For me oil changes depend on how much oil leaks from the vehicle.

Since I drive mostly old beaten down and dragged out vehicles (I've never spent more than $5000 on a vehicle) oil leaks are common. In fact, I've had one vehicle where I was adding a quart of oil with every gas fill.

I've developed a theory about oil changes for leaky engines.

Here's how I break it down:

If I don't have to add oil within 10,000km (6200 mi)I change the oil then.

Since most vehicles take between 4 and 5 quarts I add 2000 km every time I add a quart.

So, if you start at 0 kilometer and add a quart of oil at say 9000 kilometers than you add 2000km to the top and do the change at 12,000 km.

So for the vehicle where I was adding a quart every time I filled the gas I never had to change the oil. I just changed the oil filter whenever I noticed the oil pressure was getting high.

If you think that's bad (which it is) I have a friend who was burning so much oil that he would fill his car with used oil instead of buying it new.

I change my oil every 3000 miles with regular 5w30 religiously.

A synthetic oil will last longer but stll gets dirty and contaminated the longer the oil is run without replacing. I'd rather put some clean oil in every 3-3.5k miles.

I was thinking of getting an oil filter relocation kit for my 22re engine. The filter is hard to get at. I had to unbolt my AC compressor to change the filter.

Does anyone know where I could find a good oil filter relocation kit. I'm also considering a pre-luber but they seem to be a bit pricey.

I've decided to change my ways ever so slightly on the oil issue. You could almost say that I'm starting to "come around".

Despite the fact that I only paid $400 for my 4runner and it will cost roughly 5% of the total purchase price I'm going to change the oil more often.

The reason for this is the size of headache that it gives me just thinking about changing the timing chain again.

That job was a combination of painfull, difficult and tedious. If I can make that chain last longer with oil changes than that's what I'm going to do.

I also bought the filter relocation kit that I was talking about earlier and I plan on installing it sometime soon. I bought it from summit racing and it's actually a dual filter kit.

I was hesitant spending the 50 bucks at first but once I found that you can buy the universal fitting I bought it. That means that the next $400 vehicle I buy I can bolt it on.

The oil will foam as it gets whipped by the crankshaft and foam won't get picked up by the oil pump, starving the engine of oil. A small amount over probably won't hurt anything, but a quart or more most likely will.

I just want to point out the great quality of these vehicles. I am not a mechanic or specialist or anything, but let me tell you about my friend who has an older model Toyota Tacoma Xtracab truck. He has a little under 90,000 miles and the last oil change (any maintenance for that matter) he has done on his vehicle was at 30,000 miles. He did what he needed to do for the warranty, but since then he hasn't done jack diddly to his truck and surprisingly, it hasn't blown up yet! I am just stating that he tortures his car by driving all over the place and even a little bit of offroading (to get to the best fishing spots) and his Toyota runs great! It is just now starting to have a few problems but nothing major. He admits to not even having to add oil or anything...amazing quality. While I don't condone this "behavior" I know everyone panics about changing oil and stuff but I feel that as long as your consistent and keep the basic maintenance with these trucks, without having to spend oodles of moolah on special filters, oils and stuff, then your ride will take care of you..just my two cents...

That is a extreme story buy they do happen. Here are 4 short stories of the same bassic theme.

1.) I remembering renting a car and for some reason I checked the oil, it was a quart low and pitch black. It had 18,000 miles on it and I am sure it was never changed. I suspect at 20,000 they change the oil and sell as a almost new car.

2.) My secretary was concerned about losing her oil cap on her car. I said the oil can come out of the hole. When I looked at the oil, it had a consistansey of TAR, it was so heavy, it could never escape through the hole. She bought a new car the next year after the mechanic said the engine had sludged up.

3.) I was driving with a co-worker and I asked him if the sticker on the window was right, it said the last oil change was 18,000 miles ago. Sure enough it was right, the car leaks oil, so he just puts in a quart a month. You guessed it, the engine sludge up, of course he had 180,000 miles on it.

4.) This is from a letter from the local Honda dealer, a customer complained about the engine, it turns our the oil had never been replaced for 45,000 miles. The engine was ruined.

It kind of makes you wonder when you buy a USED car with that brand new oil in it????

I think that OHC vehicles are more sensitive to oil changes.

My friend drove a crown vic with the old 302 V8 without every changing the oil and it ran fine.

I had an old 2.9L V6 Ranger and the only noticable problem was that the lifters clicked. I wasn't too diligent about oil changes although I did watch the pressure and oil level.

Then there's the Chevy tracker. 1.6L SOHC. It leaked alot of oil so I went longer between changes. One crisp monrning in February (Probably about -10F) the Cam seized solid about 10 seconds after starting. It happened so fast that the timing belt snapped.

A lot of people, and car manufacturers, are recommending changing the filter every other oil change.

Even reading through some threads at BITOG state this.

Unfortunately, everyone has an opinion on this topic. My opinion is based on the fact that 99% of oil nowadays (synthetic or dino) will easily last past 10,000 miles. What you do get in the engine as miles rack up are debris and dirt. Therefore, changing the oil filter often makes more sense IMHO.

Maybe the manufacturers are recommending frequent oil changes to make more money for their dealerships and preventing soccer moms from forgetting to change oil?? (It's my paranoid side talking.)

Oh, I agree. It makes sense to me to change the filter ever oil change. It may be unnecessary, as some people state, but its more my piece of mind and what is more logical to me.

I read somewhere that some manufacturers were recommending 5k mile OCI with a 10k mile filter change. It just seems weird to me.

I just threw numbers out, so I'm not sure if those are correct, but it seems right.

I am with you...i am changing oil & filter every 5K miles on all of my cars. A bit excessive? Likely. Totally excessive? Nah. Peace of mind? Damn right!

I'm out of warranty so I've started doubling the OCI to every 16K km (10K mi.) with a filter change still every 8K km running Mobil1.

Hello,

HERE is an article from the Detroit Free Press. It seems some auto manufacturers are recommending longer intervals between oil changes.

I changed my oil today and I was supprised how good the oil looked even though I ran it for 6K. Im sure my long drives help but the oil looked real good.

I try to stay in the 5K oil change int. on my 06 V6 but im starting to wonder why? esp since im running synth-oil and I do aprox 3,000 miles per month.