Oil change intervals

[w-lewis]

I drive my car 300-400 miles a year, admittedly, not enough and change my oil once a year. Do any of you with similar annual mileage change yours more or less often than that?

[Got the Bug]

Once a year should be fine. I've averaged about 2K miles per year over the last couple of years, and just change the oil yearly. I try to get the car out every couple of weeks year round to get the oil up to temp.

[Mastiff107]

This appears to be more of a cry for help than a maintainance issue. You do know you live in GA, right? I live in WA where we had 4 1/2 days without rain last year and one of them was overcast and I put more miles on than that! Priorities! Priorities! Priorities!

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by w-lewis

I drive my car 300-400 miles a year, admittedly, not enough and change my oil once a year. Do any of you with similar annual mileage change yours more or less often than that?

I change my oil on my low usage cars every six months regardless of distance, which may be 500-1000km (300-600 miles).

Oil not getting to operating temp has high acidity and then sitting for long periods will eat the bearings away from chemical erosion.

[JBCOBRA]

Get Joe Gibbs Hot Rod Oil. It is made for low usage Ve_hicles

[madmaxx]

More useless feel good maintenance. The only way oil gets contaminants is through use. Complete waste of money and time to change anything before 3k miles or 3 years. You get the oil to 212f for 10 minutes and all moisture residual fuel flashes off. BMW interval is 15k miles regardless of time

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by madmaxx

More useless feel good maintenance. The only way oil gets contaminants is through use. Complete waste of money and time to change anything before 3k miles or 3 years. You get the oil to 212f for 10 minutes and all moisture residual fuel flashes off. BMW interval is 15k miles regardless of time

I agree completely. I do send an oil sample out for analysis in the spring when I pull her out of the bag (where she's been sitting for five months). Mostly to check for metals and the presence of antifreeze in the oil, and because I enjoy doing it....

[JBCOBRA]

Seems like a lot of guys are not getting their oil hot enough anyway?
I like mine right at 220-230

Originally Posted by madmaxx

More useless feel good maintenance. The only way oil gets contaminants is through use. Complete waste of money and time to change anything before 3k miles or 3 years. You get the oil to 212f for 10 minutes and all moisture residual fuel flashes off. BMW interval is 15k miles regardless of time

[YerDugliness]

I drive for 6 months a year, try to miss the heat of summer and the winter rains down here along the gulf coast. It usually amounts to about 3 months in the spring and 3 months in the fall.

I change the oil at the end of each of those 3 month "driving seasons"...that way there is fresh oil sitting in the pan when I am ready to resume driving and I am not bothered with changing the oil before I can drive the car.

I don't care if I waste a bit of $$ changing my oil prematurely...this car is a dream come true for an old schoolteacher on a fixed retirement income, I like fiddling with it now and then and the expense of the supplies is diminished because I keep my eyes open for oil sales (usually very inexpensive and includes a filter) at the local automotive shops.

I had the valve covers off earlier this week...despite the drivetrain being from a 1989 Mustang GT, it looks factory fresh under the valve covers, no signs of ever having been neglected and forming sludge....I have no idea of total mileage, but in 3 years I have put 3,000 miles on it.

I would like to have the oil analyzed to get some info regarding how much wear the engine has suffered since it was put into service, but I tried to do this for my daughter when she bought a used car. None of the auto parts stores had the kits.

Patrick, you have a PM....

Cheers!

Dugly

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by YerDugliness

Patrick, you have a PM....

And it was a friendly PM too. (rare for me) Here's an old oil analysis that I had in my gallery:

[madmaxx]

I live down in wonderfull hot and humid houston also!!!! My Cobra is put on top of my 4 post storage until October. Way to HOT,HUMID,DAMP!!!!! I have a 25 year old mercruiser (GM engine) where the first oil change occured 6 years after new because the oil filter rusted through and filled the bilge with oil LOL. Boat has been abused beyond reason, thermostat is 140F as is most seawater cooled engine to prevent salt from plating out. I purchased the boat in year 7 of it life. Boat sits 6 months out of year, has 2800 hrs on it and lives most of it running life at 4500 rpm. Besides using ether to get it started at times it runs perfect. I change the oil every 3 years because it a PIA. I did have the intake/exhaust manifold rott through once but that has nothing to do with oil, it did however cause the sump to fill up with 6 quarts of saltwater. That was 9 years ago. By the way it has points and condesor for ignition. I have been on many boats but I get the best buzz on mine, maybe it the ether I use to start it.

