How often do you change your engine oil?

[barrak]

I have three vehicles in my household, and it's easier for me to go through the at-home oil change process every June and December. Skip the ones that accumulated less than 3,000 miles and service the others.

Helps that my college kids are visiting then for free labor learning experience.

 

[DEG]

The owners manual is a good source of information for maintenance requirements.

My manual recommends nothing but fully synthetic and says to change the oil based on when the Oil Indicator System says to change the the oil but never longer than 10,000 miles or 1 year. Based on my current % of oil life remaining, I expect to do my first oil change between 9000 - 10000 miles.

I see no reason to change the oil earlier than what the manufacture recommends just because my dad had to change oil in his 1970 Chevy pickup every 3500 miles just to get the engine last for 150,000 miles.

 

[barrak]

The owners manual is a good source of information for maintenance requirements.

My manual recommends nothing but fully synthetic and says to change the oil based on when the Oil Indicator System says to change the the oil but never longer than 10,000 miles or 1 year. Based on my current % of oil life remaining, I expect to do my first oil change between 9000 - 10000 miles.

I see no reason to change the oil earlier than what the manufacture recommends just because my dad had to change oil in his 1970 Chevy pickup every 3500 miles just to get the engine last for 150,000 miles.

Nothing wrong with following the manual, until something goes sideways and we start second-guessing ourselves and become over-cautious moving forward.

Some manuals are good at differentiating maintenance intervals between heavy use and normal, and others don't. Some manuals specify different oil viscosities for different model years with the same engine (think HEMI). Some manuals specify different fluid change intervals for different markets, depending on what EPA pressures are applied there.

My worry is who wrote the darn manual; is it the engineer who designed/tested the engine (or transmission) or is it Corporate Office?

I once drove a "change engine oil every 15,000km" Audi until I lost an engine at 75,000km, and I also drove a "lifetime transmission fluid" Subaru until I lost a transmission at 78,000 miles. In both cases, all maintenance was performed by certified dealers, and in both cases, luckily, the unit was replaced under warranty.

Every 5,000 miles it is for me... I'm becoming my old "belt-and-suspenders" dad.

 

[SD Rebel]

Based on a lot data across a lot of sources of various types, if you want your engine to last a long time, 5,000 mile oil changes with a good quality oil & filter is where you want to go. Whether is a Mercedes M113 or a Toyota 2GR-FE, and everything in between, the most common recommendation for long life is 5K oil change intervals.

Especially with the roller cam pin issues these Hemi engines have, more frequent (5K) oil changes often seems to be one of the main recommendations to help fight that issue.

 

[Gobassin]

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.

For my 2019 Laramie at 68,000 just purchased in October, with no clear maintenance history on oil changes, I plan on intervals 6000-7000 Mi. with Penzoil platinum 5W-20. I hope to keep this one 10 years or more!

 

[NightRam2020]

2020 Ram 1500 5.7 4x4. Bought July 2023 used with 39k mileage. Just did my first oil change at 45k and sent a sample to Blackstone Laboratories for an analysis. They got back to me the other day and basically said everything looks good at a 6k mile oil change and to try 7k miles. I used Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w-20 and a WIX oil filter. I did pay for the extra TBN testing to see how much oil detergents was remaining at the time of change.

 

[6of36]

The owners manual is a good source of information for maintenance requirements.

My manual recommends nothing but fully synthetic and says to change the oil based on when the Oil Indicator System says to change the the oil but never longer than 10,000 miles or 1 year. Based on my current % of oil life remaining, I expect to do my first oil change between 9000 - 10000 miles.

I see no reason to change the oil earlier than what the manufacture recommends just because my dad had to change oil in his 1970 Chevy pickup every 3500 miles just to get the engine last for 150,000 miles.

Oils are different than they were 20 years ago. Now it's all synthetic, that lasts longer. The manufacturer says go by the computer, to keep warranty, but all the experts say change more often. The oil may still be good, but the filter may not be. You could do what I plan on doing, and change the filter between oil changes. After all, Ram says your transmission has lifetime fluid, that never needs changing. However, ZF, the transmission company that designed the transmission, says change filter and fluid at 60,000 miles. I trust lubrication specialists, more than a company that wants your engine to outlive the warranty.

 

[DEG]

Oils are different than they were 20 years ago. Now it's all synthetic, that lasts longer. The manufacturer says go by the computer, to keep warranty, but all the experts say change more often. The oil may still be good, but the filter may not be. You could do what I plan on doing, and change the filter between oil changes. After all, Ram says your transmission has lifetime fluid, that never needs changing. However, ZF, the transmission company that designed the transmission, says change filter and fluid at 60,000 miles. I trust lubrication specialists, more than a company that wants your engine to outlive the warranty.

