what's the longest interval between oil changes you've ever gone.

[Lifer]

approaching 6000 miles without an oil change.

 

My sister's RSX maintenance manual doesn't recommend a first oil change until 10,000. She'll probably get one at about 5000-8000 though.

 

[Kelemvor]

I think I go about 6500 between. I just do what the car tells me to. going too often is just a waste of your money.

 

[TheeeChosenOne]

10,000 miles

 

[waggy]

i had a crappy 1980 honda accord that i drove for about a year and half. I put on well over 19k miles. i just kept adding oil to it when needed.

the car actually drove pretty good even with that! heh.

oh should state i paid $50 for the car. so i really didnt care if it blew up. i sold it for $300 to some kids! heh.

 

[T3C]

8,000 miles

 

[Evadman]

12k because I didn't care

 

[cavemanmoron]

12 years







the car was in storage,and started about once every 3 years.


on a vehicle being driven semi-regulalry,most i recall was about 7,000 miles.

normally 3-4,000

on my Camaro usually 3 times a year,even tho it might be only 1,000 miles,or even less.

 

[ManSnake]

10 million cm

 

[Chaotic42]

20,000 miles...

 

[Killbat]

You have to change it?

 

[Walleye]

bmw manual says 20000 miles.. i think.

 

[Linflas]

76,000 miles in a Subaru Legacy that I didn't care about. I had it garaged for a year when the transmission went at 120,000. When I got a used transmission dropped in it I had the oil changed then and proceeded to drive it to 196,000 miles with no oil change. FWIW it now had 200,200 miles and still does not burn oil.

 

[NickE]

Some of these figures look amazingly low - I leave it up to the service indicator to tell me when it's due, but the average is 14-15,000 miles. It might need a top-up around 10,000 but no more than about a litre even then.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: NickE
Some of these figures look amazingly low - I leave it up to the service indicator to tell me when it's due, but the average is 14-15,000 miles. It might need a top-up around 10,000 but no more than about a litre even then.

A lot of manufacturers recommend 3000 miles for what they call severe use. The thing is that if you look at what they define as severe use commuters in most of the the traffic hell metro areas (LA, DC, NYC etc) meet that definition.

 

[rh71]

Well severe use would be frequent short trips and also in colder weather. It also includes towing things or driving in "bad air" involving lots of dust/sand, etc. I wouldn't call stop&go traffic in those cities "severe".

I do a lot of stop&go around town and I try to change it every 4k miles or less anyway. I love my truck and care about it as if it were my own child. It's going on 80k miles now and have never had any problems with the drivetrain and whatnot. I intend to keep it as long as it'll let me.

 

[filmmaker]

Somewhere in between 7,000 and 8,000 miles

 

[dman]

I use Mobil 1. I've gone a year btwn changes, and less than 1000 miles during that time.

Usually I change it every 3000 Miles sometimes 4000. I don't do a lot of driving in any of our vehicles, so, they often go more than the 3mo interval.

 

[iamwiz82]

i believe my longest was 10,000 miles. The car still runs, BTW.

 

[KGB1]

I've gone 10 months without an oil change on my 01 Astro. But I gathered 3K miles in that 10 month period. So I dunno... manual states "every 3000 miles or 3 month intervals"

 

[dullard]

I do it every 5000 miles even though my Civic manual says to do it every 10,000. Heck it is just $14 bucks every 6 months or so to get it professionally done - not like I'm going to notice the savings by going every 10,000 miles.

 

[z0mb13]

my first oil change will be at 12000 miles

 

[gigapet]

what is this oil change you speak of

 

[scorp00]

3400 is the most i've gone. I drive my car VERY hard, so I figure it needs it.

 

[Slickone]

5,000 is a good milage interval. 3000 is a myth & unnecessary. If you go much over 5K, at least change the oil filter, and I wouldn't go much over unless using synthetic.
Yeah, if you go 12K, you might not notice any problems, the engine just might not last as many miles. Just because some people go extreme milages and either get lucky or don't notice long term damage, doesn' t mean it's OK or advisable.

When I worked in the car business, I remember seeing several cars w/ oil related damage. Like a current year model car w/ 25K which never had an oil change, and thus had locked up engine. A sludgy mess. Pull the plug and it runs out very very slowly.