Non-Model A oil usage

This has been very interesting of a read. I wonder what would have happened to the womans car if she changed it say 1000 miles earlier? Do you think the damage was already done and it still would have seised up?
 
same here with BMW 12000-15000 between change but with 4 of them, pricey in excess of 110 for an oil change, but can 250000, 198000,234000,178000 mileage be wrong,this isnt even the highest i have had one had 389000, another had way over 350000, that is when speedometer broke recently sold that car kid still griving it , side note RCL should check on how much oil your car takes my BMW's hold 7.5-8 quarts each lot of synthetic
 
gweilbaker said:
I change mine every 3000mi due to the fact it takes an hour to travel 10 miles to work.

I wish they would put chronometers on cars and schedule maintenance accordingly.

City miles- Car very worn, shows low mileage
Highway miles- Car looks OK, high mileage
Wife miles- Driven to hell until the dash light burns out.

GW
Click to expand...

This is essentially what Robert Sikorsky, SAE, states in his book "Drive it Forever"... short-trip / never warmed-up driving is the severest of service uses, short of driving through desert sand-storms.

If you are trading the vehicle in every three to five years, then the manufacturer's recommended / extended change interval is probably adequate.

If you want to make that five-figure investment last until YOU are ready for another vehicle ( or until rust claims it, if you live in a "salt-state" ), then I would go with the shorter oil-change intervals.

If you are running synthetic oil (read: expensive), then it might be worth while to have it analayzed periodically, and see at what mileage the oil is actually "worn-out"... once you have established a base-line, then you should be able to determine a change schedule and stick with it.... until there is a major change in your climate / driving habits...

I have a '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo with the 4.3 litre AMC-derived inliine six, with around 128,000 miles on it. I am the third owner, and the party before me owned it almost ten years, and stuck religiously to a 3,000 mile oil-change schedule, which amounted to twice a year for her driving habits. When I got the car, it had about 80,000 miles on it, and to this day, does not burn oil or smoke, nor does it require additional oil between changes... I plan to keep it until PennDOT's Car-B-Gone finishes it off...

Your results may vary... ;)
 
"MOST people do not properly care for their cars. I was taught at a young age by my Dad, that when you walk up to your car to get into the habit of scanning for low tires, fluid leaks, scrapes and dings, anything. I bet very few people do that these days."

Most don't give it anymore thought than they do with their clothes dryer or vacuum cleaner: as long as it goes when they push "start", all is right with the world... and when it decides not to function, they damn the manudacturer for "making such a lousy piece of junk"...
 
Eh,

The wifes vue with its Honda 3.5L engine gets its 8-9K mile oil changes and currently has 90,000 miles on it. Using 0w20 it burns around 1/8 of a quart in 9,000 miles. In my opinion that suggests it has very little wear on it. It also suggests 9,000 mile oil changes are just fine for that specific engine.

This is not a typo. I'm guessing its around 1/8 of a quart, its kind of hard to tell if it used any oil or if the temperature changed. Either way its obviously not using a lot of oil due to worn rings and valve seals.
 
One thing that concerns me are the problems with some of the new engines, namely the variable valve timing engines.. Manufactures are now testing the oil and if it doesn't meet 'their' standards they are denying warranty claims..
After having another Toyota engine failure[ 3000 mile oil changes][not related to above paragraph] and their refusal to do a thing, we now have a new Honda.. Honda wants the oil changed at 3750 mile intervals, I think I'll do what I, and they, recommend..
Engines today need the proper clean oil and even then they may not live long..
 
When using 5W30 regular oil, the indicator on my dash shows "0" oil life left after about 3000 miles. When I switched to Mobil synthetic oil the dash indicator shows "0" oil life left after about 7000 miles. Does anyone know what is being sampled that would indicate the difference?
 
If you want to use the best oil available everywhere out there, use Mobil 1. It is the only true synthetic, not based from crude oil lubricant out there. Mobil 1 is a custom tailored molecule built from ethylene and is more pure than crude oil based lubes.

The other brands of oil advertised as "synthetic" are based on crude oil. The supply of crudes that make good lubes is not what it used to be and is more expensive than non-lube crudes. With a lube crude, the lube oils are already in the crude and the refiner separates out what is not lube oil. So what the other brands do is hydrocrack non-lube crude cuts to make lube base stocks.

The big benefit to synthetic lube oils is reducing wear when you start your car. Starting up is a big factor in engine wear. A true synthetic 0w20 like Mobil a is a 0 weight oil with additives to make it 20w when it is hot. What you want when you start your car and it is cold is a thin oil to get to what needs lubing faster. A non-synthetic 0w20 is a 20 weight oil with additives to make it 0w when it is cold. Remember the old adverts about Mobil 1 in the 70s that showed Mobil 1 being poured out of a bucket and the typical conventional oil being a solid block or the frying pan with oil in it?

I use only Mobil 1 in all my modern cars and change at 5,000 miles or twice a year. Cars cost $30,000 minimum these days, what is an extra $50 a year to buy Mobil 1 in the grand scheme of things. I've never had any oil consumption or wear I noticed in up to 150,000 miles. My cars essentially die of old age at about 13 years old.
 
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