Poll: When should I change the oil next?

[dullard]

I purchased a 2002 Honda Civic 7 months ago. I took the dealer's free oil change at 2980 miles (it was free only if under 3000 miles). I've always felt that the conventional 3 month/3000 mile thing is a waste (it is promoted heavily by the companies that profit from it though) and I'm already 1 month beyond that date without thinking about it (I'm nearing 6000 miles though). Even the Honda Civic website says, "Many vehicle owners waste time, money, and oil on unnecessary oil changes, for example. The quality of engine oil and filters has steadily improved to keep pace with the requirements of new engines."

I think I qualify for normal conditions and not severe conditions. But I'm not sure if I'm willing to go a full year/10000 miles as stated in the manual for normal conditions. So should I follow the dealerships printed help of scheduled maintainence every 7500 miles, Honda's severe schedule of oil changes every 6 months/5000 miles, or the salesman's suggestion of 3 months/3000 miles.

I'm just curious as to which advice you would follow.

 

[aphex]

Id say no longer than every 5000 miles just to be safe...

 

[Jzero]

The salesman that sold me my Civic said 5000 miles.
The service manager at the same dealer said 10000 for light driving, 5000 for moderate or severe.
The service manager at ANOTHER dealer ALSO said 10000 light 5000 severe when I went at 3500.

OTOH, they are charging me $20 for an oil change, so if I shoot for 3000 and get it done 3-4x a year as opposed to 1 or 2, is that $40 such a huge price to pay to keep my new car healthy?

 

[hoihtah]

your engine is built to last a long time... not like american engines from 80's.

your engine oil... (especially for synthetic) is formulated to last a long time...

your oil filter is design to last a long time.

technology has improved to a point where that 3000miles rule doesn't apply.
but it'll sure keep the repairshop people happy.

there's no harm in changing oil every 3000 miles... or even more often.
i know many ricers that change their oil almost every time they go out and race.

they figure it's a cheap way to refreshen up their cars.

there's no magic number.
but i usually do mine every 5000miles.

 

[Mr N8]

I change it every 3000 on my Lebaron (approx every 2 months), and my friend changes his in his shadow every 6000. My car is at 250.000 miles running smooth, and his is already dying at 130,000.

nate

 

[morkinva]

Oil companies own joo. Bow to your corporate masters.

Change it just enough to keep it under warranty

 

[aphex]

Just to throw a random comment out there, my mom returned a leased camry to the dealer about 4 months ago that she had driven for 30,000 miles withouth ever changing the oil :Q

 

[Rallispec]

the nissan dealership tells me to go 7500 with my car
the oil company says 3000

i usually go about 3 months between oil changes, which works out to be 4000 miles.

 

[dullard]

is that $40 such a huge price to pay to keep my new car healthy?

But that is $40 per year per car for life, plus time off from work, plus environmental damage from wasted oil, plus you will be doing what the manufacturer said NOT to do... So throughout your lifetime you may be spending $5000 extra for something you never needed in the first place.

Change it just enough to keep it under warranty

That would be 12 months/10,000 miles for most parts no oil changes needed to keep the warranty for other parts (emissions and rust). From the look of the poll, few people are willing to do that. I might just be one of those people.

 

[Passions]

If you use ProLong or whatever, you don't even have to use oil at all!!! It runs amazingly 24/7 without any oil, just look at the incredibly difference! Buy 1 quart, get this, 2 quarts for free! Buy now.

 

[Muadib]

I consider myself to be in severe conditions, and I go every 5000 miles.

 

[XZeroII]

I say 4-5 months or 4k miles. If it's yours (not leased) maybe 3-4 months.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: BOBBY RIBS
If you use ProLong or whatever, you don't even have to use oil at all!!! It runs amazingly 24/7 without any oil, just look at the incredibly difference! Buy 1 quart, get this, 2 quarts for free! Buy now.

Huh?

 

[BatmanNate]

Originally posted by: MogulMonster
I change it every 3000 on my Lebaron (approx every 2 months), and my friend changes his in his shadow every 6000. My car is at 250.000 miles running smooth, and his is already dying at 130,000.

nate

That's because the Dodge Shadow is a piece of terd on wheels. I chance the oil every 3000 and the filter every 6000 in my Toyota, and it has 235,000 on it. I did the same on my Dodge and it died at 91,000.

