Changing oil every 3000 miles

[Eli]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
Anyone know the reason that we have to change oil every 3000 miles.

It will always lubricate because it's oil so why do we have to change it?

hahahahahahahaha

You just go on believing that.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Thats Toyota though and with their sludge problem that doesn't count. Thats some design flaw.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
Anyone know the reason that we have to change oil every 3000 miles.

It will always lubricate because it's oil so why do we have to change it?

hahahahahahahaha

You just go on believing that.

heh yea, it works like water cooling as well as lubrication. reaches very high temperatures.

 

[StageLeft]

The manuals for both of my Maximas has two intervals: 3750 and 7500, depending upon driving. 3750 is given for severe driving. My driving is a mix of city and highway, with reasonably long distances most of the time, infrequent cold weather short distances, etc. so according to this Nissan says 7500 miles is fine - that's with a conventional oil and an OEM filter. I use a synthetic just to be save (mobil 1), and do the 7500 miles. I've read enough stuff that I'm convinced the 3000 is simply money down the drain in all but a few rare conditions. Not even auto manufacturers (and they made your car, afterall) are recommending money is thrown away that much in most cases. It's quick lube places that still recommend the 3k.

 

[JEDI]

consumer reports did a report a few years ago about oil changes. they tested it on nyc taxis.

they took apart the engines in a fleet of cabs. they measured and weighed everything.

5w30, 10w30,10w40, synthetic, quaker, valvoline, some at 3000 mile changes, some at 7500, etc

2millions miles later and there was like .02% difference between all of them.

so i'm sticking with 7500 at walmart for $13

screw u jiffy lube and $25 every 3000 miles.

yes, it it bush's fault

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: JEDI
consumer reports did a report a few years ago about oil changes. they tested it on nyc taxis.

they took apart the engines in a fleet of cabs. they measured and weighed everything.

5w30, 10w30,10w40, synthetic, quaker, valvoline, some at 3000 mile changes, some at 7500, etc

2millions miles later and there was like .02% difference between all of them.

so i'm sticking with 7500 at walmart for $13

screw u jiffy lube and $25 every 3000 miles.

yes, it it bush's fault

Link?

The bad thing about tests like that is - Do you drive a taxicab? Does your car have the same engine as a taxicab?

No? Then the results for you may not be the same. It is true that taxis see severe service, though. It is a different kind of severe service than most regular users will see, however. That could make all the difference in the world.

The real reason for the 3,000 mile oil change is cheap insurance.

 

[C'DaleRider]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: JEDI
consumer reports did a report a few years ago about oil changes. they tested it on nyc taxis.

they took apart the engines in a fleet of cabs. they measured and weighed everything.

5w30, 10w30,10w40, synthetic, quaker, valvoline, some at 3000 mile changes, some at 7500, etc

2millions miles later and there was like .02% difference between all of them.

so i'm sticking with 7500 at walmart for $13

screw u jiffy lube and $25 every 3000 miles.

yes, it it bush's fault

Link?

The bad thing about tests like that is - Do you drive a taxicab? Does your car have the same engine as a taxicab?

No? Then the results for you may not be the same. It is true that taxis see severe service, though. It is a different kind of severe service than most regular users will see, however. That could make all the difference in the world.

The real reason for the 3,000 mile oil change is cheap insurance.

I remember that test and it was more than just a few years ago.....and you won't get a link to the report, Eli for a couple of reasons. The CR website is subscription only and that report has not been put into the site's archives. What I do remember from the test is that they wanted VERY severe duty cycles from driving over the same "courses", so NYC taxis were an excellent choice. They used the same group of drivers in several cars....each, as mentioned, torn down for wieghing of parts, then used for a specific period of time, then reweighed and inspected. The same group of drivers was used, as were the same make/model of car, to remove as many variables as possible.

I do remember the WORST oil they found was Quaker State.......sludged faster than any other brand. Seems to me that Castrol GTX and Valvoline were at the otehr/upper end of protection.


