"Time" as an oil change indicator (vs. mileage)

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I realize this site has largely debunked the notion of using a definitive mileage indicator for oil change intervals. The type of driving certainly matters.

But what about "time"? The oft-stated standards of mileage often comes with a time interval listed as well - i.e. "5000 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first".

I'm primarily asking this question from the perspective of a limited use vehicle - in this case, I'm about to put mine away for the winter after only putting maybe 500 miles on it this year. I've typically done an oil change before putting it away, but I'm thinking this may be overkill. Even more so this year, when the miles were largely easy highway miles.

Thoughts?

 

[CATERHAM]

I agree it's definately overkill.
Time is not an issue if the engine is throughly brought up to temperature every time it is run.

 

[HTSS_TR]

As Caterham said, if you drove the car more than 15-20 miles each time, then you can do 2 years OCI if mileage each year was less than 2k miles, especially if you use syn oil.

 

[daman]

There's been many many UOA's showing over 1 year OCI and the oil showed perfectly fine for continued use,with todays oil's time is no concern.

if it takes me 1,2,3 years to rack up 5-9,000 miles so be it,no worries here, i have gone 1.5 before.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

I also agree that changing it before storage is overkill. The additives that will prevent problems during and after storage are in good shape and don't need to be refreshed after 500 miles. You don't even need to change it after storage, but get the engine up to full temperature for a while to evaporate any moisture and let the additives get to all the parts. Change it every 2 years at only 500 miles/year and I'd bet a UOA would still come back fine. An HDEO would probably go even longer.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
An HDEO would probably go even longer.


In fact, that's precisely what this is - I switched over to HDEO in my two solid-lifter engines a couple years ago.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions on this topic. I'll filler-up and put the P-car away with the oil that's already in it.