 

[Vette73]

Being a mechanic I can tell you its ok to go to 5K in the first 30-40K of the cars life. After that do it every 3K if you plan on keeping the car up to or over 100K.
The oil is not the problem, its the water and unburned gas, etc.. that makes the oil need changing. The longer you run with old oil the more it wears out piston rings, gaskets, etc...
Also if you have a 4cyl it puts more wear on the oil than a 6cyl, and then so on and so forth. I change my moms oil at 4-5K and it is a Z28 so its is not bad on the oil as it is a V8 (does not rev much to make it go) and she does not race it.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Being a mechanic I can tell you its ok to go to 5K in the first 30-40K of the cars life. After that do it every 3K if you plan on keeping the car up to or over 100K.
The oil is not the problem, its the water and unburned gas, etc.. that makes the oil need changing. The longer you run with old oil the more it wears out piston rings, gaskets, etc...
Also if you have a 4cyl it puts more wear on the oil than a 6cyl, and then so on and so forth. I change my moms oil at 4-5K and it is a Z28 so its is not bad on the oil as it is a V8 (does not rev much to make it go) and she does not race it.

Cool, thanks for the info. Luckily my car is only up yt 8,000 miles so far...

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: dullard

is that $40 such a huge price to pay to keep my new car healthy?

But that is $40 per year per car for life, plus time off from work, plus environmental damage from wasted oil, plus you will be doing what the manufacturer said NOT to do... So throughout your lifetime you may be spending $5000 extra for something you never needed in the first place.

Uhhh.....at $40/year, I'd have to keep my car for 125 years, or 63 years if I have 2 cars. That "life" is the life of the car....and only while I own it. I MIGHT keep this car for 8-10 years in which case I'll have spent $400.
Considering that I spent $15000 on the car (and a Civic is one of the cheaper cars you can buy), I will reiterate that it's a small price to pay.
As for environmental damage, the only thing that's going to save the world is to stop using fossil fuels. That 10 quarts of oil per person per year if everyone did it, would only serve prolong the inevitable. I assume the dealer is taking proper steps to dispose of and recycle the spent oil.
And finally, the manufacturer doesn't say NOT to wait 5000 miles, it says you can. Don't confuse that with things like "don't drive your car through a 6-foot-deep puddle."
One will damage your car, the other is simply superfluous.
And is it superfluous?
I'd rather pay $40/year and be sure it isn't because I waited 5000 or 10000 miles between oil changes that my engine is falling to pieces when they turn around and say "Guess we were wrong when we wrote the manual....oops...."

 

[iamwiz82]

I change synthetic every 7500 miles. I drive 90% freeways, so I think that is ok.

 

[StattlichPassat]

I change mine twice a year, or once every 5,000-6,000 miles. But then again, I can do that because I run Mobil1.

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: BatmanNate

Originally posted by: MogulMonster
I change it every 3000 on my Lebaron (approx every 2 months), and my friend changes his in his shadow every 6000. My car is at 250.000 miles running smooth, and his is already dying at 130,000.

nate

That's because the Dodge Shadow is a piece of terd on wheels. I chance the oil every 3000 and the filter every 6000 in my Toyota, and it has 235,000 on it. I did the same on my Dodge and it died at 91,000.

Chances are high that its the exact same engine as in the Lebaron man.....

There's alot of missinformation and strong opinion in this thread, but that comes with oil... I run Mobil 1 in all our turbo cars and it gets changed every 3-4k. I change the filter with every change, I don't know why you wouldn't actually. My jeep (with its 80s american motor that hoihtah says isn't built to last) runs dino-juice and gets changed every 3k and only is at like 198k miles or so

 

[fitz4521]

i would say about every 5k/6 months

hyundai has free lifetime oil changes...mmm free

 

[flot]

I say, don't be stupid. Let's pretend you own the car 6 years and drive 10,000 miles a year.

Now, you can either change it every 6,000 miles, or 10 times @ $20 = $200.

Or, you can change it every 3000 miles, or 20 times @ $20 = $400.

Are you willing to "risk" additional engine wear, etc, for $200? Plus I'd bet you $20 that if you saved EVERY ONE OF YOUR 20 OIL CHANGE RECEIPTS that you'd easily get an extra $200 out of the next buyer, since that would be pretty good evidence that you've taken care of the car.

