The old 5k or 10k oil change debate

People saying 3k-5k are stuck on the old school thinking about how to deal with dino-juice

Modern synthetics are fine to 10k

 

she can have my dipstick

 

Agreed. Sometimes when they say “it’s within spec” it’s a pretty large margin. I would just be curious to know compared to new how well it actually performs at 5 and 10k. We all know it is “good enough” but what does that mean exactly. I don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with a 10k change it’s just not what I choose to do. I have to disagree with your reference about the radiator flush because I think everyone here will agree absolutely no one is flushing their cooling system once a month. I also would not pay extra for the 5k oci truck I just said that it would be the one chosen first. Every time.

 

The oil change interval, if following the manual, would not enter my mind. I can see why it would enter a lot of peoples minds but it would not be something I thought about one way or the other. Now if it was a Dodge, yeah, I would probably look for every advantage available, but in the last 700,000 or 800,000 miles (15 yrs) in Nissan, Toyota and Honda I never saw a downside so I would not give it a second thought. Dodge Ford and Chevy I would be maybe more particular just based on past experience. But even then it wasnt engine related problems, everything else went to shit but the engines ran okay.

But keep in mind, I never bought a used vehicle and I traded them off for another new one because I had to have dependable transportation for work. For me 4 years would be the equal to a life time for many on here. Some I traded off just because I got tired of them. LOL

I'm not knocking anyone who wants to change their oil when ever, but some of this stuff like some are saying somebody is cheaping out is just stupid.

 

I don't buy $40k trucks just so i can change the oil every 5k miles, thats plain stupid. I the manufacture says i have to for normal operation, thats one thing. If an owner feels better doing so, good for them, but i'll spend my money where it does the most good.

 

One of our own,
not me.
https://youtu.be/r7IBrxxhIuw

 

I agree. I don’t think it has anything to do with the cost one way or the other it’s to small an amount and to infrequent to matter either way.

 

Wow. Just look at all the Blackstone reports from 10K OCI. And ask all the 300K+ guys how often they changed their oil....zero will say 5K.

 

What will they say?

 

Generally the lighter weight an oil use, the less prone to breaking down by heat. When i raced bikes we setup the suspension valving to work with the lightest oil weights possible to prevent the shock, and forks from fading, as a heavier oil would. My guess toyota has done the same.

 

10K and 15K. some are driving around 10K a month.

 

I’m still going with 4k. Or whenever I get bored. I like the hank hill method. Just out of curiosity though that’s over 300 miles a day 7 days a week. That’s 5 or so hours of driving not including fuel food and any rest stops. What are these guys doing for a living?

 

Very true but those vehicles might be averaging 40,000 miles per year which also means the truck has a lot of highway miles. People who drive 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year are hard-pressed to reach 500k+ miles.

Highway miles/ 40,000 miles per year trucks probably don’t experience the same level of wear a truck that earns all its miles off the highway.

 

I drove 45K a few years ago. That figures 80+ days, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

 

Doing what?

 

I guess if you had a 100 mile drive each way to work you could do it. I have heard of people doing that but I would move or find a new job.

 

I think the most I ever logged in a year was in 2000, just shy of 65,000, and that was only because the company I worked for had a big reduction in force and I got saddled with 2 other guys territories as well as my own. I can not imagine 120,000 a year.

 

It's all relative. Depends on your reimbursement. LOL Honestly I have spent 40 years behind the wheel going from one customer to the next and mostly just putting out fires and taking care of screw ups. You dont really think about it after a while but what was really tiring was getting stuck in Houston or Austin rush hour on a Friday afternoon and trying to get back to Dallas for a "hot" dinner and date. Nothing sucks like sitting in bumper to bumper as far as the eye can see and watching the minute hand tick away 4 hours from home and knowing you gotta make a call and say maybe I can pick up a pizza instead of us eating at Fogo De Chao. Every time I thought about getting another job I had a moment where you realize you're good at your job and would be chafing at the bit with any other job. The few times I did make a change I actually thought to myself, what the hell am I doing in this job (you kind of feel it's beneath you as strange as that sounds). Being in technical sales is a different world, miles are just the price you pay to play the game.

 

If I ran Castrol I would probably change at 2,500, but I run Mobil 1 so I am good to 10K



LMAO, I'm jacking with you, change when you want if you are paying for the truck.