Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by zrxkawboy
Originally Posted by CT8
You would spend the $$$ for a uoa instead of changing the oil?
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Should synthetic be changed after one year regardless of mileage?
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Yes. If you establish a safe OCI (for example, 2 years, let's say), you can continue to do that without paying for a UOA each time. If you just blindly change the oil each year, all those extra changes using synthetic oil could be expensive (especially if the OP uses boutique oil).
IOW, a one- or two-time expense to establish a good OCI vs an ongoing and likely unnecessary expense.
Go by what the oil monitor says at the minimum. Take some time, spend a bit of money and get a few oil analyses done to see where your oil even is on the spectrum as opposed to just doing what the bottle of over priced Mobil 1 oil tells you to.
Science and facts trump bench racing any day of the week.
Originally Posted by ARB1977
My mother in law has a 95 bmw with 17K miles that sits. Who knows when the last oil change was done. Last time I chaecked it it was brand new looking.
Originally Posted by Bamaro
No!
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
I just bought 10 of them on Rockauto for $9.52 each and my total for FedEx was something like $7.92.
Originally Posted by demarpaint
You bring up a good point, and that was my logic until I was able to buy Wix oil analysis kits for under $10, TBN included. Now it is a little higher but well below $25. Anyway my driving conditions remain the same so the data has proven to be cost effective and useful.
Other than a prewarranty expiration check for obvious mechanical and integrity issues I don't use UOAs anymore.
So 1 per vehicle unless there is an issue found and repaired. Since it is just 1 I would use a high quality analysis at recommended OCI,
I change the oil based on service otherwise. 12 mo 10k or 6 mo 5 k, because it's simple and prudent to do.
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I don't understand what this whole thing is about. Oil is cheap, change once a year. The add packs can break down, it does develop moisture from the elements. Even for the best oil your looking at 50 bucks once a year. So be it. A UOA cost you 25, just change it
Time, at least for a small # of years, means nothing. You may see people repeating urban myths about changing oil yearly or whatever interval but the only valid basis for that is within the assumption that if you have low miles then you are short tripping a lot and that is leading to a much faster rate per mile of oil contamination. Any way you look at it, a 1 year interval is a silly rounded off number. It is no more valid than once every 6 months or once every 9,582.847893983 calendar hours, rather it is always trumped by the driving conditions.
It's easier to give the masses some extremely simple directions than write them an essay about oil and expect them to understand and follow it, and is the safer more conservative approach to have everyone do that even if some don't need it.
Certainly you could do an oil analysis, but done several times over the life of the engine, it may be no more trouble or expense to just change the oil more often. You cannot just do the analysis once when the engine is new and expect that is how it will be years later.
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My suggestion is once a year. If you buy oil In a sealed jug you supposed to shake it up to mix additives and last time I checked we can't shake engine unless we start it and even with that oil will not be properly mixed for a few seconds. If you run it short amount of time during the year you get moisture from the atmosphere as well as fuel dilution. Even most expensive oil can get contaminated so 1 oil change a year is worth it. We invest lots of hard earned money and time in our toys so why not reward them with a fresh drink once and awhile
Patman
Staff member
With my last Corvette, a 2005 model, I would do two year OCIs, it would generally have about 10,000 miles on the oil at the time and the UOAs supported this practice. With my current Corvette being under warranty and DI, I definitely won't go beyond one year. With my Honda I'd like to stick with one year OCIs because I've had issues with fuel dilution in the past and also because it often gets started and shut down almost right away (to move it out of the way so I can drive the Corvette) I only drive the Honda about 5000 miles a year so some might say it's a waste to use synthetic but I only paid about $22 CDN for 5 quarts of Ultra (because of the rebate) so that's about the equivalent price of Supertech Synthetic if I bought it in the US. Plus I only change the oil filter every other OCI too, so I save there.
Without knowing what motors/vehicles and mods done to it, as well as exact usage (occasional auto cross/drag race, how often is that?), no way to know.
Most likely, you could go 2 years. You may be able to go 4.
As mentioned above, a UOA will tell you if the oil is still good or not, but 2 years from now, are you using the same oil, are driving conditions identical? If not, you need another UOA.
The cost adds up either way.
You have to pay to play.
If I did very low annual miles with each use long enough to get the oil hot I wouldn't thing twice about going 2 year OCI's.
As it is, my bike does low miles but runs right through the winter when the oil never gets hot. That's severe use so I change it out in the spring regardless of miles.
Originally Posted by fortesquieu
Originally Posted by ARB1977
My mother in law has a 95 bmw with 17K miles that sits. Who knows when the last oil change was done. Last time I chaecked it it was brand new looking.
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by demarpaint
You bring up a good point, and that was my logic until I was able to buy Wix oil analysis kits for under $10, TBN included. Now it is a little higher but well below $25. Anyway my driving conditions remain the same so the data has proven to be cost effective and useful.
I only do one year OCI's if I have a vehicle under warranty and I've not hit the suggested Mileage. After that I just go until I hit the mileage I want to change by regardless of time. For example, both of my 98 Chevy trucks recommend 3,000 mile OCI with short trip use which mine is. I last changed the oil in both in November of 17 and have yet to hit 3,000 miles yet in either one thought the 1/2 ton is close. I will change the oil when I hit 3,000 miles.
I did do the one year change on my Mustang this last time but will probably go by mileage the next time since the car usually sits from November to April without being driven.
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