How often do you change your engine oil?

[Thr33BlindMice]

Hi guys,

Im putting my truck for a oil change service this coming weekend. Anyhow, I will be using Full Synthetic Motor Oil. Been chatting with a couple of my friends and they all say they change out their oil service every 10000 to 12000 miles if using Full Synthetic. How bout you guys? when do you change out your oil if running full synthetic?

Thx.

 

[Scram1500]

7500 miles or 6 months, whichever comes first using full synthetic. Cheap insurance rather that trying to squeeze that last penny out your oil in a $50k vehicle. Then again after you see where the filter is you may want to stretch it

 

[TheGoogleNinja]

I usually go by what the manual says. This one says do it when the truck tells you to or no longer than 10k miles. idk about 10k miles, but in the past I have sent oil samples out to Blackstone Labs every 3rd or so oil change to keep tabs on what's going on in my engine. 99% of the time they tell me I could have stretched the change much longer.

Oil is pretty cheap insurance, but as long as you are by the book or sooner you are good on warranty and modern oil is so much better than people think it is. If you go a little longer than you planned, it won't likely be a catastrophic mistake, especially with synthetic.

I'd recommend sending a sample out to a test facility every so often. I find the data to be very interesting.

 

[2020Big4x4Horn]

5k

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

 

[Thr33BlindMice]

5k

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

wow...5K change out on Full Synthetic?

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Previous discussions.

Oil change interval on new 2020 ram 1500 5.7

So I’ve heard the back and forth and I even work for FCA in service (not as a technician) but I wanted to know everyone’s take on what interval oil changes should happen. My VIN specific Maintenance Schedule from FCA is at 10k intervals but I hear from a lot of people that 7500 is best. Any...

5thgenrams.com

Oil Change Intervals

Just curious at what interval everyone changes the oil in their 5.7 HEMI. I know that there may be exceptions based on trips coming up and weather etc. so please try to answer to what you would do for a regular change. If you change yours based on the indicator and track your miles, please...

5thgenrams.com

 

[2020Big4x4Horn]

wow...5K change out on Full Synthetic?

Yes. Always have. Before syn came out yrs ago I went 3k. Peace of mind. Especially when after 5k it looks like black water running out basically.
All the oil change life meter is, is a timer. There's no magic sensor in there testing your oil.
Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

 

[silver billet]

Here in Canada there are generic oil change shops that like you to come back every 5000 kms. That's 3100 miles. Completely nuts. I did 12,000 - 14000 km (say about 8000 miles) on my last change (synthetic) and the oil meter was still above 25%.

 

[SpeedyV]

Hi guys,

Im putting my truck for a oil change service this coming weekend. Anyhow, I will be using Full Synthetic Motor Oil. Been chatting with a couple of my friends and they all say they change out their oil service every 10000 to 12000 miles if using Full Synthetic. How bout you guys? when do you change out your oil if running full synthetic?

Thx.

Annually with PUP and Mobil 1 EP filter (about 7K miles per year)

 

[LaxDfns15]

Used to be full synthetic Mobil 1 with a Mobil 1 filter every 10k miles. Just completed my second change (at 10k, did first at 3k) yesterday. I have since started using Shell Rotella Gas Truck oil as I've used Rotella for other purposes and like it better. Kept the Mobil 1 filter though. All of this is anecdotal, but I did this in my Titan for over 100k miles, so 10 changes. Not once did I have an issues.

 

[Thr33BlindMice]

thx for the inputs guys... I think I'm gonna go with 7500 and/or 6mons, whichever comes first.

 

[Drewster]

You have an oil life monitor in the cluster, you know.. I would change it out when the oil life is around 10% or you hit 10,000 mi, whichever comes first.

The trick with oil life is that it's all down to how you drive - the oil life monitor in the truck is monitoring your idle time, load, temperature, etc. so it's going to be a better indication of your actual oil life than an arbitrary mile mark.

