mobil Delvac 1 for 6K miles over a 2 year period in my Silverado. When I did run the truck, it always was run up to temperature. UOA said the oil was still fine. I'm going 3 years this time and will do another UOA at that time.