I wouldn't go more than 5000 on your oil/filter.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Jzero
Uhhh.....at $40/year, I'd have to keep my car for 125 years, or 63 years if I have 2 cars. That "life" is the life of the car....and only while I own it. I MIGHT keep this car for 8-10 years in which case I'll have spent $400.

To clarify I was thinking of a typical American family person's life: 1 car from the age of 16 to 26 (10 years), getting married and having 2 cars from the age of 26 to 76 (50 years), then death. Thus the total cost is 40*10 + 2*40*50 = $4400. Now assuming it takes 20 minutes of your time (driving to and from mechanic, waiting in line, and waiting for change) you then spent 73.3 extra hours changing the oil. My original post said I had to take off work to change the oil (or maybe you can believe that time is money), so this time costs money. I just took $5/hour as the lowest possible post tax income. Thus this time costs this family $5*73.3= $367. Total cost: $4767 which I rounded to $5000. Of course if your time is worth more than $5 per hour or if you require more than 20 minutes for the complete change, it will cost more than the figure I used.

Sorry that I wasn't clear about when I said lifetime I was thinking about my lifetime and two cars. However I did clearly state that the price was over a person's lifetime, not one car's lifetime.

That $5000 might buy you some piece of mind, and only you can tell if it is worth it. I suppose that same $5000 could be spend on several extended warranties instead if you really needed more piece of mind.

And finally, the manufacturer doesn't say NOT to wait 5000 miles, it says you can

Well on page 164 of the owners manual it states:
"Do not change the oil until the recommended time or milage interval shown in the maintenance schedule"
Page 211 states:
"Always change the oil and filter according to the time and distance (miles/kilometers) recommenations in the maintenance schedule."
And of course there is the quote in my first post where Honda said don't waste your time and money with more frequent changes.

Edit: Here is another from the website:
"Following the 'severe conditions' guidelines won't help your Honda unless you really do drive under those conditions." According to that one, since I'm a normal driver using more frequent changes won't do a bit of good in preventing wear and engine damage.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: flot
Are you willing to "risk" additional engine wear, etc, for $200?

The key for this whole thread is whether you are actually risking additional wear or not. Is there any proof that 3000 miles is ok but 5000 miles is not? What do studies using new cars, new oil, and new filters show? Maybe I should have made my thread ask that instead.

According to the Honda website, "This schedule is designed to minimize regular wear". If that statement is true than any change from that schedule will be adding extra wear. Of course the schedule is an average - and specific uses will vary. However there still is an ideal mileage with minimum wear.

 

[Jzero]

To clarify I was thinking of a typical American family person's life: 1 car from the age of 16 to 26 (10 years), getting married and having 2 cars from the age of 26 to 76 (50 years), then death. Thus the total cost is 40*10 + 2*40*50 = $4400.

Now I see what you're saying.
OTOH, I still think that $5000 over 60 years (about $7/month) is still not a whole lot to pay.

Now assuming it takes 20 minutes of your time

I call the Honda dealer nearest my workplace for an appointment in advance. I drop the car off and have a friend pick me up and drop me off at the end of the day.
Including the phone call, it takes me MAYBE 5 minutes to drop my car off and pick it up.

That $5000 might buy you some piece of mind, and only you can tell if it is worth it. I suppose that same $5000 could be spend on several extended warranties instead if you really needed more piece of mind.

6 and one-half dozen the other?
So you spend 5000 on oil changes or 5000 on warranties that cover you in case less frequent oil changes does damage...seems like a wash either way...

Well on page 164 of the owners manual it states:
"Do not change the oil until the recommended time or milage interval shown in the maintenance schedule"
Page 211 states:
"Always change the oil and filter according to the time and distance (miles/kilometers) recommenations in the maintenance schedule."

That's the Civic manual? I'm checking when I get out to my car

"Following the 'severe conditions' guidelines won't help your Honda unless you really do drive under those conditions." According to that one, since I'm a normal driver using more frequent changes won't do a bit of good in preventing wear and engine damage.

Won't help, but will it hurt?
Anyway, I live 1.5 miles from my office, so I drive in short spurts all week long, so I do qualify for the "harsh" conditions, and even then 5000 seems a bit too long. I usually shoot for 3000 and by the time I get it done it's closer to 4000 (3800 for my first change).