 

[JustJoeAKABeans]

Grabbed a oil change deal when got the truck so every 6k or so but at that its usually still at 40% or so, using it so I dont lose it.

 

[CJR28]

I do the first change usually somewhere between 900-1300 miles on all my new vehicles and after that usually every 5.5-7.5k miles. I know that modern synthetic can last much longer than that, its just habit at this point. I also factor in weather and the type of driving ive been doing.

 

[GARebel19]

So far for this truck I am running the recommended conventional Pennzoil 5w-20. First oil change at 1,000 miles and every 5,000 after. May go to synthetic one day and that would change the frequency.

 

[SD Rebel]

If I go by the maintenance computer, based on my driving, about 7,000 miles. Since I drive less than that a year, I change my oil once a year to stay within warranty, which for RAM is 5 years/60K for powertrain warranty. If I drove my truck everyday, say an average of 12,000 miles a year, I probably would change every 5,000 miles or every six months.

For my older vehicles that a rarely driven, I change their oil with full synthetic every two years or 3,000 miles, whichever comes first. Should be noted I live in a temperate zone so our oil doesn't get the fluctuations in weather a lot of other places get than can shorten oil life with condensation. If I lived in the East Coast, I would change their oil annually.

Based on lab results, I can easily go 3 years on my oil changes on those low use vehicles.

 

[SD Rebel]

I've always changed the oil and filter in my year 2000 Golf TDI every 6 months (approx 5000miles) , always using the correct VW spec oil and OEM filters. Recently I read a couple of threads where folks stated that changing the oil so frequently was unnecessary and that the interval could be pushed to 8000 miles without any additional engine related wear.

So am I overdoing the oil changes and therefore spending money for no good reason? or should I stick with my regime in the knowledge that my engine should last past 100K?

Based on the results I've seen, it's more mileage based than time. But a lot of short drives can result in a lot of water and contamination in the oil even with low mileage, especially if you get strong seasonal changes in temperature. I would avoid 2 year old oil changes on low mileage as I do unless you have the oil analysis to back it up.

But generally, if you are using a high quality synthetic, you should be plenty conservative doing an annual oil change or every 5,000 miles, especially on an older engine. I don't feel overly confident doing 8,000 miles on an older German motor. I own a BMW E46, E90 and Mercedes R170, and I do 1 year or 5,000 miles on them with high quality synthetics.

Based on your situation, I would do it twice a year, since you do 10,000 miles annually, so exactly what you are doing now.

 

[silver billet]

I've always changed the oil and filter in my year 2000 Golf TDI every 6 months (approx 5000miles) , always using the correct VW spec oil and OEM filters. Recently I read a couple of threads where folks stated that changing the oil so frequently was unnecessary and that the interval could be pushed to 8000 miles without any additional engine related wear.

So am I overdoing the oil changes and therefore spending money for no good reason? or should I stick with my regime in the knowledge that my engine should last past 100K?

If you're running standard walmart oil, I would not push past 5000 miles. If you're running something like HPL and support it with UOA to scientifically inform you of the life of the oil, then you can definitely go further. See this thread for an example of a 3.6 pentastar running HPL at 22,000 miles and counting with just filter changes:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/under-valve-cover-pictures-2014-dodge-durango-164-000-miles-total-52-000-miles-on-hpl-hdeo-5w-20.374342/

With my truck I do not go past 7000 miles regardless of oil.

 

[SD Rebel]

Here is a good video regarding annual oil changes with lower mileage:

 

[Mr.Grid]

I purchased a case of Mopar MO-339 filters when new and use whatever 0w20 MS-6395 rated oil that is on sale (Havoline, Pennzoil, Quaker State to date) and change at 5k miles with an oil meter reading of mid 40% towing a 7k trailer over 60% of the time. Less than $40 to change. At 33k miles in just over 2 yrs. Just replaced the OEM tires yesterday that were 4/32” with Michelin Defender LTX M/S2.