Gotta hand it to CR sometimes.......very few other publications are willing to invest the time needed for some sorts of testing. Take for instance the case of refrigerating batteries to preserve their life before using them. Everyone's heard of doing it.....so CR spent over 5 years exploring that. Hundreds of batteries, alkaline, heavy duty, etc., and many brands were urchased at retail. They then were split in half....half stored in a refrigerator, half on a room shelf at room temp. Over the next 5 years, the two groups of batteries were periodically tested for charge remaining and the conclusion was there's no benefit to refrigerating batteries to preserve their life. The difference was within the margin of error of the battery testing machines.

 

[Amused]

3000 miles is hype to sell oil. 5000-7500 would be fine for most. Many can go as far as 10,000 with no problem.

All of my cars have had the oil changed between 5000 and 7500 and I have NEVER had an engine die on me. In fact, I have a 97 Mazda 626 4 banger with over 200,000 miles on it that I use as a work/beater car. It's needed a new tranny, a new AC fan and a new radio... but the engine is still running fine and has never had a problem.

Don't fall for the hype.

 

[amdskip]

I run Amsoil sythetic and I change it once a year. I put 9,000 miles on the last change.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: C'DaleRider

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: JEDI
consumer reports did a report a few years ago about oil changes. they tested it on nyc taxis.

they took apart the engines in a fleet of cabs. they measured and weighed everything.

5w30, 10w30,10w40, synthetic, quaker, valvoline, some at 3000 mile changes, some at 7500, etc

2millions miles later and there was like .02% difference between all of them.

so i'm sticking with 7500 at walmart for $13

screw u jiffy lube and $25 every 3000 miles.

yes, it it bush's fault

Link?

The bad thing about tests like that is - Do you drive a taxicab? Does your car have the same engine as a taxicab?

No? Then the results for you may not be the same. It is true that taxis see severe service, though. It is a different kind of severe service than most regular users will see, however. That could make all the difference in the world.

The real reason for the 3,000 mile oil change is cheap insurance.

I remember that test and it was more than just a few years ago.....and you won't get a link to the report, Eli for a couple of reasons. The CR website is subscription only and that report has not been put into the site's archives. What I do remember from the test is that they wanted VERY severe duty cycles from driving over the same "courses", so NYC taxis were an excellent choice. They used the same group of drivers in several cars....each, as mentioned, torn down for wieghing of parts, then used for a specific period of time, then reweighed and inspected. The same group of drivers was used, as were the same make/model of car, to remove as many variables as possible.

I do remember the WORST oil they found was Quaker State.......sludged faster than any other brand. Seems to me that Castrol GTX and Valvoline were at the otehr/upper end of protection.


Gotta hand it to CR sometimes.......very few other publications are willing to invest the time needed for some sorts of testing. Take for instance the case of refrigerating batteries to preserve their life before using them. Everyone's heard of doing it.....so CR spent over 5 years exploring that. Hundreds of batteries, alkaline, heavy duty, etc., and many brands were urchased at retail. They then were split in half....half stored in a refrigerator, half on a room shelf at room temp. Over the next 5 years, the two groups of batteries were periodically tested for charge remaining and the conclusion was there's no benefit to refrigerating batteries to preserve their life. The difference was within the margin of error of the battery testing machines.

Ornery I think has posted a link that had a lot of info from the CR report. They didn't get much done with synthetics because unrelated to the oil some of their test engines died. The important thing they noted though was that there was no significant difference in engine break down between cars that had gone 6000 and those that had gone 3000 miles. Since these were NYC cabs, their driving was basically all stop and go AND of great note is that cabs idle frequently, so 6000 miles on a car in those conditions was proven to do as well as 3000.

Less extensive have been various private efforts by people on message boards who send their oil into blackstone labs for oil analysis at various points in time, and the consensus has always been that 3000 is simply overkill. It's not even debateable; it's just wasted money. One can call it cheap insurance, but then why not do it every 2000 miles or every time you fill up with gas? Wasted money is still wasted money!