Short Trip Oil Question

[captno4]

I recently retired and will soon be starting a part time job 3 days a week. The work site is roughly a 3 mile drive one way. My previous job had the added bonus of a take home car, so my personal vehicles did not rack up the miles.

I plan to use my 2011 Toyota Tundra (currently with 65,000 miles) and the 5.7L engine that is listed in my signature to travel back and forth. For the last 8 years the truck has seen mainly M1 EP 5w30 and an oil and filter change once a year.

With my new driving habits, I'm wondering if this would still be a solid practice or would it be better to run a mileage interval now? I also thought about dropping the EP and switching to any brand name synthetic and changing the oil twice a year and the filter 1x per year? There are errands that I can do on days off and/or weekends which would require me to drive the truck roughly 20 miles at highway speeds. Would this be enough to offset the short trips?

 

[tiger862]

I recently retired and will soon be starting a part time job 3 days a week. The work site is roughly a 3 mile drive one way. My previous job had the added bonus of a take home car, so my personal vehicles did not rack up the miles.

I plan to use my 2011 Toyota Tundra (currently with 65,000 miles) and the 5.7L engine that is listed in my signature to travel back and forth. For the last 8 years the truck has seen mainly M1 EP 5w30 and an oil and filter change once a year.

With my new driving habits, I'm wondering if this would still be a solid practice or would it be better to run a mileage interval now? I also thought about dropping the EP and switching to any brand name synthetic and changing the oil twice a year and the filter 1x per year? There are errands that I can do on days off and/or weekends which would require me to drive the truck roughly 20 miles at highway speeds. Would this be enough to offset the short trips?

I do short trips with an occasional longer run all under 45 mph. I run whatever synthetic is on sale and change once a year. I will do interstate runs occasionally as well but those are short as well. Cars today are cleaner and get to temp pretty quickly so I don't worry about the oil.

 

[HemiBenny]

I short trip my truck every week, 5 miles to the shop Monday-Friday and occasional longer runs here and there on the weekends. I change my oil every 6 months using high quality oils and filter at a cost of ~$100 per year if no rebates are applied. Some people can say that it’s a waste of money and oil if they want, but it’s my money and my truck.
The truck in my signature is 12 years old and has only 71k on her, that averages to just under 6k per year.

 

[shortyb]

My wife does super short trips in her's everyday (1.7 miles one way). Oil temp barely cracks 140F in hot weather. I make it a point to use it as often as possible for longer trips at highway speeds. Currently M1 ESP X2 5W-30 and last UOA showed negligible fuel content/dilution and nitration well within a good range. With current mileage use, it's about an annual OCI. So, if you can get it out and run her, I wouldn't change anything you're doing now.

 

[SureshR]

Your cost for such a short trip isn’t going to be engine oil changes - it’s going to be fuel. Unless you’re lugging something heavy I’d say pick up an old Corolla or some other small sedan or hatch for this use case.

 

[captno4]

Your cost for such a short trip isn’t going to be engine oil changes - it’s going to be fuel. Unless you’re lugging something heavy I’d say pick up an old Corolla or some other small sedan or hatch for this use case.

Not concerned about the cost of another oil change, mainly just preserving the health of the engine. I have thought about finding an old "beater" but but don't want the added cost of insurance, taxes, and tags. Plus this truck has been paid off since 2015, so I might as well get some use out of it.

 

[Lubener]

Your occassional 20 mile highway trip will heat things up sufficiently to burn off any condensation. I would not change your oil change habits.

 

[SureshR]

Not concerned about the cost of another oil change, mainly just preserving the health of the engine. I have thought about finding an old "beater" but but don't want the added cost of insurance, taxes, and tags. Plus this truck has been paid off since 2015, so I might as well get some use out of it.

A weekend trip somewhere will take care of any issues with your engine health. Call it like an office worker who hits the gym once a week.

 

[JHZR2]

Your question is entirely speculative without data. It cant be answered.

Do a UOA after some period of time and see what it says. Is there fuel? Moisture? If nothing then youre probably good to go.

If you don’t want to do UOA to see what byproducts are in there, then you need to use rules of thumb. The 2x change may give peace of mind but even that may be wasteful. The long trips will help for sure if there is anything building up. That’s the main concern.

Frankly I suspect that if you use a quality filter, you could do an annual oil change and a filter every other.

 

[wlk]

Every 3k or 6 months and use whichever oil you wish. I have a fleet of 3, 2 driver's and the 2 that do the shortest amount of driving get 6mn as they usually don't put 6-7k on a year now. The other one was going on mileage of 5k but will be dropping it back to 3k. Oils cheap and gets you under it to check other items regularly. Don't waste the money on a uoa just to see if you can squeak out another 1-2k, the cost would be better spent on fresh oil and cheaper too if you diy. Enjoy retirement

 

[ChrisD46]

For mixed , large city suburban driving - I use oils in my signature with an OCI of 3,750 mile (severe service) / 4 months. While it may be slightly over kill I buy oil on sale and change myself ... A clean , long-lasting engine is my objective .

 

[TomYoung]

Your cost for such a short trip isn’t going to be engine oil changes - it’s going to be fuel. Unless you’re lugging something heavy I’d say pick up an old Corolla or some other small sedan or hatch for this use case.

That does not really make any sense. A three mile commute will be easy on any Toyota, including this one. I would not run the oil more than 5,000 miles, and change accordingly. I would change the filter each time. There is no economic case for adding a small, used-up beater into the mix.

 

[dumkid]

You could also ride a bike if you're worried about short tripping your car and want some pain and suffering

 

[Jay73]

I live 4 miles from work. I use Mobil1 5W30 Extended Performance and drain it every 6 months regardless of mileage due to direct injection, turbo and short trips. 2333 miles on my last 6 month drain a few days ago.

 

[TomYoung]

I live 4 miles from work. I use Mobil1 5W30 Extended Performance and drain it every 6 months regardless of mileage due to direct injection, turbo and short trips. 2333 miles on my last 6 month drain a few days ago.

You could go to 9 months, no problem.

 

[Jpc1623]

Follow OLM down to between 10-20% and you will be ok