Why you should change your oil

[Looking4new]

I got my '01 Jeep in '04 when it came off lease. It had fresh oil in it then and 2000 miles later I changed it to the grade & brand I always run. Quaker State 10W30. Now fast forward to the past 3 years and I only change the oil in the spring. I am now running QS Synthetic 10W30. My high summertime mileage just got a lot less than previous. I do maybe 1000 miles in spring, summer and fall and another 1000 miles in winter. She doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes. There was 71,600 kms ( about 44,000 miles) and it now has 278,800 kms (171,500 miles), I think I got a 'keeper'. She gets greased twice a year. At the start of Winter and in Spring.

Oil and grease is cheap compared to the co$t of a motor and labour.

 

[teg]

...I could not believe the miles driven over a 13 month period...18,136???..

I average 17K/year on my truck and 13k on a work truck that's used only 6 months out of the year! I feel like I'm changing oil every month in one vehicle or another!!!

 

[ray66v]

I got my '01 Jeep in '04 when it came off lease. It had fresh oil in it then and 2000 miles later I changed it to the grade & brand I always run. Quaker State 10W30. Now fast forward to the past 3 years and I only change the oil in the spring. I am now running QS Synthetic 10W30. My high summertime mileage just got a lot less than previous. I do maybe 1000 miles in spring, summer and fall and another 1000 miles in winter. She doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes. There was 71,600 kms ( about 44,000 miles) and it now has 278,800 kms (171,500 miles), I think I got a 'keeper'. She gets greased twice a year. At the start of Winter and in Spring.

Oil and grease is cheap compared to the co$t of a motor and labour.

Okay, but, I have a 1997 Villager, with 247,000 on it, which runs like new, never uses a drop of oil, and has never had any special treatment.

I've always changed the oil at 5k miles, used conventional oil, and those "junk" Fram oil filters

I keep all my cars the distance, and have had the same kind of results.

 

[sd455dan]

Bump....

'
GMs need oil changes to... here's what the inside of a 93 350 Chev looked like that I worked on for a (family) member
When i asked about whether the oil had been changed on a regular basis - Oh yeah change it when needed

 

[ray66v]

'
GMs need oil changes to... here's what the inside of a 93 350 Chev looked like that I worked on for a (family) member
When i asked about whether the oil had been changed on a regular basis - Oh yeah change it when needed

When they completely fill with sludge, that has mostly to do with faulty EGR, and PCV systems.

I just saw a 2007 Chevy 350, that was as bad as it gets. The inside of the valve covers were completely filled.

Engine Oil Sludge | SOS Pre-purchase Inspections

 

[Renze]

Well, the tire OEM's really haven't moved their tire technology from their heavy duty offerings to the auto and light truck realm. I typically will get well over 400,000 miles out of a set of drive tires on my commercial trucks, and over 200,000 miles on steer tires. Will still have 8-9/32 tread left and get $150 each for the old tires when I put on new ones. Sure, the heavy truck tires cost more, after all they are bigger and more plys and better tread compounds, but with what they deliver, they are far more cost effective than auto/pickup tires.

You can get cheap chinese HiFly tires that last forever. That is, when you manage to keep the vehicle on the road when it rains. They have no traction at all because of the hard rubber, similar to truck tires.

My mate had Pirelli's under his Honda CRX. They stuck like glue, but wore very fast. Commercial truck tires last because they have a higher contact force on the road, and therefor can do with a harder, more wear resistant compound.

 

[Retiredguy2]

When they completely fill with sludge, that has mostly to do with faulty EGR, and PCV systems.

I just saw a 2007 Chevy 350, that was as bad as it gets. The inside of the valve covers were completely filled.

Engine Oil Sludge | SOS Pre-purchase Inspections

Just saying here: I recall reading a story in an older issue of what I think was Popular Mechanics magazine that featured an ongoing story like "Gus Wilson's Model Garage" or whatever, and one story went: "We loosened the valve covers on the engine, and I am danged if they didn't rise up from all the deposits underneath them when we loosened the bolts holding them down...." Yes...the story actually said that !!

 

[Soundguy]

'
GMs need oil changes to... here's what the inside of a 93 350 Chev looked like that I worked on for a (family) member
When i asked about whether the oil had been changed on a regular basis - Oh yeah change it when needed

Last gm (ever) I owned, its lil you constantly changed the oil it leaked so much..

 

[not2old]

Dad bought an old Fairmont really cheap because it needed a motor and we were going to do a cheap patch job as a second vehicle. Discovered lots of sludge in valley and valve covers. Put it back together, ran clean oil and additives several times, starting with mild detergent and progressively stronger. It quit burning oil and Dad drove it for several years.

 

[94BULLITT]

When they completely fill with sludge, that has mostly to do with faulty EGR, and PCV systems.

I just saw a 2007 Chevy 350, that was as bad as it gets. The inside of the valve covers were completely filled.

Engine Oil Sludge | SOS Pre-purchase Inspections

I've seen the valve covers packed full before too.

 

[Retiredguy2]

Last gm (ever) I owned, its lil you constantly changed the oil it leaked so much..

My Y2K GMC 2500 with the 6.0 engine only leaks a tiny amount...but it has very few miles on it now.

 

[Soundguy]

My Y2K GMC 2500 with the 6.0 engine only leaks a tiny amount...but it has very few miles on it now.

mine was a 2000 with the 5.3 and it leaked / burnt from day one. Dealer said it was book normal.

