Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

[JDgreen227]

My GF's car, a 2011 Malibu, gets a lot of mileage piled up quickly, while my Y2K GMC takes over a year to roll up 2,000 miles. As my truck does not have an oil life monitor I don't really know if I am wasting money by changing the oil and filter at that point, but the used oil always looks really good. Would be interesting to learn how the members here determine when to change their oil...months, miles, or by the monitor? BTW, her car gets a change at every 4000 miles, despite what the monitor says.

 

[Toyboy]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I'm old school on oil changes and do both ours around 3,500 mi. Now that being said, I also use Mobil 1 in both. I'll change the filters at the above interval's and complete oil change at 9k.

Now if the mileage never got to whatever triggers your change, I'd do a complete change once a year and probably would not be using Mobil 1

 

[Diamondpilot]

Oil is cheap. Change it by the book or once a year, which ever comes first.

Chris

 

[George2615]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I have several vehicles that mileage varies on.
My 2013 Chevy truck sees about 9000 miles a year. Oil gets changed every 4000 even though the oil life monitor says it can go farther.
2012 Chevy Camaro is put away in winter and only sees about 2-3000 miles during the summer months. I change oil once a year on that even though oil life monitor says I don't have to.
Same goes for two classic cars, a 72 Chevelle conv. and 79 Corvette. Both driven less than 2500 miles each in summer and put away in winter. Oil changed annually on these.
Tractor, ATV, motorcycle, push mower, riding mower, air compressor, generator, etc all get oil changed once a year. I'd buy oil in bulk but they use different kinds of oil such as diesel, synthetic, racing oil w/ zinc, compressor oil and conventional oil. I do buy oil by the case (or multiple cases) usually.
Is it a waste of money for me, probably. But I have peace of mind. Although slight, I'm sure some condensation can get in the oil when vehicles sit parked for a long time.

 

[Looking4new]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

My Jeep gets the oil changed & filter (dino oil) twice a year. Spring and fall. 156,000 miles on it and it doesn't use a drop. Gets greased 4x a year. The tractor gets done every 100 hours Rotella T6 10W30. The honda water pump gets done once a year as does the gen set and small snow blower and lawn mower.

 

[JDgreen227]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Oil is cheap. Change it by the book or once a year, which ever comes first.

Chris

Chris is right, oil is cheap...but we are told NOT to change oil UNLESS it is actually required. Only car I have ever owned that had an oil monitor that I actually trusted was on my Olds 98 (1992) with the digital dash, it actually came very close to indicating change intervals for my type of driving based on months/miles that I kept track of.

 

[timster2]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I change the oil when the oil monitor indicates a change is needed. Usually works out to about 7200 miles. I have only used Mobil 1 and Mobil 1 filters from the first oil change. 2004 GMC Savanna 1500 4x4 Van. Over a hundred thousand miles and still going strong. Never needs oil between changes.

 

[timswi]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I follow the oil monitoring system...About 7k or so for me which is about accurate given my mixed interstate and back road driving..I run Mobile1. My wife's H3 gets changed once a year since she only puts 4k a year or so, never trips the monitor.

 

[Will_C]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I still use conventional oil. My 2004 Tundra gets driven about 6,000 miles a year-that gets changed spring and fall. My 2 Camrys get changed every 3,000 miles. The tractor and the RTV get once a year-around 100 hours on the tractor and 50 on the RTV. My ZTR gets it every 50 hours. Other small things (generator, pressure washer, push mower)gets changed 1x a year.

I agree with Chris-oil is cheap and I am 50 years old and have never had a motor repair (knock on wood.)

Will

 

[deerseeker001]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I change mine when it hits around 4500 miles which don't take long when you put 50 miles a day.

 

[kenmac]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Oil life monitor means nothing to me. All it knows is how many miles/ hours is on the oil. It has no knowledge of the oils condition (ie available TBN, viscosity,,etc, etc,..) I change based on UOA. Could be 10K ,15K, etc,. Could be + or - 1 year

 

[crazyal]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Toyota says 10k miles (unless driven in harder than normal conditions) so that's what I do. 0w20 Mobile 1 and a Toyota filter (they can be bought pretty cheap on ebay). Since it's a daily driver that sees 20k+ a year it's always by mileage. I have no doubt that the engine will go past 200k miles.

 

[Toyboy]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I think the oil life monitors (GM) go by revolutions of the crankshaft and have nothing to do with mileage. Is there any GM experts on here to help sort this out?

 

[beemerphile]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I think the oil life monitors (GM) go by revolutions of the crankshaft and have nothing to do with mileage. Is there any GM experts on here to help sort this out?

Prior to 2013 GM OLM's monitored revolutions, time, and temperature. Post 2013 it resets to 20% at 5,000 miles regardless of what the algorithm says. Seems like a conservative owner would just use 5,000 mile intervals (or at least once annually) which are easy to remember and forget the sensor. I change filters every other time on the even 10,000 intervals. I have opened old filters to confirm that they still had not collected too much gunk at that interval. Old filters (that are not blocked) actually filter better than new ones because of filter media pre-coat and the agglomeration tendency of contaminants.

