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Can I push oil chage intervals if I use synthetic?

D

DougoMan

Senior member
Say you have a car designed for regular oil changes every 5k miles. Would it be safe to go 10k or so with synthetic oil?

It seems cars that come from the factory with synthetic oil can go as much as 20k miles between changes.
 
Maybe, maybe not. Send an oil sample to Blackstone Labs at your normal interval and they'll be able to tell you how your oil is doing. 🙂
 
No. The type of oil you use does not affect how much dirt is injested or how much blowby gets into the crank case. Additionally the detergents and boundary metals suspended in the oil deplete at the same rate. All synthetic means is that the oil polymers themselves are more consistently higher in strength and will not break down as easily when hot.

Additionally, the filter must still be changed regularly.
 
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Call me crazy, but I prefer the peace of mind spending ~$30 and an hour or less to change the oil+filter on schedule, rather than "push" things.
 
exdeath said:
No. The type of oil you use does not affect how much dirt is injested or how much blowby gets into the crank case. Additionally the detergents and boundary metals suspended in the oil deplete at the same rate. All synthetic means is that the oil polymers themselves are more consistently higher in strength and will not break down as easily when hot.

Additionally, the filter must still be changed regularly.
Click to expand...

Thank You!! You have no idea how many times I preach and preach this but most people toss in synthetic and a filter cand just call it done for 20-25k "because the bottle says so". That's my gripe with marketing..... 25k extended mileage protection my ass.....
 
I did it on my Corrado, motor was still fine at 250k, oil filter every 5k, oil and filter every 10 ( rod bearings every 80k, the supercharged motor liked to kill them ). The only reason I pulled the motor was I got tired of looking at the fresh 2l forged piston block sitting on the stand. Tear down showed the motor in fantastic shape, new gasket set and it's been running in a local guys turboed Golf for the past 8 years no problems. It probably has at least 350k on it at this point.
 
DougoMan said:
Say you have a car designed for regular oil changes every 5k miles. Would it be safe to go 10k or so with synthetic oil?

It seems cars that come from the factory with synthetic oil can go as much as 20k miles between changes.
Click to expand...

For the warranty, you must follow the manufacturer's schedule, synthetic or conventional.

If it's not under warranty, do whatever you want.
 
I think there are some proponents of refreshing your oil as well, ie. changing the filter and mixing in 1-2 qt of fresh oil.
 
5-6K miles is a reasonable change interval for full synthetic oil. But it must also include a new filter each time. Also, it is advisable to check the engine oil level and add as needed, say every 1,000 miles. Some use oil internally and some have tiny leaks.
 
LTC8K6 said:
For the warranty, you must follow the manufacturer's schedule, synthetic or conventional.

If it's not under warranty, do whatever you want.
Click to expand...

Jumpem said:
Change it as specified in the manual if you want to keep your warranty.
Click to expand...

Technically all the manuals I see say "recommend"


WhoBeDaPlaya said:
I think there are some proponents of refreshing your oil as well, ie. changing the filter and mixing in 1-2 qt of fresh oil.
Click to expand...


Refreshing your oil? No you change the oil to refresh it. Adding oil is not refreshing, you only add oil if your eating or leaking oil. Changing the filter is not needed until the OCI is finished. Many filters can go 10k, Not all of them can.
 
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Zap said:
It is because [cha-ching!] they give you free maintenance for a few years. This cuts costs. 🙂
Click to expand...


Exactly! And if you peruse various BMW forums, you'll find tales of sludge buildup, component failures, etc. when trying to follow the BMW recommended intervals....and most of the forum members/owners are NOT following BMW's recommendations but are falling back to shorter intervals, along with a host of BMW mechanics quietly suggesting to their customers shorter change intervals, also.


I've been using synthetics in my plain old Blazer since its first oil change back in '02. But I didn't do it to really extend change intervals, rather give the engine a cushion as we tow with it extensively (almost weekly during the spring/summer/fall) and we tow where it's hot most of the year.

Don't know if it's really made a huge difference or not, but the Blazer is at 235K miles now and still doesn't use over a 1/2 quart during my rather short change intervals of around 6K miles.
 
thescreensavers said:
Technically all the manuals I see say "recommend"
Click to expand...

Yes, mine is very vague:

The Scheduled Maintenance services listed in this
manual must be done at the times or mileages specified
to protect your vehicle warranty and ensure the best
vehicle performance and reliability.
Click to expand...

Under no circumstances should oil change intervals
exceed 8,000 miles (13,000 km) or 6 months, whichever
comes first.
Click to expand...
 
DougoMan said:
So why can these BMWs goes 20k miles?

Is the engine or oil filter designed differently?
Click to expand...

That 20k miles is ONLY IF YOU USE BMW-LL01 APPROVED ENGINE OIL. Yes, because BMW gives free maintenance, in order to save them money, they came up with brilliant LL01 standard, which is only given to the synthetic oil that has HTHS of 3.5 or higher (Translate: Not shear down easily and can handle extended interval). There are only two LL01 you can buy in US, German Castrol and Mobil 0w40. If you use any other oil, you should follow shorter OCI of 7k or less.

And as Meghan54 mentioned, sludge is known issue to those BMWs that have extended OCI. Even if you used LL01 approved oil and LL01 oil can handle extended period, it doesn't help much with sludge building up. That's why it's being suggested to at least change the filter at your expense at around half way (7.5k) between suggested OCI.
 
bunch of nancys in here

"regular" oil these days is good for 5,000 miles

synthetic should do 7,500-10,000 with little to no issues
 
Meghan54 said:
Exactly! And if you peruse various BMW forums, you'll find tales of sludge buildup, component failures, etc. when trying to follow the BMW recommended intervals....and most of the forum members/owners are NOT following BMW's recommendations but are falling back to shorter intervals, along with a host of BMW mechanics quietly suggesting to their customers shorter change intervals, also.


I've been using synthetics in my plain old Blazer since its first oil change back in '02. But I didn't do it to really extend change intervals, rather give the engine a cushion as we tow with it extensively (almost weekly during the spring/summer/fall) and we tow where it's hot most of the year.

Don't know if it's really made a huge difference or not, but the Blazer is at 235K miles now and still doesn't use over a 1/2 quart during my rather short change intervals of around 6K miles.
Click to expand...


Got something to back that up?
The only ones I see with problems are not using syn oil and/or going well past the maintaince numbers.


I do 5k on Reg and 10k-ish on Syn, or 1 year which ever comes first.
 
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