 

[lilranch2001]

I owned 6 different Chevy/GMC trucks in the 90's and 2000's and honestly I don't think I ever added a single quart to any of them
Lots of other issues but oil wasn't one of them

 

[dodge man]

My first car was a 77 Ford Granada. It was a "gift" from my parents, it had been their daily drive. It was actually more punishment than a gift. Before it became my car, I had taken the valve covers off to fix the gasket and they were packed full of sludge. Someone mentioned EGR problems but that car had the EGR blocked off for several years. I'm not sure if that caused the problem or not but my dad did keep up with resonable oil changes. It seems like multi viscosity oils during that time were known for causing sludge problems.

 

[sld]

My first car was a 77 Ford Granada. It was a "gift" from my parents, it had been their daily drive. It was actually more punishment than a gift. Before it became my car, I had taken the valve covers off to fix the gasket and they were packed full of sludge. Someone mentioned EGR problems but that car had the EGR blocked off for several years. I'm not sure if that caused the problem or not but my dad did keep up with resonable oil changes. It seems like multi viscosity oils during that time were known for causing sludge problems.

That's funny. I used to drive my parent's 1976 Granada as a teenager. The 302 was pathetic by today's standards but wasn't bad back then!

 

[crazyal]

This is one of the reasons why I prefer to buy new. You never know what past sins a vehicle has had when you buy used. I worked for a company that had a guy who did all the scheduling for servicing the vehicles. When he left nobody took over. One cold winter day when one of the chevys was warming up it spun a bearing. The oil was so low it didn't even register on the stick and what came out was as black as coal and the nastiest stuff I've ever seen. That day all of the other trucks were checked/ topped off. After a second truck lost it's engine they were all flushed with oil a couple times then traded in (the owner's decision). Who knows how long they lasted.

When I was much younger I had a Chevy Impala given to me from a friend who owned a taxi company. It had a v-6 with around 350k miles on it. The valves were noisy so I was going to adjust the rockers. There was so much sludge under the cover that I gave up. After talking to my friend he said that it was the original engine and he swore by STP. In the end I lost the radiator and seized it up after winning my heat.

 

[Garandman]

Sorry to stray off topic but when do you guys do your first oil change on a brand new car? I did my 2015 Taurus at 1k miles and then again at 5k with 5k intervals after that.

We have a brand new Escape in the family now and it is approaching 2k and I haven't done the initial oil change. May try and do that today. Just don't know if I am being too ****.

Some vehicles have an initial fill that should be changed early, some don't. We go by the manufacturer's recommendations in our fleet. Half the vehicles now have oil life systems and the change light comes on 8-10,000 miles with mostly highway driving while my wife's minivan it's 4-5,000. Everything else we change per the manufacturers schedule, usually 7,500.

My WRX (which had 320 whp on a dyno from a 150ci engine) seemed to work the oil too hard so replaced the oil pan with a machined model that holds 6 quarts. Also has a windage tray and pressure system. My othe Subaru is an H6 that holds 6.8 quarts so we change at 5,000 to 7,500.

 

[Copperhead]

It's personal choice. My personal vehicles, they will usually get oil changed and factory fill out at around 2000 miles and then go to around 5000 mile intervals after that. My heavy trucks, typically within the first 10,000 then move up to longer levels as used oil sample results dictate. Present heavy stuff is doing 50% longer oil drains than OEM recommendation and could probably be fine going longer.

The Oil Life Monitoring thing, just never bought into it. Some will say that it is well refined and reliable. Tell that to those that owned the Cadillac CTS 3.6 that, after many experienced catastrophic timing chain failures, GM realized that the programming on the OLM needed to be revised and cut back the intervals almost in half. I don't rely on anything that does it's thing via algorithms. I use only actual used oil sample test results to determine such things if I am look for maximum oil drain cycles.

 

[ray66v]

It's personal choice. My personal vehicles, they will usually get oil changed and factory fill out at around 2000 miles and then go to around 5000 mile intervals after that. My heavy trucks, typically within the first 10,000 then move up to longer levels as used oil sample results dictate. Present heavy stuff is doing 50% longer oil drains than OEM recommendation and could probably be fine going longer.

The Oil Life Monitoring thing, just never bought into it. Some will say that it is well refined and reliable. Tell that to those that owned the Cadillac CTS 3.6 that, after many experienced catastrophic timing chain failures, GM realized that the programming on the OLM needed to be revised and cut back the intervals almost in half. I don't rely on anything that does it's thing via algorithms. I use only actual used oil sample test results to determine such things if I am look for maximum oil drain cycles.

Cadillac's problems have more to do with GM's failures, than the oil.

My mother never wanted to drive anything but Cadillac's. Just from her experience, not to mention decades of customer issues, I saw, among other things, a complete transmission failure at 5,000 total miles. And, a Northstar V8, that used a quart of oil in less than 1,500 miles, from day one. (Which by the way, GM insisted was acceptable).

 

[Diamondpilot]

Cadillac's problems have more to do with GM's failures, than the oil.

My mother never wanted to drive anything but Cadillac's. Just from her experience, not to mention decades of customer issues, I saw, among other things, a complete transmission failure at 5,000 total miles. And, a Northstar V8, that used a quart of oil in less than 1,500 miles, from day one. (Which by the way, GM insisted was acceptable).

My grandfather owned a Chrysler Dealership and the day after he sold it he bought a Model That, a New F250, and a Caddy with a Northstar. He always wanted all 3 but couldn't have them in good faith.

He was totally let down by his Caddy. It drank oil and had other small issue. Traded it at 18 months and drove Lincolns to the day he died.