Short OCI = no sythetics

[fisher83]

I'll extend out my oil changes and donate the money I saved to the "Cheer Up Oregoonian" fund.

I was simply making an analogy that we are all wasteful in some way. Everyone wastes a little money on something. I was not aware that filtration gets better with time, so I'm glad to have learned something from this. I will definitely take your suggestion into consideration. Maybe a 6 month/6k mile change would be better for my vehicles. I do mostly short trips which is why I have stuck with my 3k mile intervals in the past.

 

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: fisher83
I'll extend out my oil changes and donate the money I saved to the "Cheer Up Oregoonian" fund.

I was simply making an analogy that we are all wasteful in some way. Everyone wastes a little money on something. I was not aware that filtration gets better with time, so I'm glad to have learned something from this. I will definitely take your suggestion into consideration. Maybe a 6 month/6k mile change would be better for my vehicles. I do mostly short trips which is why I have stuck with my 3k mile intervals in the past.


Thanks...but no thanks fisher83. I don't take any funds for good advise and suggestions.

I must say you've cheered me up....I think you've got it now.... If your a 'short tripper', a 6 month and 5 to 6K OCI....should be perfect. Change your oil in April, and then again in October. Any good Syn can easily go 5 or 6K with your driving habits.

Also...Use a good mid-tier filter (this advise is also free)...such as Purolator PureOne, WIX or Napa Gold.

I feel good that I've been able to save you some $$$...and save you time and resources.

 

[RedCorvette]

90% short trips sounds like severe service so 3 month / 3000 miles might not be wrong depending on the vehicle.

I agree that synthetic might allow him to go to 6 months / 6000 miles but we can't be sure without more information.

I short tripped a vehicle and stuck to 6 month intervals rather than 3 months for severe service. 6 months worked out to 1500 miles. That was on blend and nothing untoward seems to have happened to the engine, but there was a lot of carbon build up which killed performance and fuel economy. Multiple treatments of PEA cleaner took care of.

I now make sure that vehicle gets on the freeway once a week and it now sees 12 month / 3-4k ocis and it's fine. Oil was not even that black.

If you're going to do short oci's, then use a more restrictive filter to clean the oil more. P1's are often considered to be more restrictive.

 

[Oregoonian]

Originally Posted By: RedCorvette
90% short trips sounds like severe service so 3 month / 3000 miles might not be wrong depending on the vehicle.

I agree that synthetic might allow him to go to 6 months / 6000 miles but we can't be sure without more information.

I short tripped a vehicle and stuck to 6 month intervals rather than 3 months for severe service. 6 months worked out to 1500 miles. That was on blend and nothing untoward seems to have happened to the engine, but there was a lot of carbon build up which killed performance and fuel economy. Multiple treatments of PEA cleaner took care of.

I now make sure that vehicle gets on the freeway once a week and it now sees 12 month / 3-4k ocis and it's fine. Oil was not even that black.

If you're going to do short oci's, then use a more restrictive filter to clean the oil more. P1's are often considered to be more restrictive.


RedCorvette:

First: Any quality syn should go 5 to 6k...even for short trippers. In fact...quality dino will do the same (PP).

Second: What evidence do you have that P1's are more 'restrictive'? That is just a myth....and most BITOG'ers know that as a fact.

 

[Chris11]

I wonder if i'm being wasteful? I do 100% exclusive short trip driving so I change my dino oil every 3 months. I may only have 800 miles on the oil when it's changed. Not sure the oil is wasted as it is recycled and used for other purposes. I may just be wasting money. I don't change my oil frequently for "piece of mind" as much as I do because i'm paranoid. If my engine dies it dies. I just don't want it to die because I was too cheap to change the oil.

I do save lots on gas though. Short trips of course give you bad gas mileage but I still only have to fill up once every month and a half.

I'd honestly like to ride a bike to work but that won't work out to well for me in the Winter. Also I work early morning 2 AM shifts and the area is a little rough. I would not want to ride a bike or walk through it. No buses run at that time and every time i've been in a taxi i've feared for my life! Those drivers drive crazy!!! LOL!

 

[RedCorvette]

Originally Posted By: Oregoonian

RedCorvette:

First: Any quality syn should go 5 to 6k...even for short trippers. In fact...quality dino will do the same (PP).

Second: What evidence do you have that P1's are more 'restrictive'? That is just a myth....and most BITOG'ers know that as a fact.



Do you really feel that without knowing what engine he has, and without knowing more about his driving environment that we can say a syn or quality dino would go 5k-6k? I wouldn't feel confident advising someone to do that without more information. I'm all for not wasting resources, but he needs to follow the right advice for his circumstances.

The starting point would be to read his owner's manual and compare his driving style against what they categorise as normal and severe service.

Btw, would you recommend 6k without regards to time? Could I go 3 years with 2k a year?

P1's have greater filtering efficiency than most other filters which would imply greater restriction. My terminology was probably not appropriate in that I substituted restrictive for efficient. But in any case P1 is more efficient and restrictive than P Classic, so I would recommend to the OP he go for the more efficient / restrictive filter for better filtering.

 

[RedCorvette]

Just to be clear, there are 2 posters apart from the OP who are talking about short trips.

Firstly fisher83 who does 3k / 3 month ocis and does "mostly short trips"

Secondly LckydevL who is doing 90% short trips and wondering whether synthetic would go 5k. No time period was mentioned.

