Yearly Oil Changes - Opinions

[Beltzington]

Even if oil change hours/mileage are not met my service manuals recommend yearly oil changes as a minimum. If using modern high quality synthetic oils does anyone see a reason this is necessary? None of the vehicles are still under warranty. Not sure I'm comfortable not changing oil at least once a year but curious if there is a factual basis for this factory recommendation.

 

[KennyG]

The alternative would be having the oil analyzed. I'm sure the high quality oils of today have lots of margin, but over the period of a year, there can be a lot of condensation in the crankcase. For the annual cost of an oil change, I'd say it's cheap peace of mind.

 

[dodge man]

My Kubota tractor and my Dodge Challenger often get the oil changed just once a year. I went maybe 14 months on both of them once. I'm guessing the Kubota had a little less than a 100 hours when I did that and the Challenger maybe only 2500 miles. In both cases the oil "looked" pretty bad. Both times was with Amsoil but I decided not to push it past a year in either case.

 

[TractorNH]

The alternative would be having the oil analyzed. I'm sure the high quality oils of today have lots of margin, but over the period of a year, there can be a lot of condensation in the crankcase. For the annual cost of an oil change, I'd say it's cheap peace of mind.

But running an engine to temperature for a decent period of time should get rid of the moisture through evaporation from the engine heat.

 

[George2615]

On my daily drivers I change the oil and filters when the oil life monitors count down from 100% to about 20-25%. I use synthetic oil and even though I can go further I rarely go more than 5,000 miles.

On the tractor I change oil & filter annually even though not required to do so. I only put 60-70 hours a year on it.
Classic car gets an annual change. Only sees a couple thousand miles a year.
Harley also gets annual change. Maybe a couple thousand miles.
Push mower, air compressor, and generators get annual changes too.

 

[newbury]

The alternative would be having the oil analyzed. I'm sure the high quality oils of today have lots of margin, but over the period of a year, there can be a lot of condensation in the crankcase. For the annual cost of an oil change, I'd say it's cheap peace of mind.

For the cost of a UOA trust but verify. Establish a baseline and go from there. If it's under warranty follow what the mfg wants to ensure warranty work but after that it's YOUR money.
For my M4700 - hydraulic SUDT2 40+ quarts would cost about $500/year FLUID ALONE, engine oil 8+ quarts of Rotella T6 about $40.

For my F350 (the biggest consumer, 15qts/change) people recommended I change the oil/filter every 3,000 miles. I put in T6 and did UOA's, they showed it good out past 18,000 miles and that took about 3 years.

It's your money and properly done you could change it daily, weekly, monthly, annually or when it needs it.

 

[shooterdon]

Oil can sit in ground for 100's of thousands of years, and in the can for years/decades but once it sees air and an engine it rapidly deteriorates.

Cannot answer your question...telling you what I do (as others have done) is meaningless. But I have wondered the same as you.

 

[dodge man]

The way I look at it, my BX holds a little less than 4 quarts, its almost as cheap to just change it then send in a oil sample. Its when bigger equipment that holds gallons it pays to send in an oil sample.

 

[big bubba]

think it would be a matter of use within the "recommended" 100 hr and/or annual change. frequent short use (less than 30 min?) seems to me would require more frequent changes.
so possibly more frequent changes would apply to "homeowner" use rather than more prolonged utility applications. it's always better to work the diesel than hob nob around for 15 minutes. seems to me that would be the difference for change intervals.

 

[kenmac]

My dodge diesel never reaches the mileage for an oil change. I still change it once a year even though per UOA. it's still fine.
Everything I have mowers, generators, tractors vehicles get an oil/ filter change once a year, no matter the hours except the vehicles I drive on a daily basis. They get changed per around 10K per UAO