Car Oil Changes

[Grumpy]

Last year for reasons I won't go into, my wife and I decided to stimulate the economy by buying new vehicles, she a sedan and I a Van. On Friday I took one of them (I always take her's for service) for an oil change and a new vehicle service check up. After the check up, they put a sticker in the window saying when the next oil change/service is due.

I noted that they want one vehcile serviced/oil changed at 3000 mile intervals and the other is at 5000 mile intervals. Not a big deal considering that they are two different types of vehicle but it got me to wondering.

My quiestion is: with today's supposedly more efficient vehicles AND OIL, once a vehilce has had the first two or three service checks, how often and after how many miles should the oil be changed?

Thanks for your opinions,.

Grumpy

[MsgMills]

I have the oil changed in my vehicles at or as close to 5000 miles as I can and have never had any problems by doing it.

[RoadToad]

I've always thought the conventional wisdom was you should change it every 3000 miles, the only exception being vehicles using synthetic oil, which can go a lot longer between changes. And if you want to run synthetic oil, you need to do it basically for the life of the engine; switching to it once the engine has some miles on it (supposedly) isn't really a good thing to do. This isn't expert advice, I'm just repeating what I've been told.

[shawnrd81]

I just got mine changed this past week and noticed that the next one is due in 4000 miles. I got mine done at Walmart and got Penzoil put in do not know if this has something to do with it. I know that Aimsoil you can go 25,000 mile before another oil change. Maybe it is the oil

[kygorski]

According to fric, and frac, the 3000 mile oil change is minimaly neccesary if you do a lot of city driving.My 07 chevy truck has been using synthetic blend, and they say 5000 miles at the dealwership.

[Cobra190]

It has to do with which oil is used. I change my oil myself, using a synthetic blend and still change at 3,000 miles. Even if I ran full synthetic, it would be hard keeping peace of mind going beyond 3,000 miles to me. I was taught that this was the life of an engine, and at todays prices of repair or replacement, always better safe than sorry.

[Grumpy]

Thanks guys, I guess I will just go with the manufacturers recommendations. Hopefully, they know whats good for their product.

Grumpy

[mhall]

Change the oil in any vehicle every 3000 miles without fail and it will last a long long time.

[Chubminnow]

I have heard now days you can go with changing the oil once every 5000 miles, but for some reason I just don't like stretching it that far out. I guess I might be old school maybe but I still change the oil once every 3000 and I always use Pennzoil, and even though I'm not sure I save any money I still do it myself.

[JD7.62]

I have heard now days you can go with changing the oil once every 5000 miles, but for some reason I just don't like stretching it that far out. I guess I might be old school maybe but I still change the oil once every 3000 and I always use Pennzoil, and even though I'm not sure I save any money I still do it myself.

I save about $10-15 per car and do them the same time. Its easy but in the scheme of things its not really worth the work to save the $80 a year for our two cars. Its really just a good excuse for me to crack open a cold one or six.

Ive never really worked on cars before and never had any one show me how but in the past year Ive probably saved some BIG bucks doing simple maintence/repairs/upgrades my self. Ive replaced rotors and pads, belts, sparkplugs/wires, under drive pulley, struts, fuel filters and few other things. Ive also installed some upgrade parts just as header and complete exhaust system from header back, underdrive pulley, short shifter, shifter bushings, ad more. All these cost me nothing more then materials and a couple cases of beer. If I had paid some one, geez I wouldnt even want to know how much all that would have cost! The going rate for labor is about $65-75/hr at most places!

[mhall]

I have heard now days you can go with changing the oil once every 5000 miles, but for some reason I just don't like stretching it that far out. I guess I might be old school maybe but I still change the oil once every 3000 and I always use Pennzoil, and even though I'm not sure I save any money I still do it myself.

Awe Chub I'm a do it yourselfer Pennzoil guy myself......

[MrSplitshot]

With the way oil breaks down, you could go 5K-6K or better between oil changes if you wanted to and probably be fine...but probably aint good enough for me. I just stick to the 3K rule on every vehicle and don't worry about it.

I run Valvoline, not necessarily because I think it's the best, but because it's what our stores use.

Change the oil every 3K, rotate the tires every other oil change, and let the big dog EAT!