The old 5k or 10k oil change debate

I use to dump in a can of sea foam every 30k when our fuels had the mtbe additive after seeing all this black gunk buildup in my tundra's throttle body. Now its 10% ethanol added to all our gasoline grades. Seems the fuel system stays very clean. I have yet to add anything in years.

 

I've run this stuff in my rigs for over 10 years. Seems to work well.

https://www.archoil.com/products/ar6200-fuel-treatment

 

Is there any downside to changing every 5000? Besides the price of oil, which isn't too bad. Seems to me like you might as well play it safe and just do every 5k unless you want to pinch pennies on oil.

 

Only downside is more environmental impact, even if the old oil is recycled, it still requires shipping, processing that generate carbon footprints, also inevitable spills.

 

If my 5K OCI, which I recycle, is going to waste Mother Earth, she should have been stronger.

 

At a young age in the mid 70s, my dad would change the oil on my mother's '67 Mustang Fastback, In-line 6, 2liter, 3 speed. I remember him digging a hole and pouring the oil in our backyard by the fig tree.

Come to think of it, we use to eat figs off that tree from time to time...doh!

 

Indeed I will. Got a 2012 jeep in today for brakes fluid changes and that jazz. 160k on the clock. Uses full synthetic. 10-15k oci. Looks good to me.

 

I just realized I fix this stuff for a living. Disregard previous statements. I am now on the 10k side.

 

what is this?

 

Yea I was wondering the same thing. What are we looking at, and what does it show us with regards to OCI?

 

5k all the way

 

In the days of Dino, 3K. Now in the Syn era, 5K. IDGAF what the manual says. In 50+ years of driving, I've taken a few over 200K. I had one issue due to an intake gasket failure not caught in time. New R & M bearings and another 100K later, still good to go. YMMV

 

I remember when 3K was advertised as the standard. Hadn't seen anything about synthetic (commercial wise) but the longest I went one time with SYN was 6 months on my '03 Honda Pilot...don't ask me what the total miles were...but I suspect it wasn't excessive miles over 5K and not close to 10K.

 

Everyone who likes to do 10,000 oil changes should just take the used oil from those who do 5,000 mile oil changes and use it in their vehicle.
After all, according to the 10K crowd, the 5K oil is perfectly good and hardly used at only 5,000 miles.

Free oil every 5,000 miles. Free oil for life. And they'd be saving the planet.

 

That means I have to change every 5K. No way.
Look, seriously.
In my world we have multi million dollar machines running our components. They depend on us to tell them when to change oil and filters.
They do many oil samples and send them in. The most important change is the filter. Period amen. The synthetic fluids last, the filter does not. Filter change is most important. I use 10K because that is a happy medium to change both. If it costs 50K to change oil and all filters machine owners want to know how to save. Filters win. Oil lasts longer than filters.

 

On a Jeep Compass there is a long oil filler tube and then that plastic piece sits down in the bottom at the crankcase because engineers do weird pointless shit sometimes. I pulled it out to have a look at the buildup of burnt gunk. If you pull the valve cover you will find a whole bunch more of that crap. It’s what builds up in your engine over time when you leave your oil in to long.

 

Ah, and you have a part from a compass with similar miles and usage, but 5k oci to compare it to?

 

Nope. Just a shit load of gunk on this one. Take it with a grain of salt and make your own call on what you think is best for your truck. But I see a lot of internals from a lot of different engines and newer cars with longer oci have more of this in them then older ones with less miles on there oil. Does that affect the overall life of the engine? Can’t say.

 

On all of my vehicles in the past I have done 10k but with this being my first new vehicle I will probably do 5k just to be safe.

 

Then I got to spend half my afternoon digging a plastic tube that one of the lube guys decided to shove down in the dipstick tube and break off while he was using the E-Vac pump. Little asshole. Find someone you trust to change your oil gents or better yet do it yourself so you know it’s done right. Management hires some real winners sometimes.