Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
Car Care Nut gives vague recommendations that won’t hurt your vehicle, but they keep his service bay full and people sharing his monetized YouTube videos. He’s preying on fear. We buy Toyota because we want reliable. He preys on that instinct by sowing doubt that just to happens to financially benefit him in two ways. He doesn’t do root cause analysis. He doesn’t have access to data. He doesn’t do controlled experiments to understand the actual wear to the oil. He sees failed engines but he honestly doesn’t even know how they are driven.
I’m a manufacturing quality engineer that actually durability tests engines for a living. I know enough to know that I don’t know enough to make a recommendation on oil change intervals other than listen to what the manufacturer recommends. I’ve seen the abuse that engines can take but even what I’ve done isn’t near what testing the actual design and spec engineers do. My expertise is narrow and I’m cognizant of that.
From a purely pragmatic perspective, this is a 14 year old engine. If it were sensitive to oil changes, we would know by now.
|
Have you performed the "Starbucks" durability test? Wife says, "I just have to have a Starbucks coffee right now." This durability test includes run cycles that are about 5-10 minutes long, consisting of a cold start, accel to 45, travel 0.25 miles, then idle to turning speed, accel to 45, travel 0.25 miles, slow-turn to join queue 3-5min idling, get drink, accel to 45, travel 0.25 miles, idle-turn, accel to 45, travel 0.25 miles, idle-turn, shut off engine.
Assume 20% of engine starts are trips to Starbucks, 40% are cold starts to Trader Joes (5 miles one-way) and 39.5% are somewhat longer trips (30-50 miles) city/freeway driving, and 0.5% are trips 140 miles one-way on interstate highways... how long does the oil last? Assume ambient temperature range is 40-120 F (Phoenix, AZ).
