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how often is everyone changing oil

Not exactly Ram related, but I figured I'd share anyway since many of you use dealerships for oil changes. I've always done all my oil changes in my vehicles, except for the wife's since it's a lease and they were covered by the dealership for free. Her Jeep Cherokee needed a change before we go out of town this weekend, and I couldn't get into the dealer, so I picked up the supplies in town and did it myself in the garage last night. This was the second change on the vehicle, and the dealership did the first. I was able to take the drain plug out with my fingers. I didn't even put a wrench to it. I suppose a plug could work loose, but I've never had it happen. I believe someone never tightened it on last change.

I'm not saying everyone's dealer is garbage, just make sure to double check their work if you can. For me, I will never go back to them unless I have to for warranty work. Free or not, I'll be changing my own oil on everything from now on.
 
I changed mine at 5,000 miles and now I'll follow the oil change indicator on the dash but I'll never go beyond 10k ever.

5W30 full synthetic is the ONLY thing I'll put in a V8. Never 0W20, ever. Cam/lifter failures suck.

My 2011 has 96,600 miles and runs like new and never burns a drop of oil, my 2022 has almost 9,000 miles and hasn't had a single "Hemi tick" or valvetrain noise since I drained the 0W20 factory trash.
 
HEMIJAKE said:
Not exactly Ram related, but I figured I'd share anyway since many of you use dealerships for oil changes. I've always done all my oil changes in my vehicles, except for the wife's since it's a lease and they were covered by the dealership for free. Her Jeep Cherokee needed a change before we go out of town this weekend, and I couldn't get into the dealer, so I picked up the supplies in town and did it myself in the garage last night. This was the second change on the vehicle, and the dealership did the first. I was able to take the drain plug out with my fingers. I didn't even put a wrench to it. I suppose a plug could work loose, but I've never had it happen. I believe someone never tightened it on last change.

I'm not saying everyone's dealer is garbage, just make sure to double check their work if you can. For me, I will never go back to them unless I have to for warranty work. Free or not, I'll be changing my own oil on everything from now on.
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Bad experiences with oil changes by "other":
1. Ram dealership 2nd oil change used conventional oil when the 1st oil change was synthetic by them. Done with them.
2. 2001 Dodge Ram SLT, 6 qts. in my 5 qt. engine. Done with them
3. Removed 4 qts. (not including filter) from my wife's 3.7 (with filter) car - another dealership, Honda. Done with them.
4. Father in laws car over filled (not by much - this time).
5. Oil changes were done by dealership (wife's car) and than they try to sell an unneeded brake job. Done with them.

Have the equipment, have some time and buy the oil on sale. Plus with my son's 2 cars, in laws 1 and my 6 (4 drivers), 3 motorcycles and various lawn/garden/snow blowers it all adds up. Now I just need to line them up for the same "time".
Shop down the street takes the oil (no problem for owner) and is law in NYC. Added the ValvoMax valves to about 4 or 5 vehicles now which makes the "containment" a pleasure (ValvoMax Oil Drain System).
 
I go every 5-6000 miles to my local ram dealership where I purchased the truck and they use Castrol synthetic. I’ll have to double check to see exactly what it’s called. I always purchase packages of three oil change and tire rotations and it’s about $140 after tax I think. I’ve had eight oil changes since May 2022 and will probably get my ninth one sometime next month. I plan on doing an oil analysis for that particular thread on this forum.
 
Scram1500 said:
Ah yes, the Hemi tick. Don't read that stuff, you'll end up like Alice falling down a rabbit hole. If you don't have the tick don't worry about it, if you do have a tick it's probably the exhaust manifold. Lifter tick doesn't seem to be an issue on the 5th like it was on the 4th gen
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Thats good to know!
 
It's alive on 5th gens too unfortunately. It may appear to be less but there has been no change to the internals since about 2016 after the most recent lifter update. Any 5.7 after 2016 (including classic 4th gens) will have the same probability as 5th gens.

I'm not paranoid, but I'm not going to ignore it either. I just run the best oil I can find (according to BITOG, that's HPL in the Euro or no-vii/euro flavours) and run 0w-30 or 5w-30. Then change oil every 5000 to 7000 miles.

For the rest, I avoid long idles and just drive it and have fun.
 
On paper HPL looks to perform better than Redline which is pretty amazing. I'd love to give it a try but the lack of API certification scares me away while still under warranty.

Boutique oils out perform anything off the shelf but Ram dealerships are dickheads and if anything goes wrong I'd rather not give them any excuse to deny a claim. It's a double edge sword
 
Scram1500 said:
On paper HPL looks to perform better than Redline which is pretty amazing. I'd love to give it a try but the lack of API certification scares me away while still under warranty.

Boutique oils out perform anything off the shelf but Ram dealerships are dickheads and if anything goes wrong I'd rather not give them any excuse to deny a claim. It's a double edge sword
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I can understand that. The euro label "meets or exceeds" MS6395 though (in 0w-20 and 5w-20): Euro Passenger Car Engine Oil

The certifications don't bother me personally in the slightest. A lot of guys on BITOG are really impressed with it. David spends a ton of time there answering questions and explaining the oil, and their chief chemist is Dr Rudnick who is one of the best in the business. Can read about him here: https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/leslie-r-rudnick.355170/

As for the warranty issue, my approach to that is the same as it is for Redline. Statistically speaking, there is a low probability of me needing a warranty for engine work. Most hemi failures happen outside of warranty, so I pick the best oil I can so that I avoid damage in the first place, rather than running an oil which is worse and may cause a failure inside of the warranty period or outside it. This approach depends on how long you plan to keep your truck. If you lease or trade off every few years, definitely don't do this lol.
 
Once per year. Dealership tried to tell me I needed to change every 6 months or 5,000 miles.

Year 1: 3,900 miles.
Year 2: 2,900 miles

Purchased truck Feb 2021, current mileage is 6,800.
 
louscrw said:
Once per year. Dealership tried to tell me I needed to change every 6 months or 5,000 miles.

Year 1: 3,900 miles.
Year 2: 2,900 miles

Purchased truck Feb 2021, current mileage is 6,800.
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That's their recommendation. The manual essentially states whenever the computer says to do so or 1 year/10,000 miles, whichever comes first.

I drive low mileage like you, so for me it's once a year regardless of how low the mileage is to stay good with my warranty. I do it myself, keep my receipts and records of date when I perform the oil change.

If I was doing 12,000 miles per year, I personally would do it every 5,000 - 7,000 miles, depending on the conditions I was driving my truck.
 
It's not cheap!

HPL is what you get when you ask a brilliant semi-retired petrochemist to design the best oil he can with no worry about cost of materials or other limitations (like CAFE).

There are other good oils, but pretty much any major oil is going to be limited by specs in standards or target cost or whatever else.
 
silver billet said:
It's not cheap!

HPL is what you get when you ask a brilliant semi-retired petrochemist to design the best oil he can with no worry about cost of materials or other limitations (like CAFE).

There are other good oils, but pretty much any major oil is going to be limited by specs in standards or target cost or whatever else.
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I haven't priced any in a while but I used to use BND Automotive oil and Aces4 fuel additive. The owner owned a Hemi and developed a blend of oil specifically to address the issues with the Hemis
 
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