Oil Change

How often do you guys change your oil? I just get the basic done. I currently only drive around 3,000-3,500 miles a year. I have just been getting it change every 6 months but considering every year due to how many miles a drive. It is about to hit 190,000 miles. Any thoughts?

 

I'm between 6-7K with Mobil One HM 5W30 or every six months.

 

If I were in your boat I'd do it at least every 6 months. Look at it this way - what are you saving dropping to once a year? $30? A year? Spend the $30 and get the moisture out of your oil.

 

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll keep it at every 6 months

 

I'm in a similar situation. I figure I'll be driving less than 5k a year. I decided to go in every 6 months since I'll never hit the mileage threshold

 

What do you do to only have to drive 3,000 miles a year?

 

this!!!

 

I suspect they are only driving the truck that few files, and they have another car that is a daily driver.

 

I have a company provided work truck

 

I know, right? I only work around 4 miles from home 5 days a week so just with that it's about 2,000 a year. But obviously there's some city travel and other things to drive for, so 3,000 is generous. It is my daily driver and has been the past year for school and work, but I graduated in April of this year and school was 5 minutes away from where I worked.

I've heard though that traveling short distances often isn't the best for any car since it doesn't give it a chance to warm up, but I don't know how true that is.

 

Nice. I'm jealous.

 

5000 miles or 6 months-ish.

 

7500 miles, Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w30, Performax PO-21 oil filter.

 

castrol has the best non synthetic oil there is. Mobil-1 is the best synthetic. When you get a filter, ask for the premiums that filter 99% of junk. most others like ACDelco, Framm, and Motorcraft only filter 95 or so %.

like others have said, 6 months or 5000 miles, whichever comes first.

also try using a motor flush just before you actually do the oil change. as in, put a quart of flush in, drive to the store for the filter/oil and back. then do the oil change.

 

FYI, only about 3 companies make motor oil now, saying one is superior to the next is irrelevant. I work in the oil industry and the same goes for filters. Pick whatever color bottle makes you sleep better at night and run it, no oil is bad.

 

How is it these are the best? Sounds like another Amsoil-esc presumption.

 

Mobil 1 was the only american produced oil to be approved for use in some of the early 2000s Mercedes vehicles. i believe it's still the only OEM approved oil manufacturered in america. using non approved oils in their engines will void their warranties entirely. No valvoline, penzoil, castrol, or havoline would be accepted. Plus they've been making synthetic oils for so long, they've pretty much perfected the technology.

Castrol GTX has been a good trusted quality for such a long time. where all the other conventional oil manufacturers have goofed and rebounded, castrol kept their integrity and stayed on top due to this. can't go wrong with castrol GTX as a conventional oil.

pennzoil for example. may be good now, but at 1 point they screwed up. one of the veteraned mechanics and parts specialists I worked with told me about a dry test that was done with various oil manufacturer's conventional oils. bearings would be dipped in oil and placed on a lathe where it was spun and a lever would cause serious pressure on said bearing while "dry". water did better than pennzoil in lubrication. just not rust inhibiting.

personally. I'm a valvoline synthetic guy. the price and quality is just right for me. plus i use top grade filters that filter more than 98%+ of oil contaminates and shrapenal

 

I was asking how are these the best. What youve stated is subjective. Ill give extra points to a product for being made in the USA, but that does not make it the best oil based on a location its bottled in. (as if there was a single quantifier for what makes the BEST oil).

Im going to state as a fact, that the Pentosin series is better then Mobil 1 in every measure. I dont have any lab reports or stress tests to quantify this... EXCEPT for the fact that Pentosin did not have a marketing savvy to sign an exclusive deal with Mercedes. However they were able to gain the contract to be the official oil and fluid producer for the Audi/VW group.

Same could be said for Castrol, who has the exclusive rights to produce the factory oil for every new BMW. That does not mean you can go to Walmart to get an oil change for your new 650i. Their Castrol Syntec formula is exclusively sold at BMW dealerships.

Ill agree, you cant go wrong with any of these. Including Castrol GTX, which is what i use on my 2.7 (high mileage version).

 

flip through this it's a bit out dated. but the only test i've found similar to the one I was trying to explain.

see what you can find involving the "Timken OK Load Tester"

 

Pennzoil Ultra Platinum is now endorsed by Ferrari and is the factory fill in their vehicles, Pennzoil can't be that bad if one of the top performance car makers in the world endorses them. Pennzoil did have some problems with 10w40 conventional oil back in the 60's and 70's with it waxing and causing sludge inside engines, but that was the only grade that had that problem. 10w30 and other weights had no problems causing sludge in engines. Yet now, Pennzoil still suffers from that stereotype. Trust me, Pennzoil and other oil companies formulations have changed dozens of times since then, oil today is better than it ever was before, and that's why the life expectancy of engines has increased to 300,000 miles versus 100,000 of old.
I can't tell you how many times people come into my shop for an oil change and demand that we use Quaker State instead of Pennzoil. QS and Pennzoil are both owned by Shell, so guess what just went into the engine?!