Oil & Fuel Oil Change?

[funwithahoe]

Crew,

I have been at this forum long enough to know this will interest enough people (even though it is not directly a tractor question!!

How often do you change your car's oil???

I use to change it every 3000 miles but now with the manufacturer's "button" I have been waiting to 8-9000 miles.

I guess I figure the "Ford" or "Honda" (we have one of each) engineers know enough that that they would never assume the liability to say your car doensn't need it when it does. Goes against every grain of maintainence I know but I can't imagine they would put those "change oil" digital warnings unless they were true.

What do you guys think??

 

[Soundguy]

I guess this is where I say that the oil life monitor in my yukon is useless, since in 3000 miles it burns 4/5's the oil inthe crankcase. has done so since new and gm thinks it's normal.. vehicle has seen regular maintenance and repairs it's entire life. had it since new in 2000.

soundguy

 

[fenix]

I think the oil is much better these days than just a few years ago.
But one thing that is not given much credit for the longer run on oil
changes are the filters are far better than in the past. I am not sure
the engines have gotten much better in the last ten to fifteen years but they are some better. I change the oil at what ever the manual calls for. .

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Since I have moved to 5w-40 Rotella Synthetic for everything I change I am experiencing with fiter ONLY changes like in the F700 that just does not see many miles. May do the same in the 454. Not sure yet about the tractors that are hard pushed to see 100 hours a year.

I know this stuff is good for 30K+ miles per Blackstone tests.

 

[KTurner]

Goes against every grain of maintainence I know but I can't imagine they would put those "change oil" digital warnings unless they were true.

What do you guys think??

At your next oil change, send off a sample of your oil to be analyzed. Two possible outcomes - the oil is within spec and you get piece of mind knowing that the oil remains in spec at the longer intervals, or you find out that it isn't and you can change your maintenance intervals accordingly. Seems like a win-win.

Keith

 

[banjodunn]

G'day across the board in the automotive industry over here the normal oil change specs are every 12 months or 10,000 km's , has been like that for years however with the advent of synthetics we are seeing service intervals dirfting out, the longest that i have heard about is the euro trucks ( Volvo, mercedes etc ) apparently are saying that if you use synthetics on longhaul trucks you can run them out to 80,000kms. I do not know if that includes a filter change mid life but it does seem to be a long time


Jon

 

[MrFoPow]

I use Shell Rotella T6 full synthetic. UOA's have shown 10k intervals are safe.

 

[Gary Fowler]

One other thing that has changed in the last 40 years with our automobiles is our driving habits. In the 70's the manufacturers listed 6000-10,000miles per year as average and many people didnt even achieve that. NOW, the manufacturers give us 12,000 per year and just about everyone will put 20K on a year. We drive more and longer distances which doesnt break down the oil as much as short drives and more of them. The engines are better built, run on lower compression, have less sulfur in the fuel so less sulfuric acid is generated and we tend to keep the engines hot (especially teenage drivers) and the oil is much better. I dont see any problem with extending the oil change to recommended durations. Right or wrong, I just wait for the oil sensor to tell me to change or that it is getting close to 0% life before I change it. I feel I am doing a little to help the environment by not wasting our oil resources by doing that.

 

[WH401]

My 06' I change every 7500k, which is the severe service interval. 15k miles is actually the normal interval. My 92' is every 5k or once a year, and 5k is about the most I put on it in a year. I have an 01' Excursion with a 7.3 that I run Amsoil 15w-40 HD Diesel and Marine oil in with either a Amsoil filter or a Fleetguard Venturi combo filter. With that combination I run, 15k mile intervals, (at the least), or 1 year. Usually I don't hit 15k in more than a year, but last year it was about 16.5k in a year, and this year it'll be more than 15k again. UOA's have come back fine for the past 3 years on it.