Special Operating Definition

Yeah I understand, lots of people doing 5k changes but don’t need to. I’ll have to track my mileage types and at 10k send it off to Blackstone.

 

The Shop I work for has a very Large parts department , 15 delivery cars and trucks plus 6 more for outside sales, all of them get their oil changed every 5,000 miles. Not one of them has had to have any internal engine repairs, the fleet has Tacoma's, Scion's, Sonic's, and Ford trucks, most of the fleet has over 150,000 miles some have almost 500,000 miles. When we do a valve cover gasket on a ranger with over 400,000 miles they are spotless clean inside .

The point is this. OIL and FILTERS are cheap. Engine repairs will cost you much more . Also Import tax's on Asian cars and trucks are partly based on their waste (ie oil etc.) so all the manufactures have increased the miles between oil changes.
Do you really think that

$52 0W20 oil Toyota/ exxon mobil Case of 6 Quarts Full Synthetic TGMO SN 0W-20 Oil

0W20 oil is going to last longer then 5,000 miles .
I've been turning wrenches for over 33 years, I change my own oil every 3,000 miles or 2 times a year which ever comes first .

 

I think it is the opposite. The majority of self described “normal”drivers spend more time doing severe driving than they think.
Couple of key indicators.
Fuel economy. Anything less than the rated hwy economy is severe.(I seem to recall a few posts about fuel mileage)
Trips less than 5 miles. Severe.
Slow speed driving resulting with average speeds less than 40 mph over the life of the OCI. Severe.
Lifted the truck and got bigger tires, added armor? You bet severe.

Do not confuse, typical and customary as not severe. Because it usually is. Anything that results in less MPG yielded means more fuel is used per mile, meaning more combustion by products, more antiwear additives used. Etc.

To meet “normal” or “ideal “ (more linguistically correct) You would have to live right by a highway on ramp and never meet traffic that slows you to less than 50 but never over 80 either. Then your destinations are right off the off ramp 10 or more miles away. And that is all you do with the vehicle. No stop lights, no drivethroughs, no stop and go traffic, no trips to the grocery store 2 miles away. Definitely you couldn’t leave the engine running in the summer for ac for your wife to stay cool while you ran in a store to grab something real quick.

Most people’s driving speeds over the course of a maintenance schedule are much slower than they think. The 4 runner and. Y Ford F-150 work truck keep engine hours. That and the miles tells a story about your service.

https://team.valvoline.com/diy/maintenance/severe-driving-myth-normal-driving-conditions

 

I appreciate your detailed response and experience! I guess I’m not assuming anything in regards to oil life, but oil analysis results are starting to trickle in and at 10k or more we are still seeing very healthy oil with most of its “life” still remaining.

I’ll send my next oil off for an analysis. Figured that is a pretty good way to adjust ones maintenance schedule specific to their truck.

 

I really wish vehicles all came with engine hour gauges. Mileage can be very deceiving. I’ll check out that link tonight I appreciate it.

 

Oil analysis is useful in detecting mechanical issues. Excessive wear or obvious contaminants such as glycol.
The less expensive oil analysis from Blackstone have been shown to have inaccurate fuel dilution numbers as well as a lack of particle counts. There are better analysis out there that would better detect fuel dilution and soot loading that results from direct injection operation.

 

I’ll have to look into that. Might as well go for an accurate and complete analysis.

 

Fiiiine

 

Thank you.... I know it was a huge ordeal and all to click that button.

 

It was more for the laughter. Haha

 

Recommend. https://www.dysonanalysis.com/

 

I would venture to guess that usage of the vehicles you mentioned probably fall into the "severe" category thus warranting the oil being changed more often.

 

Pretty penny

 

Lol. Yesterday was a crazy day on here. Hard to keep things straight. Didn't want to derail the thread but too late now

 

You actually get useful data and professional interpretations. I would rather do one of these at 30-40k (before Pt warranty is out)miles and again at 100k (do I have any integrity issues arising) rather than get the insufficient and inaccurate data from the lower priced providers that comes with boilerplate automated text, but no in-depth analysis.
An example of the need for better analysis is - If you have excessive fuel dilution you need to condemn the oil and shorten the interval. Blackstone for example does not use a gas chromatograph to measure fuel dilution, and there reports notoriously underreport fuel dilution. Yet they tell their customers everything is ok, go ahead and go further. Beware.
Or maybe not, some people like being told what they want to hear.

 

Isnt it an extra 150 for the interpretations?

 

No it’s 150 for a high grade analysis and his professional interpretations. This is what 150 gets.

ONE OF A KIND, affordable, but extensive, fully interpreted (interactive via audio) automotive oil analysis service kit available to the consumer. Gas Chromatographic ( GC ) fuel dilution replace the out of date FTIR or flash point testing technique. This results much more accurate fuels dilution reading of your lubricant. The kit allows Terry to tune the sampled unit, all for one low price.



Engines, transmissions, gearboxes, differentials, and automatic transmission units can benefit from this service. Broad-based test package used for DysonAnalysis formulating screens using D5185 ICP 21 elemental metals D445 kinematic viscosity @ BOTH 40C and 100C, D2270 viscosity index,TAN, TBN, JOAP IR indexing for oxidation, nitration, anti-wear, sulfation, glycol, and soot. Water via KF. Turnaround time SAME day if recieved at lab in morning.




You can get a basic analysis ( which includes all the labs above) and interpret your self for 79 bucks.if you then see an issue, you then pay an additional 99 for his input. So if you understand how to read an analysis report and are confident in identifying outliers, it will work. His interpretations are very in-depth

 

I agree with these habits being severe, but what I would like to know is if Toyotas "no cost maintenance plan for 25,000" will pick up the tab for oil changes every 5k miles if you fall under these "special operating conditions"? Has anyone tried to find out?