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New Another car question
Now that I've moved, I have a 65 mile, one way, commute (all interstate except for the 6 miles from my house to interstate).

How often should I change oil? Every 3000 miles means once a month. But I thought the 3000 mile guideline was based upon the normal stop-n-go driving in the city.

Suggestions? Synthetic oil any better/longer between changes?
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. (Herm Albright)
New What's the recommendation in the owner's manual?
It really depends. My VW diesel uses a special 5W40 (Castrol's VW 505.01 oil) oil that will go 10,000 miles between changes. But it's about $75 to do the change at the dealer.

If it's all highway, you can extend the change interval some. Highway driving is easier on engines than short stop-and-go trips. And extending the interval will be less wasteful, but you'll pay more for it (of course).

I'd probably use the recommended interval specified in the manual for "normal" (not "severe") driving, and use the highest API rated conventional oil I could find. But it may be that a synthetic that lets you extend the interval would be cheaper over the long run. (Note, though, that you apparently often have to add "make-up" oil when using [link|http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/interval.html|synthetics].)

HTH a bit.

Cheers,
Scott.
New Switch to synthetic
the "normal" driving mode for the car should suggest something like 7500 miles. Should be good for you. About halfway there, make sure to check oil level to insure your car isn't chewing through too much..add as necessary to keep it above the line.
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
New Ahem.
Switch to whatever the manufacturer recommends. Some vehicles need the higher viscosity of non-synthetic oils at low temperatures.


Peter
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New Ummm -
Think you'll find that the V.I. (viscosity index) is a Biggie in all oil specs -- and as easily tailored/measured for the syns as the dino. Granted that the curves will still vary a tad VS standard measuring points. (I use 5-30, for ex. == mfg. recommendation for temperate region.)

Apropos, when I first got my new (old) wheels, I compared a huge chart of specs - from Amsoil (clear spec-winner on most counts, but V. expensive - and I'd have had to have it shipped = more $, hassle) -- on through Mobil1, several other syns and many dinosaur blends.

It's not always a "doesn't matter which type/blend/brand", if you pay engineering attention: I went with Mobil1 -- not for any hype about 'syn' VS Not, nor emotional attachment to The Best-whatever. No sirree Bob - M1 had the lowest ash residue of all, save Amsoil.. but close enough.

Why care about 'ash'?

Well, all engines have hot-spots of a sort, often where oil galleries / water ducts have to make sharp turns or where surfaces are too-far from the cooling water-or-oil, because of shape constraints. This level of instrumentation data from the prototype NEVER gets revealed to the proles, for all sorts of Capitalism obviosity..

But what you know is: if you blast up hills in the torrid zone, you Will be carbonizing more of that %tiny part of the sump-full than usual. These coffee grounds / carbon globs are supposed to be taken out by the filter
[too long.. to go on about why that sometimes gets bypassed or.. stuff drops direct to oil intake screen, before the filter stage.]

Turns out that I had some data from Actual long-term Use re my particular model.
In brief, the fine-filter screen over oil pump inlet -- is a tad Too-fine. And while many of these engines have exceeded 250K miles-not-km with no sweat -- several abused ones have demonstrated the dread clogged screen: the remedy for which is expensive for the fastidious, or drastic (poke a hole in screen via a hole in sump = a sane solution for an old engine in an inline FWD config. But Ugly.)

Ergo: sometimes ash Matters - but usually, one doesn't have the data to know whether One's Magnificent model is much of a candidate for the above scenario. Still, the more expensive your engine and its labour rates, the more appealing the 'cheap insurance' value of such nit-pickery. I wotted. Besides, it's fun to run the numbers.. but just - now and then. Right?


New I vaguely remeber Consumer Reports testing this
years ago on NYC taxis. I think they said the taxis did fine on a 5k interval.

Here is an interesting web site:

[link|http://www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm|http://www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm]
Seamus
New depends on the car, on my kia the change is 7500k
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep

reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
New That is quite a long time.
7500k = 7,500,000 miles. Quite a long time between changes. :-)

unless you mean 7500 km.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. (Herm Albright)
New sorry, bitsnbytes got confused with miles 7500 miles
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep

reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
New Typical owners manual suggest 5K heavy(city), 7.5K light
New Thanks all for the replies.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. (Herm Albright)
New I change mine at the service interval.
Yep, that's about 12000 miles between changes.

I do check it once a fortnight (i.e. once every 300 miles), though.

And as per my other post, use what it says in the manual.


Peter
[link|http://www.no2id.net/|Don't Let The Terrorists Win]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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New Yes...but your mfr has a reputation for higher integrity
hence the 12k service interval and not the 3k nearly universally recommended in the US.
Too much of today's music is fashionable crap dressed as artistry.Adrian Belew
New 3K?!
We were all scoffing and guffawing in the canteen at work over the fact that one of our cow-orkers has to have his Evo FQ300 (very nice motor, if not exactly easy on the eye) serviced every 4.5K...


Peter
[link|http://www.no2id.net/|Don't Let The Terrorists Win]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
[link|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall|A better terminal emulator]
[image|http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h262/pwhysall/Misc/saveus.png|0|Darwinia||]
New isnt 4.6 k==3k MILES what the restuv us is talking
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep

reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]
New No.
4.5K. Four point five thousand miles.



Peter
[link|http://www.no2id.net/|Don't Let The Terrorists Win]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
[link|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall|A better terminal emulator]
[image|http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h262/pwhysall/Misc/saveus.png|0|Darwinia||]
New You only had the multiplier, should'a put the unit too.
"Kilo-miles", les'see, that'd be "km"...



:-)


   [link|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode|Christian R. Conrad]
(I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.)
Ah, the Germans: Masters of Convoluted Simplification. — [link|http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=1603|Jehovah]
     Another car question - (jbrabeck) - (16)
         What's the recommendation in the owner's manual? - (Another Scott)
         Switch to synthetic - (bepatient) - (2)
             Ahem. - (pwhysall) - (1)
                 Ummm - - (Ashton)
         I vaguely remeber Consumer Reports testing this - (Seamus)
         depends on the car, on my kia the change is 7500k -NT - (boxley) - (2)
             That is quite a long time. - (jbrabeck) - (1)
                 sorry, bitsnbytes got confused with miles 7500 miles -NT - (boxley)
         Typical owners manual suggest 5K heavy(city), 7.5K light -NT - (tonytib)
         Thanks all for the replies. -NT - (jbrabeck)
         I change mine at the service interval. - (pwhysall) - (5)
             Yes...but your mfr has a reputation for higher integrity - (bepatient) - (4)
                 3K?! - (pwhysall) - (3)
                     isnt 4.6 k==3k MILES what the restuv us is talking -NT - (boxley) - (2)
                         No. - (pwhysall) - (1)
                             You only had the multiplier, should'a put the unit too. - (CRConrad)

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