Ah. The typical appeal to expertise fallacy argument. I will go by the computer and I guarantee I will never have any problems associated with following that path and will save considerable time and money over the time I own the vehicle.

 

[Dewey]

3 RAM’s Hemi’s with combined 277,000 miles and always changed the oil/filter according to the oil life monitor which is always right around 10,000 miles with my driving and mostly highway miles.

Zero issues ever. None of those trucks were ever even in a shop for anything other than basic recalls.

IMO with quality synthetic these days your only wasting money changing oil more often than recommended. If it makes you feel better knock yourself out but don’t confuse oil change intervals using synthetic vs standard oil of the old days. Huge difference.

 

[dajogejr]

but all the experts say change more often.

Key words here..”experts”..
Most of them are old wives tales stuck on 3,000 miles and made a slight adjustment to 5K when synthetics come out.

Change what you want, when you want. At the end of the day, doesn’t matter.
Unless you want to send samples off to the lab, who actually are the experts.. it’s all handed down information and marketing.

Back in the day (late 90s, early 2000s) Mobil reps at shows would say we don’t make a semi-synthetic.
We make traditional or synthetic…we think semi-synthetic is walking in the middle of the road. True story.

Then Mobil Realized it was missing out on market segment and advertising (i.e. sales)… so of course, a few years later they offered a semi synthetic…or as they call it, “synthetic blend”.

I’ve lived by my EVIC, change it when it‘s convenient for me with less than 10% left. Averages out to 9K miles, give or take. I am the expert on my own vehicle… because I pay for it… LOL.

 

[n8zcc]

I use the vehicle's oil life meter as a gauge when I'm approaching an oil change. This past weekend I changed the oil/filter with an oil life meter of 31% and 6,670 miles since the last oil change 9 months ago. It is also December and it was a nice day to do the work. As we approach January and February and the much colder days ahead I did the service early. Since I don't put a lot of miles on the 2022 ECODiesel I typically do the oil/filter change yearly.

 

[silver billet]

Key words here..”experts”..
Most of them are old wives tales stuck on 3,000 miles and made a slight adjustment to 5K when synthetics come out.

Change what you want, when you want. At the end of the day, doesn’t matter.
Unless you want to send samples off to the lab, who actually are the experts.. it’s all handed down information and marketing.

Not an expert, and not an old wife. The hemi has issues with lifters, this is a known fact. Changing your oil frequently is the first defence against this. Pretty much any other engine I'd run 10,000 to 15,000+ with a very high quality synthetic.

And yes, my oil changes are sent to Blackstone as well.

 

[JF19Longhorn]

Every 5k Mobil One FS 5W20 with a Mopar filter, usually the SRT.

 

[CHeYeNNe71]

Usually around 8-9K. Depending use of vehicle.

 

[DEG]

Not an expert, and not an old wife. The hemi has issues with lifters, this is a known fact. Changing your oil frequently is the first defence against this. Pretty much any other engine I'd run 10,000 to 15,000+ with a very high quality synthetic.

And yes, my oil changes are sent to Blackstone as well.

I've seen no evidence that increasing oil change frequency provides any defense at all for the rare lifter issues.

 

[CHeYeNNe71]

I've seen no evidence that increasing oil change frequency provides any defense at all for the rare lifter issues.

Because there is none, just opinions and people wanting to justify the extra costs. **** is gonna happen, nothing you can do about it.

 

[silver billet]

I've seen no evidence

That's ok, you do you

 

[DEG]

That's ok, you do you

Thanks for your permission.

 

[dajogejr]

Not an expert, and not an old wife. The hemi has issues with lifters, this is a known fact. Changing your oil frequently is the first defence against this. Pretty much any other engine I'd run 10,000 to 15,000+ with a very high quality synthetic.

And yes, my oil changes are sent to Blackstone as well.

Can you show us exactly where the Blackstone report states the oil should have been changed sooner to prevent lifter failure?
Or where the oil has sufficient life left to service the rest of the motor, but… changing it sooner would prevent or stall lifter failure?

My point.. one has nothing do with the other.

 

[Scram1500]

If there was a design flaw in oil delivery all Hemi's would have failed lifters. I think it's more likely they had a bad run of cams and or lifter's that weren't properly hardened. No lubricant strategy in the world can overcome that