How many miles do you change your oil?

[Spur]

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[Boston Bill]

When my oil life reminder hits 20% I make an appointment. It usually is done before or when it hits 15%. Generally around 6k.
I did the 1st one at 900 miles. Get the crap out early. Hopefully this is going to be a 10 vehicle for me.

 

[mrmo]

Did my first at 5k after the "break in" period as I call it. Will use 7.5-8k after, but may change up slightly to get all 3 of the Wave freebees in there. At the second period Im thinking of changing both axles due to break in,prob should've done them sooner, but....

 

[cuellar13]

I wait until it hits about 10% left- I only use Mobile 1 and add in a Lucas product. Been doing that combo on virtually everything I've owned for over two decades, and it's worked for me.

IMO, If you're changing oil at 5K or less, it's overkill with fully synthetic oil. For a motor running conventional oil, I agree with every 3-5K.

 

[sdk131]

For me it just works out to once per since i only drive about 6,000 miles annualy. I use Mobil 1 0W20 Extended Performance.

 

[texanjeeper]

I've had the oil changed twice, each at 6,000 miles.

 

[Blackjeepjk]

Mine caught on ......she thought it was odd that I was laying under the new jeep with only 1,000 miles on it.... LOL. Doesn't work as good as it would with my 20 year old F-250 with massive electrical issues.

If she is wise and caught on to all of the above mentioned, you are now ready to add a boat to your repertoire!

 

[Guns_N_Rosaries]

I used to do 5,000 for both oil change and tire rotation to make it easy, but I'm going 7,500 now for both after reading up on stuff. As long as you use a modern, full synthetic you're honestly probably good to just go with whenever the truck tells you.

 

[Dougstdig]

My Jeep is currently at 1200 miles. Just trying to get an idea on when I should change my oil.

3k? or 5k? or more

I did my first at 2500ish just for piece of mind. Did my 2nd last weekend @ 8500ish because I finally had the time, the dealer had the oil and filter and my dash said I was @ 12-13%.

 

[MKAYMEOW]

I mean it does depend on what oil you are using as in Synthetic or not. I use a half Synthetic blend and change it every 6k miles. You can say it's overkill if you want, but oil is cheaper than a new engine.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

For a motor running conventional oil, I agree with every 3-5K.

Conventional can easily do 7K Not sure why people are still stuck on the "old-timers" thing from the 60s.
Even decades ago it did, and today it's even better, far better, than it was in the 70s when 7,000-7,500 was a common recommendation.
It's the additive package that wear out more than the base oil. Additives wear down, depreciate, etc. If we could do it 45 years ago, we can sure do it now with the engines better sealed, the fuel so tightly controlled, no chokes to cause rich mixtures and fuel contamination in the crank case.........

 

[cuellar13]

Conventional can easily do 7K Not sure why people are still stuck on the "old-timers" thing from the 60s.
Even decades ago it did, and today it's even better, far better, than it was in the 70s when 7,000-7,500 was a common recommendation.
It's the additive package that wear out more than the base oil. Additives wear down, depreciate, etc. If we could do it 45 years ago, we can sure do it now with the engines better sealed, the fuel so tightly controlled, no chokes to cause rich mixtures and fuel contamination in the crank case.........

Agreed- I should've worded that differently: It makes more sense to me why people running conventional oil do shorter intervals (especially for those that are stuck in the "old-timers" frame of mind) when it comes to oil changes. I ran a parts store for about 4 years, and there are die hards that lose their mind if they push an odometer over 3K between oil changes. I personally haven't run conventional oil in a very long time, with the exception of the small block chevy motor in my 66 GMC. The only reason for that was that it had a lot of issues when I bought it (leaks, compression, low oil pressure, blah blah blah), and if I'm gonna piss money away on oil, it'll be cheap conventional oil. Just finishing up assembly on the new motor now, and it will go fully synthetic after break in.

A crazy side note- my grandfather (he's 82) is a mechanic by trade, has turned wrenches for decades, and still does to this day. He's never bought ANYTHING new, especially cars. When I was a teenager with my first car, I could call him over the phone and he could damn near pin point my problem from states away. Obviously knows his stuff. He and I were talking recently and he told me that he hasn't done an oil change on any of his vehicles in decades, and has never once had an issue. I was shocked. He runs his cars and trucks 300K+ miles, and says oil changes are the biggest scam in the auto industry, once a motor is broken in, lol. I'm not adopting his ways, and he sure as hell ain't changing them at 82.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Agreed- I should've worded that differently: It makes more sense to me why people running conventional oil do shorter intervals (especially for those that are stuck in the "old-timers" frame of mind) when it comes to oil changes. I ran a parts store for about 4 years, and there are die hards that lose their mind if they push an odometer over 3K between oil changes. I personally haven't run conventional oil in a very long time, with the exception of the small block chevy motor in my 66 GMC. The only reason for that was that it had a lot of issues when I bought it (leaks, compression, low oil pressure, blah blah blah), and if I'm gonna piss money away on oil, it'll be cheap conventional oil. Just finishing up assembly on the new motor now, and it will go fully synthetic after break in.

A crazy side note- my grandfather (he's 82) is a mechanic by trade, has turned wrenches for decades, and still does to this day. He's never bought ANYTHING new, especially cars. When I was a teenager with my first car, I could call him over the phone and he could damn near pin point my problem from states away. Obviously knows his stuff. He and I were talking recently and he told me that he hasn't done an oil change on any of his vehicles in decades, and has never once had an issue. I was shocked. He runs his cars and trucks 300K+ miles, and says oil changes are the biggest scam in the auto industry, once a motor is broken in, lol. I'm not adopting his ways, and he sure as hell ain't changing them at 82.

The 4.0 in my SX4 I built, primed the oil system, installed the engine in the car, started it and drove it. I changed the first oil at about 1,000 miles as I recall and annually since then since I don't put many miles on it in a year (1,000-7,000 miles a year)
I started with synthetic as the first oil and have used it every change since.
Some of my determination on how long between changes depends on the engine, age and miles on the engine, and more. Highway miles, longer drives, engine that's well-tuned, and injected like the 4.0, can go longer. the 360 in my Javelin - every year for sure, but if I put miles on it, I'd do it a lot sooner as the dual quads aren't exactly efficient around town. There's going to be a lot of contamination in the crankcase. The PO had it built years ago and personally, I think not a great job. And it was abused before I got it. So I'd never take it even 5,000 miles. I weigh the use, the age, the miles, a lot of factors in there. My 77 AMX I went longer because most trips were at least 30 minutes, a lot of highway miles and much of the time it was clean air. Spring planting and fall harvest the air is dusty here so things get checked accordingly.
Higher mileage = looser, less efficient engine (talking older engines) so the interval gets shorter.

 

[MPMB]

My JT is due for another oil change. 16.7k on the clock, just passed 1 year.

I routinely lag on my oil change. I've had 10,000+ miles between oil changes a few times. My longest owned vehicle was a ~130k-mile VW Golf, for 8 years. And I hammered the s**t out of that thing. Never had an engine problem.

Oil changes aren't rocket science. They're not that critical to be on the dot.

 

[Summitsearcher]

Doesn't help with my Honey-Do list.
I think she's caught on!

Kevin

You need a Honey-Won’t do list. ? And a new garage Kevin.

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