 

[cletus99]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Anyone that is changing oil at 3k miles is just wasting oil. Numerous studies have been done to show how long oil these days are good for. Just do a search and you'll find them. Dramatic improvment in oil now a days compared to many years ago. But, too each there own :confused3:. Although, if I was doing a lot of heavy towing, I might would change it every 3k miles. I go by the oil monitor usually mainly because of just being a reminder and it usually averages between 5k to 6k miles. Vehicles I've had that didn't have monitors I usually changed around 6k or 7k miles. I've had numerous vehicles I've put close to 200k miles on and I've never had an engine problem.

 

[JDgreen227]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Anyone that is changing oil at 3k miles is just wasting oil. Numerous studies have been done to show how long oil these days are good for. Just do a search and you'll find them. Dramatic improvment in oil now a days compared to many years ago. But, too each there own :confused3:. Although, if I was doing a lot of heavy towing, I might would change it every 3k miles. I go by the oil monitor usually mainly because of just being a reminder and it usually averages between 5k to 6k miles. Vehicles I've had that didn't have monitors I usually changed around 6k or 7k miles. I've had numerous vehicles I've put close to 200k miles on and I've never had an engine problem.

Well...I am a VERY low mileage and conservative driver with my GMC, it gets maybe 1500 to 2000 miles per year put on it, and many of the miles are short trips in cold weather...so for me a change at 2,000 miles makes sense.

 

[JJZ 109]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Anyone that is changing oil at 3k miles is just wasting oil. Numerous studies have been done to show how long oil these days are good for. Just do a search and you'll find them. Dramatic improvment in oil now a days compared to many years ago. But, too each there own :confused3:. Although, if I was doing a lot of heavy towing, I might would change it every 3k miles. I go by the oil monitor usually mainly because of just being a reminder and it usually averages between 5k to 6k miles. Vehicles I've had that didn't have monitors I usually changed around 6k or 7k miles. I've had numerous vehicles I've put close to 200k miles on and I've never had an engine problem.

I agree. I think the interval on my 2013 F150 is 10k. Instead of the 3k changes that the fast lube places try to get you to do, I go in at 5k.
With my '97 F Super Duty 7.3 diesel, I do it every spring when I reopen the business - regardless of miles. It's a bucket truck that sits all winter unused. It gets 3,000 - 3500 miles a year on it, but it idles for a bit to warm up on chilly mornings.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Well...I am a VERY low mileage and conservative driver with my GMC, it gets maybe 1500 to 2000 miles per year put on it, and many of the miles are short trips in cold weather...so for me a change at 2,000 miles makes sense.

My vehicles are not quite that low mileage but do not every trip the mileage on the oil change meter. For the last 3 years I have been using full synthetic, but I am thinking that it is a waste of money for no more miles than I go. I try to change mine once a year or when the oil monitor system says to (all my cars have one). The oldest car, an Olds Bravada & wife's driving preference, has 99,000 miles on it, most of it with Dino oil and never uses a drop of oil between changings. She takes it to dealer for oil changes only when the monitor says to and I don't keep up with that one too much anymore. It may go 2 years between changes, I just watch the oil monitor. I write the date on my trucks oil filter and try to change it when the year is up (or thereabout). With the full synthetic oil, I don't worry too much about going over the 12 month limit. All the vehicles are mostly stored in garages and minimum trips are 20 miles each way so they get up to operating temps long enough to boil off any condensate that might be in the oil. The 2003 Bravada is all original except for a water pump and the left front wheel bearing (and batteries of course). Engine is still super quiet and gas mileage is still same as the day we bought it, even with 99K on the plugs.
With todays quality of oil, anyone doing 3000 mile oil changes, even if doing heavy towing, is wasting money and natural resources and not gaining any advantage on engine life. If you have an oil life monitor, use it and change your oil when the computer tell you to. You don't need OA unless you plan to exceed the mileage from the computer. My Chevy and Olds OEM says that the Oil life meter is set for regular oil and synthetic oil would of course last much longer.

 

[dodge man]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

I usually change all of my oil in my vehicles once a year. I use synthetic oil and high quality filters so I'm comfortable with that. For me its not so much the cost as the time it takes to do two oil changes a years for every vehicle instead of just one. I try to change it more often if the mileage starts getting up near or over 10,000 miles. If I use convential oil, I'd probably go by the oil monitor in the vehicle.

 

[MoKelly]

Re: Changing oil and filter...do you go by the vehicle oil monitor or months & miles?

Oil is cheap. Change it by the book or once a year, which ever comes first.

Chris

This is exactly what I do for everything - car, truck, motorcycle, tractor, etc.

MoKelly