Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
I do encounter colder temps in the winter from time to time sometimes as low as -40F (-40C) on a rare cold snap, but most of winter is spent hovering around 32F (0C) and a little colder. My driving is always always more than 5 miles (8km) it is seldom less than 35miles at a time as I live in rural but paved community. I also travel at 55mph (90km/hr) more than 90% of my commutes.
So my oil gets up to temp every start, every time. I drive low engine speeds, hardly any stop and go. So...Is my usage even close to severe?
I guess I am just a little timid as to mess up a good thing as well being that I get exceptional fuel economy and do not burn a drop of oil, I wouldn't want to extend my interval if it meant either of those things were compromised.
There is no way you can class the use of your car as extreme service. There are 4 main reasons why oil gets contaminated to such an extent that it needs changing early. The most common one is too much time stuck in traffic at idle, followed by a bad engine that has either a faulty injection system causing fuel contamination, coolant contamination or thermostat stuck open. The third most common reason is Silicon contamination from ultra fine sand particles passing through the air filter when off roading or a faulty air filtration system, the fith reason is probably multiple short trips where the engine does not reach full operating temperature. I suspect the fith most common reason is boy racer syndrome where the cars is driven very hard every trip.
The various articles that mention what degrades engine oil faster than normal do mention temperature extremes, but I have never seen a UOA that shows such effects.
I do encounter colder temps in the winter from time to time sometimes as low as -40F (-40C) on a rare cold snap, but most of winter is spent hovering around 32F (0C) and a little colder. My driving is always always more than 5 miles (8km) it is seldom less than 35miles at a time as I live in rural but paved community. I also travel at 55mph (90km/hr) more than 90% of my commutes.
So my oil gets up to temp every start, every time. I drive low engine speeds, hardly any stop and go. So...Is my usage even close to severe?
I guess I am just a little timid as to mess up a good thing as well being that I get exceptional fuel economy and do not burn a drop of oil, I wouldn't want to extend my interval if it meant either of those things were compromised.
There is no way you can class the use of your car as extreme service. There are 4 main reasons why oil gets contaminated to such an extent that it needs changing early. The most common one is too much time stuck in traffic at idle, followed by a bad engine that has either a faulty injection system causing fuel contamination, coolant contamination or thermostat stuck open. The third most common reason is Silicon contamination from ultra fine sand particles passing through the air filter when off roading or a faulty air filtration system, the fith reason is probably multiple short trips where the engine does not reach full operating temperature. I suspect the fith most common reason is boy racer syndrome where the cars is driven very hard every trip.
The various articles that mention what degrades engine oil faster than normal do mention temperature extremes, but I have never seen a UOA that shows such effects.