To change or not to change....

[mark pruett]

So the one year mark is coming up for my 3.7l V6 Dakota's OCI, and I only have about 6000-7000 miles on it in that time.

I'm currently running M1 EP 5w-30, so the question is, should I change it? Supposedly the M1 is good to 15,000 miles, but does just plain time in the engine change that, or is it only miles that count? I had thought I'd just do annual oil changes, but now I'm wondering if that's necessary or not. It hasn't burned any appreciable oil over the 6k miles either.

It's not a cost thing; I have a 5 qt jug of 5w-30 PP and a filter waiting and ready.

Any opinions / thoughts?

 

[cchase]

We run the oil in our BMW at up to 5 year intervals. This is the UOA I had done on the most recent 5 year change:

 

[LineArrayNut]

What does it look like on your dipstick? Still pretty clean? What filter are you using? Rated for extended use?

 

[bigjl]

I personally don't like to leave oil for more than a year. If my miles were as low as yours I would still do an annual OC.

My reasoning is that it is likely the car is used in stop start driving and perhaps significant idling time. So the oil will have had a fairly hard life.

I don't know the relevance of the above UOA as a car doing 500miles in 5 yrs is almost certainly a sunny day only vehicle and is unlikely to be used in day to day driving.

 

[gfh77665]

If you got 7000 miles on the oil, even if it's M1, you got your moneys worth at this point. It could go longer, but go ahead and change it.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: gfh77665
If you got 7000 miles on the oil, even if it's M1, you got your moneys worth at this point. It could go longer, but go ahead and change it.

Pardon? How has he gotten his money's worth at this point. That engine isn't hard on oil so a conventional would have gotten him to this mileage. That isn't getting his roi when using a premium lube made for extended drains. 7000 miles isn't an extended drain. Granted it might be "pushing it" if it was conventional but it's mobil 1.
Op. Changing it won't hurt anything but your wallet. Why spend big bucks on an extended drain oil only to change it at a conventional oils mileage.
Just my opinion.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
If you got 7000 miles on the oil, even if it's M1, you got your moneys worth at this point. It could go longer, but go ahead and change it.

Pardon? How has he gotten his money's worth at this point. .......... Why spend big bucks on an extended drain oil only to change it at a conventional oils mileage.
Just my opinion.


It was just my opinion.

 

[edhackett]

0.4 insolubles in 500 miles? That's not good.

Ed

 

[cchase]

Originally Posted By: LineArrayNut
What does it look like on your dipstick? Still pretty clean? What filter are you using? Rated for extended use?


Inside of the engine is clean, oil on dipstick is clean. Using Mann filters.

 

[fauxchemist]

Inside of the engine is clean, oil on dipstick is clean. Using Mann filters. [/quote]


he was asking pruitt not you

 

[mark pruett]

For what it's worth, it's probably 75% easy city driving and 25% highway driving; I drive roughly 9 miles to work and back during the week, and of that, probably 2.5-3 are on the freeway, and the remainder is on city roads, but early enough so that it's not bumper-to-bumper or stop & go. Mostly 35-50 mph between stoplights, and they're probably a mile or two apart on average.