I had a car that was doing mostly short trips that would take 2 years to get to 6k. The advice I have mostly seen for maximum oci is 1 year regardless of mileage. So that is one limit that seems to be generally accepted.

Secondly, many cars, especially older ones, come with 6 month / 5k recommended ocis for normal service regardless of whether they use dino or synthetic. Severe service usually cuts that down to 3-4 months and 3k. Short trips are the toughest on oil. By most manufacturer's suggestions, it seems to be at least twice as tough. So if you are saying synthetic is good for 6k / 6 months in short trips, you are saying that it is good for 12k / 12 months in normal service. That is clearly not recommended for many cars out there.

There are undoubtedly exceptions, both longer and shorter, but as a generalisation, I think it is a good yardstick.

 

[LineArrayNut]

Hyundai says 5w40 preferred (so syn) and 3K miles severe and 4800 normal. I dump syth on sale somewhere in the middle. It's black when it comes out and is fuel smelling. DI turbo, high specific output. Hard driving, not really short trip (27 mile commute).

 

[PZR2874]

Originally Posted By: Oregoonian
Originally Posted By: fisher83
I do 3k oil changes on synthetic. Although I know they will last much longer than 3k, it just gives me peace of mind. Any claim that synthetic is bad for your engine is crazy. I agree with the other postings. If anything it's just bad for your wallet. I don't have much money but even to me a $30 oil change every 3 months is pretty affordable!


...But an obvious waste of good oil.....as well as $$$.

Haven't you been informed that...as a nation....we're trying to use less of these very expensive resources.....but I guess your "peace of mind' is more important....even when it doesn't make any common sense.


Apparently, you have never owned a DI'd car. Or even a charged car.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: PZR2874
Originally Posted By: Oregoonian
Originally Posted By: fisher83
I do 3k oil changes on synthetic. Although I know they will last much longer than 3k, it just gives me peace of mind. Any claim that synthetic is bad for your engine is crazy. I agree with the other postings. If anything it's just bad for your wallet. I don't have much money but even to me a $30 oil change every 3 months is pretty affordable!


...But an obvious waste of good oil.....as well as $$$.

Haven't you been informed that...as a nation....we're trying to use less of these very expensive resources.....but I guess your "peace of mind' is more important....even when it doesn't make any common sense.


Apparently, you have never owned a DI'd car. Or even a charged car.


DI has mfgs rethinking OCI's. Just ask GM about reprogramming their OLM for shorter intervals in DI engines.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: RedCorvette
If you're going to do short oci's, then use a more restrictive filter to clean the oil more. P1's are often considered to be more restrictive.


Where are you getting this information from?
In line filters will not clean the oil and are not designed to do so. They are designed to protect the engine from metal shavings and other contaminants that are big enough to damage engine internals, NOT to clean the oil. If you put in a more efficient filter it will be more restrictive and therefore operate in by pass mode most of the time, especially during short trips. So how can it clean oil when it's bypassing, even if said filter could actually do that? Unless, of course you install a filter with no bypass valve, in which case you will starve the engine of oil, not a good scenerio either.

I think you're confusing by pass filtration systems, which where designed to filter out soot and allow extended OCI's in heavy duty applications. A lot of people are using this system in their daily drivers, but they still have in line filters just in case bigger contaminants make their way into the oil.

 

[PZR2874]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: PZR2874
Originally Posted By: Oregoonian
Originally Posted By: fisher83
I do 3k oil changes on synthetic. Although I know they will last much longer than 3k, it just gives me peace of mind. Any claim that synthetic is bad for your engine is crazy. I agree with the other postings. If anything it's just bad for your wallet. I don't have much money but even to me a $30 oil change every 3 months is pretty affordable!


...But an obvious waste of good oil.....as well as $$$.

Haven't you been informed that...as a nation....we're trying to use less of these very expensive resources.....but I guess your "peace of mind' is more important....even when it doesn't make any common sense.


Apparently, you have never owned a DI'd car. Or even a charged car.


DI has mfgs rethinking OCI's. Just ask GM about reprogramming their OLM for shorter intervals in DI engines.



Glad I'm not the only one that sees this

 

[artificialist]

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X calls for synthetic oil only, and the interval is 5,000 miles of normal driving or 3,000 miles of severe driving.

So the idea of short OCI=no synthetics doesn't make sense.

 

[fxrider]

Please try and stretch it out to 5000 OCI . Save the planet.

 

[Capa]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X calls for synthetic oil only, and the interval is 5,000 miles of normal driving or 3,000 miles of severe driving.

So the idea of short OCI=no synthetics doesn't make sense.


It depends on the application but as a generalization it is accurate.

 

[PZR2874]

Originally Posted By: fxrider
Please try and stretch it out to 5000 OCI . Save the planet.


LULZ

 

[mechtech2]

A full synth would be more expensive in a short OCI situation, and i don't see any benefits from it.
Of course, if there is a turbocharger, a full synth is welcome.

 

[RedCorvette]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
A full synth would be more expensive in a short OCI situation, and i don't see any benefits from it.
Of course, if there is a turbocharger, a full synth is welcome.


He has short ocis because he has short trips: As most wear occurs at start up temps and synthetic flows better than dino when cold, synthetic seems ideal for him as his usage pattern is short trips.

He should probably buy 0w20.