Yearly Oil Changes - Opinions

[Trillium Farm]

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.

Exactly !!! UOA are only useful to fleets or where the same oil is used in various machines performing the same task over a similar period of time. For the rest of us might as well do an oil change it may be a bit more, but that bit buys you peace of mind.

 

[Beltzington]

Appreciate your thoughts and agree with most of the comments.

Oil questions always seem to turn into blonde or brunette opinions, what frustrates me is there are so many unclear specifications from what should be a very scientific industry. I guess this allows the oil folks to market their super duper really terrific oil and why the engine folks have to protect themselves with over zealous warranty requirements. Like most things the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I will continue to change oil in my tractor and diesel truck at least yearly even though I only put 45-hrs on the tractor and still have 30% oil life remaining on the Duramax. Between the two I'm looking at about $100 in parts which is not much in the big picture but would be 5-cases of beer.

 

[CobyRupert]

Note : This is just my opinion and how I do it, I am not suggesting this to anyone else.

I know many if not all will cringe and say I'm stupid for doing this but I believe (under certain conditions) that yearly oil changes on infrequently used equipment is like the old 3,000 OCI recommendation. In my case I have equipment that is only used in winter or only in summer or sometimes not for 2 or 3 years or only every 3 - 4 months.

When I do use that equipment, it is run for an extended period of time so the crankcase is up to operating temp for quite a long while burning off any condensation. I live in a dry climate (not Arizona but dry) and I use top quality oils and filters.

Depending on the equipment, I change oil/filters in those pieces of equipment every 4-9 years. I also use fuel stabilizers in all of that equipment.

I've never seen any indication of condensation in the oils or filters, valve cover caps, etc... Yes it would be smart to do an oil analysis every so often on all of that equipment but that is expensive and time consuming, and so are unnecessary oil/filter changes. All of my equipment is in excellent running condition and most all of it is stored in unheated buildings. My 2004 Silverado only has 29K miles on it and I've changed the oil in it 4 times (the last being in 2015). It starts on the 1st crank even after sitting 4 months in the dead of winter (it's also on a battery maintainer).

I've been doing this going on 19 years now. Other equipment or vehicles used on a regular basis get their fluids changed as per manufacturers recommended intervals whether that be miles or hours accrued. I never change it on a 'time' basis. I also use synthetic oils/filters in everything. Yes that's right. I know, I'll don my flame retardant suit now.

DEWFPO

I'm with you.
I have motors like rotor-tiller (3 hrs/year), a walk behind push mower (.2hr/yr), wood splitter (~15 hrs/yr), truck (1200mi/yr) that I'll keep oil in from anywhere from 2-6 years. I never worried about it before synthetic oil and had no problems, and I sure don't worry about it since I stated using synthetic.

(Well, I must of worried a little because I switched to synthetic, but you know what I mean...)

 

[sdquick]

I understand the question for older equipment with newer (synthetic) oils. However, for newer equipment it seems simple to follow the owners manual for normal situations. Mine states hour intervals for most maintenance (i.e. 50 hours and then 200 hours for oil and filter). However, it also states hours or yearly requirements for others such as replace air filter every 1,000 hours or yearly. It seems that if the oil was needed every year or 200 hours it would state it.

 

[kenmac]

with my diesel truck I wanted to make sure that the oil was good enough to make yearly changes. Diesels aren't cheap. I want to keep it as long as possible. This is the reason I had UAO's performed, to see if the oil was good enough to stay in the crank case all year as the truck isn't driven buy about 5000, miles per yr
My UAO's confirmed the oil was fine to stay in for a year. In fact, the UAO showed I could have left the oil in after a year.

For me, a UAO is peace of mind and a small price to pay for that piece of mind

 

[Copperhead]

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.

Condensation in oil. Only oil sample testing would allow one to know. Given the price of a basic used oil sample (around $25), might as well just go ahead and change the oil. Your call.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Condensation build up does not seem to happen in engines that are worked for 30 minutes after each start up. It cooks/boils off.

 

[KennyG]

Condensation build up does not seem to happen in engines that are worked for 30 minutes after each start up. It cooks/boils off.

Probably true. However, we see a lot of posts on here that indicate tractors are used less than 100 hours per year, often less than 50. I know I put on about 100 hours per year. Some of that is on days I work it for 4 or 5 hours, but there are many times I just need to move something (or even just get the tractor out of the way of something else.) I would guess that's a really common situation.

 

[marchanna]

I change mine once a year or 100 hours whichever comes first. Oxidation can occur once there are contaminants in the oil. Maybe it’s good after a year, maybe it’s not, but changing the oil is cheap insurance.

 

[HillStreet]

The tractor gets oil & filter changed at 100 hours and that normally equates to a year or so. It will stay at 100 hours through its life.

I had a talk with an oil analysis lab last year when I was talking to them about “acid” in the engine oil of my airplane. So much talk about acid ruining engines that I decided to call the lab that does my tests. An acid number is a test for acid only, and it does cost extra. Pilots are so worried about acid but it turns out not many test for it. The advice is to do oil changes at 25 or 50 hour intervals. There are instances that end in broken engines but they are rare.
So let’s put it this way: (my engine overhaul is $22k plus about $5k more for labor and accessories), and there are much more expensive engines out there. I will change my oil in the plane at the hour, not calendar. Same for the tractor.