How Often Should I Change My Oil?
10 Comments Published by Joel October 30th, 2006 in Cars. Share ThisConventional wisdom says that the oil should be changed every 3,000 miles, whether the car has been driven hard or not. Most modern grocery-go-getters have engines that only need an oil change every 10,000 miles, as per manufacturer suggestion.
I suggest the 3,000 mile interval for a couple of reasons: Oil changes are cheap and it certainly won’t hurt your car; it also gives you an opportunity to catch up on any routine maintenance you might otherwise put-off. (In a possibly oil industry-biased story, most mechanics tend to agree.)
There are a few exceptions to that rule, though. When you first purchase your car it may take longer for the seals to set, a process that can take up to 10,000 miles for added “conditioners” to soak in. I’d err on manufacturer’s advice there and wait before starting your 3,000-mile-interval changes.
The other exception is if you own a vehicle that can monitor internal oil quality, such as a modern BMW. There’s a thought that you should change the oil regularly anyway, especially if you’re pushing your car hard, but I’ll trust BMW’s engineers on this one. Note that I’m talking about cars that actually are checking oil quality with special sensors, not cars that have an odometer-tripped “change oil” light.
Synthetic or regular oil? If you’ve got a performance vehicle, consider synthetic. It has been shown that synthetic oils like Mobile 1 protect better and longer, but if you’re just driving a regular car it’s not going to add any performance; your engine isn’t working hard enough to need anything special.
How to change your oil? Well, it’s pretty easy and a good skill to have, but I’d suggest finding a local quick-lube shop and just paying them the $30. Sure, it’s cheaper to change your oil at home, but it’s messy and a pain to properly dispose of the oil. Better you stop by your quick-lube shop, slurp a cup of day-old coffee and just have it taken care of, than loaf around and never get it done.
No no no no no no no!
Don’t ever take your car to a quick-lube shop. As personal experience, anecdotal evidence and teh intarweb have taught me, those places merely exist to take your money and break your car. They employ people at barely above minimum wage, they hardly teach them how to do the job, and then they threaten their job if they don’t make certain metrics or high enough average sales. In order to maintain these goals, the employees get sloppy and quality goes down. Some places don’t even do the work that you pay for. Other places do the work but forget to put something like the Drain Plug back in and you get 10 miles down the road before your engine seizes up.
These places stay in business because they prey on the ignorant and lazy, and as business declines the goals and stress there go up and the quality goes down further.
If you absolutely can not be bothered to learn how to do one of the most basic maintenance functions for your car, take it to your regular mechanic, or at least a reputable one. Look for the ASE logo on a metal sign hanging off the building, usually in the same area as the Inspection plaque. This means that at least one mechanic in the building is ASE certified and actually knows what he’s doing.
Sure, we’ve all heard the horror stories, but if quick-lube shops were leaving out the oil plugs every time they’d all be out of business. I won’t dispute that those shops are usually staffed by cretins, but even a cretin can change your oil.
If you’d rather change it yourself, more power to you, but it’s much better to take the car in to the shop and have the oil changed than it is to procrastinate and never get around to the change.
These day in age its usually much easier to change the oil at a shop. Its not just the changing (which on new cars is actually hard to do these days) but also the disposal of the oil.
Which would you rather have 20 bucks for a new filter and oil. Or 10 bucks then drive around with used oil in your trunk that could leak on the way to the recycling place.
At least the quick-lubes are,…. quick!
I got sick of going to the dealer and it taking 2 hours to just get the oil changed.
There’s horror stories out there for everything.
Most the people I know who have a regular mechanic, get regularly reamed by them. Once you trust them they start running you dry with extraneous and fraudulent crap.
It all comes down to common sense. Get a second opinion before you get major work done, and if you’re paranoid – after you leave the quick lube, drive 2 miles, stop, get out and look under car to see if it’s dripping. Also there’s an oil light in many cars.
It’s red.
And it flashes.
I judge my oil change frequency by the use of the cars. My daily commuter car (Corolla) goes about 60 miles per day, most of which at freeway speeds, so it gets an oil change every 6000 miles or so. My Jeep Cherokee that spends most days in the garage and only comes out on the weekends gets oil changes more often because the oil doesn’t get a chance to heat up enough to burn out the junk that fouls up the oil.
I am also one of the lucky ones. I have a brother who is an excellent mechanic and who works on my cars. So I don’t have to worry about getting reamed by a shady mechanic.
I bought a TopSider a couple of weeks ago. Makes changing oil a lot easier and cleaner. No climbing under the car and messing with drain pans. Of course, my Hyundai is stupid, so I have to jack it up just to get to the oil filter, but it’s better then spilling oil on my face.
“Drink the kool-aid” the OEM fairy said, and all those within earshot listened, except for a few. I would be one of the few.
My belief – that the suggestion to change your oil every 3,000 miles falls in the same category as Sweetest Day, and is as relevant as the Spanish American War Tax that is listed on every American’s phone bill. There is a motive to have you change your oil… $$$. That’s why, even with all the technological improvements in engines over the past 30-years, the 3,000 miles has NOT changed.
My experience – I own a 1994 Toyota Corolla with 260,000 miles on it. I average an oil change every 10,500 miles. It runs great!
My suggestion – heed Mike B’s warning. If you do get the oil changed, then “get the oil changed.” It takes at least 10 minutes for the oil to drain from the engine. If you find that the quick lube place has you in-and-out in 8 minutes, your driving with new’ish oil at best.
There are arguments daily on hundreds of sites across the internet on frequency, what oil weight, synthetic or not, new oil filter or not, brands, times of day, which quick change place is better, import vs. domestic and what brand of socks you should wear while changing your oil.
The point is, change your oil. It’s preventative maintenance. If you do it too frequently, it’s not hurting anything. If you don’t do it frequently enough, then you can do some serious damage to the internals of your engine.
It all depends on your driving habits. As a rule, everyone in the United States is a “heavy” or “severe” use driver and should follow their manufacturer recommended oil change schedule as such. What hurts your engine the most? Driving it like hell? Driving in stop and go traffic? No, none of it. Short trips and cold starts do the most damage. When you drive your ass 3 minutes away to the store to pick up Doritos, a pack of smokes or the latest copy of Swank in 10 degree weather, then turn the car off, let it sit just long enough for the engine to cool again, then repeat the process to get back home.
Most Modern cars have switched to 5k or 10k schedules, sometimes even paid for by the manufacturer. It’s a battle with them. They want their cars to have good reliability ratings while they are in operation, but they also want them to wear out after a few years so you will come and buy another one… from them.
My rule, if when you drain the oil it looks like fresh coffee then you’re probably ok. If it looks like the sludge pumping through your black heart, then you should probably do it more often.
One other time to run synthetic is when you live in a cold climate. Really cold. New England probably doesn’t count.
Having the super-low pour-point synthetics makes a world of difference when your starting your car in the -30F range.
And once you’ve started your vehicle, drive directly to somewhere a lot warmer. But not the Bay Area. We have enough people here, thank you.
CHANGING OIL SAVES YOU MONEY IN THE LONG TERM AND THE ENGINE WILL BE MORE EFFICIENT. SIMPLY ENOUGH JOB TO DO IT YOURSELF. I TEACH ALL MY DRIVING SCHOOL PUPILS HOW TO DO IT