Should you do a short oil change periodically?

I don't see it hurting anything if you periodically run the oil a little too long.
It does not hurt anything. It does not make up for ill effects of running oil too long at another time. Fresh Oil does not repair damage of old, depleted oil. Also, oil retains its cleaning properties well past 1,000 miles. You might find some folks advocating short oil changes to chase through extremely sludgy engines in very special circumstances, where essentially you are trying to dilute recalcitrant oil. Beyond that, the idea of the occasional short oil change is wasteful or resources and not based on the properties of the oil or how oil works.
 
People do 3 short transmission fluid intervals to try and change all the fluid (usually when the transmission has alot of miles on the original fluid.) so why not do the same with oil? It's probably not going to matter on a well maintained engine but I can see the reasoning on a car with unknown history.
 
so why not do the same with oil?
Because oil is (usually) changed much more regularly than trans fluid.

I don't do 3x changes on my Honda cars just because they are on a regular schedule and don't go 60-100k on the trans fluid. (Neither does the Ranger for that matter, but I don't think Ford prescribes a 3x)
 
All depends on what you're trying to achieve. All things considered - I just keep my normal oil change intervals on the short end, rather than extending it and then trying to fix it with 1-2 short OCIs.
Regardless, here are a couple videos applicable to the topic.


 
Ya know, I do a long(er) & short(er) OCI's just by the way I/we drive the vehicle.
If we drive more on the highway more often during a particular OCI, I may stretch out that OCI a bit longer.
However, I we drive many short or too short of trips more often during a particular OCI, I will indeed drain sooner.
Sometime I will perform an early OCI just out of convenience due to e.g., upcoming winter months and I just want to be ready.
 
People do 3 short transmission fluid intervals to try and change all the fluid (usually when the transmission has alot of miles on the original fluid.) so why not do the same with oil? It's probably not going to matter on a well maintained engine but I can see the reasoning on a car with unknown history.
People do that because a lot of transmission fluid is held in the torque converter and many torque converters don't have provisions to drain them. So a few short interval drain and refills gets most of that fluid out.
 
Back
Top