V8s: stop the oil change craze!

[brianhuntRVA]

Doesn't the owners manual say every 5k for extreme driving conditions?

 

[toyo]

Oil chemistry and engine technology have evolved tremendously in recent years, but you'd never know it from the quick-change behavior of American car owners. Driven by an outdated 3,000-mile oil change commandment, they are unnecessarily spending millions of dollars and spilling an ocean of contaminated waste oil.

The majority of automakers today call for oil changes at either 7,500 or 10,000 miles, and the interval can go as high as 15,000 miles in some cars. Yet this wasteful cycle continues largely because the automotive service industry, while fully aware of the technological advances, continues to preach the 3,000-mile gospel as a way to keep the service bays busy. As a result, even the most cautious owners are dumping their engine oil twice as often as their service manuals recommend.

Remainder of article: Stop Changing Your Oil! | Edmunds.com

I do mine around 5K this time of year with high ambient temps, trailer towing, mountain passes, lots of off-roading, etc.

I agree with most of your comments but one must consider this;
When the manufactures started the "Free Maintenance" such as oil changes, wiper blades, blah blah is the same time they started to raise the time intervals. They are in this to make money 1st and foremost. The less oil changes they do for free makes a huge difference to the bottom line. BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler, Jaguar and more are having some serious oil related engine issues right now. Coincidence?

 

[strathcona]

when did Europe start measuring distance in miles? could have swore they use the metric system.. which if they recommend 10k kilometers that would be roughly every 6200miles

Exactly. Here in Canada, using the metric system as we do, the recommended change is 8000 Km or 4970.94 Miles. To a maximum of 10,000 Km or 6213.71 miles before you are getting into "void your warranty territory" Yes I realize most of us are out of warranty. This is how Toyota looks at it though.

Apples to oranges.

 

[Jas2171617]

Carefull moving from 3k miles changing interval to 5k or 8 k miles, because engine sludge is nearby, when it is happen then that is late already. Also sneak down on T4R changing oil is not to hard and cheap compare to replace or rebuild engine is costly.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

[MENTION=632]toyo[/MENTION] hit it on the head...

They've been trying to stretch the OCI further and further, the result has been engine oil related issues. 5k conventional, 10k synethtic is a pretty good standard to go by at the moment with current technology. Some higher end oils and filters such as Amsoil claim upwards of 25k OCI with their oil and filter under normal driving conditions. But the reality is that not all engines are created equal, nor are all oils. Something else to note is that GDIs are very hard on oil, there's articles floating around talking about "micro soot" that even the best current filters can't filter out of the oil and may be related to many of the camshaft, bearing, and other lubrication related failures in GDI engines currently.

 

[amalik]

[MENTION=632]toyo[/MENTION] hit it on the head...

They've been trying to stretch the OCI further and further, the result has been engine oil related issues. 5k conventional, 10k synethtic is a pretty good standard to go by at the moment with current technology. Some higher end oils and filters such as Amsoil claim upwards of 25k OCI with their oil and filter under normal driving conditions. But the reality is that not all engines are created equal, nor are all oils. Something else to note is that GDIs are very hard on oil, there's articles floating around talking about "micro soot" that even the best current filters can't filter out of the oil and may be related to many of the camshaft, bearing, and other lubrication related failures in GDI engines currently.

Well, call me crazy then. I change the synthetic 5w30 on my wife's Civic at 6k MAX, but normally 5k.

On my 3rd gen, I never exceed 3k (conventional, so far. A bit scared of the switch, already have some existing leaks that I need to address).

 

[amalik]

To be fair he does seem to do everything "right," and he has nearly 400k on it. Oddly enough I had an LS400 which was dealer maintained with conventional 5w30 every 5k, driven by an elderly couple, and that thing was actually sludged pretty bad. I suspect they made a ton of short trips in it or something. It was fine for the time I owned it, and I ran M1 at 3k intervals a few times to clean it out and it never had a problem after that, but I found it surprising that the LS400 got caught by the sludge monster as it did not have the reputation for it (it was a 2000 with 100k). Makes me wonder if the Seattle-area Lexus dealer was just swiping their credit card and not actually doing any work; Stone Cold Steve Austin was right, DTA.

Is synthetic better for short trips or something? My work commute is like 10 minutes.

 

[luke87gt]

5000 mile oil does not look new lol

But I tend to agree with your point that people change oil too frequently in general.

A few years ago, the standard seemed to be 3,000 mile (oil company propaganda). Now it seems to be 5,000.

Our BMW that uses synthetic has a dealer recommended 15,000 mile interval.

If you follow 5000-10000, I'm willing to bet you'll be just fine. Just make sure your car isn't burning oil because a 10,000 mile interval is a long time.

 

[bpowa]

Sounds interesting, although no one I know in Europe got a chemical analysis of their engine oil. The chemical composition of used engine oil will also depend on the quality and type of fuel used.

If the local Toyota dealer tells me - off record - that US recommendation of 5000 miles for every oil change are "over cautious", that Toyota in Europe accepts an intervall of 10.00O miles as acceptable for factory waranty and my other mechanic - a racing bike expert - thanks me for every oil change of my T4R because he can "use the oil from my engine, as if it was new" - well then its time to re-think!

Whatever caused Toyota to recommend in the US half the interval for oil change than for the same engine in Europe .... it seems unreasonable!

NO motocycle racer especially an Expert will use the oil from your truck, even if it is new. Car oil will damage motorcycle's wet clutch. If he does he is a crappy racer, with burnt clutches.

I change mines 7,500 or 10k. Just because many people sent their oil to blackstone and all the reports say the oild is still good. from the tundra v8's, to 4runners. My truck feels healthy so I change it more then 5k. BMW's with higher compression motors are recommended to be changed at 15k. Although I changed oil in my x5 every 7.5k.

Im using mobil 1. so basically I change it when I feel like it. :ranger:

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Well, call me crazy then. I change the synthetic 5w30 on my wife's Civic at 6k MAX, but normally 5k.

On my 3rd gen, I never exceed 3k (conventional, so far. A bit scared of the switch, already have some existing leaks that I need to address).

You shouldn't have any issues switching to synthetic oil, long before most of us started driving synthetic oil reacted funny with older cork and other gasket materials. These days, anything made in the last twenty or thirty years should have no issues with synthetic besides it probably cleaning up sludge and such.

As for BMW, I'd be cautious of their 15k service interval; I've been hearing some stuff from dealer techs and others that they shot a bit high with that OCI and they're either devouring a lot of oil by the time it gets an oil change (not uncommon for those BMWs...) or they're seeing some sludging/crap forming.