[rpatton3]

Oil change are my security blanket. However, we have a 2002 Thunderbird with 4000 miles.

I think we have changed oil three times. Now we are finding old rubber bushings require entire suspension pieces.

I wonder if a nylon or bronze bushing would work?

Thanks!

Russell

[RodKnock]

I change my oil once every.......

.....time I buy and register a Kirkham. Works for me.

[madmaxx]

As demonstrated in the Nuclear industry 55% of the time a technician works on a piece of equipment they create a problem which must be addressed within 45 days. The risk is not you change the oil to often it is the problem you may create while changing it. Examples include, forget oil and start engine dry, filter on loose resulting in leakage and loss of pressure, drain plug loose or leaking, plastic ring holding lid falls in fill hole as you are filling the engine with oil, to much or to little oil installed, jack falls on you and injures you, or damages car. I can go on. By the way nuclear industry is the most standardized and documented industry today, so in other industries the percentage is much higher.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by madmaxx

... 55% of the time a technician works on a piece of equipment they create a problem which must be addressed within 45 days.

Once again, truer words were never written.

[itstock]

Most of these cars aren't driven anywhere near hard enough to warrant 3000 mile oil changes, let alone 300 mile oil changes.

In fact, I'd say that the majority of our cars are driven even under "normal" driving conditions, as in; they are driven in perfect weather (certainly not cold weather for the vast majority), they are warmed up and babied, taken on nice cruises with minimal stop and go traffic, and driven for a bit of mileage before being parked again. This type of driving isn't just rated as normal driving, but it's damn near perfect for oil.

At worst, most of our cars will fall in to the oil industries severe driving category; roughly every 3,000 mile oil change intervals. Unfortunately for many of these cars, they will probably fail to see 3,000 miles over the course of their life with the current owner.

Even after a couple of hard track days amounting to over a thousand or so miles, people won't change their oil until...a couple more track days.

You would be wasting money and time changing your oil every 300 miles, but if it's a garage queen, every 2 or 3 years at that mileage certainly wouldn't hurt anything, even if it were unnecessary.

Every motor is different though, and as posted, a place like Blackstone can determine exactly how often you should be changing your oil.

[YerDugliness]

Originally Posted by Gaz64

Oil not getting to operating temp has high acidity and then sitting for long periods will eat the bearings away from chemical erosion.

Could we focus on this statement for a bit? My routine has me driving for 3 months (probably less than 1,000 miles, to be honest), then changing the oil and letting the car sit for the next three months. My oil change routine involves allowing the engine to idle until it is up to operating temperature (which is usually 180*), then pulling it into the garage for it's 3 month nap before it is started again.

First, I wonder if there is any measurable water content to the oil if I only start it after the oil change and then after putting it away I don't start it again for so long. My concern is that in that 10 minutes it idles, there might develop enough acidity to do exactly as described, eat away at bearings during the long sit-up. What do y'all think, is that a dangerous practice?

Before I restart the engine after it's three month nap, I pull all the spark plugs and operate the starter until the engine registers oil pressure...would rather have a pre-lube fitting or an Acusump, but those are future improvements.

I had always hoped that by changing the oil and then getting it into quick storage that I was ensuring that the old oil, with whatever acidity it might have developed over the 3 months it has been in use, would not be a factor during the storage. Am I fooling myself??

Cheers!

Dugly

[dallas_]

Originally Posted by YerDugliness

I would like to have the oil analyzed to get some info regarding how much wear the engine has suffered since it was put into service,

x2 on Blackstone.
They will send you a free sample kit with instructions.
Pay them when you send in the sample (about $25) and they will provide an oil report with a narrative that helps explain the numbers and 2 more sample containers with mailing labels.

Blackstone Labs

Well worth it in my opinion.
John

[w-lewis]

Thanks for the feedback.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by YerDugliness

Am I fooling myself??

Yes, I think you are. The oil samples I send out in the spring are after a short, "warm up" drive -- nothing fancy. No sign of moisture, or anything else untoward, in the samples. And that's after just sitting in a bag with desiccant for five months.