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Frequency could mean months or miles. In terms of engine issues, it would be helpful to know whether your car is/was a domestic or an import. Also, do you use regular or synthetic?
Every 5K; synthetic on my turbocharged cars, dino on my N/A car. "Domestic" vs. "Import" is almost meaningless considering the platform-sharing that goes on between marques. Your Ford might have a Mazda engine or a Volvo engine in it. Your Chrysler may have a Mitsubishi or Mercedes engine in it. Your Mitsubishi may have a Chrysler engine in it. Et cetera.
Due to health issues and age I have begun to have my oil changed every 3K although my car manual recommends 5K. Since I live in Florida I just believe the heat factor accelerates the breakdown of the oil to sludge. The garages are now mostly using synthetics which is fine. Now when I changed it myself I used GTX 10-40 non-synthetic in summer and 10-30 in winter. I have had great success with specific additives ie, Slick 50 and Dura Lube,but also Magic Mystery Oil . My last car a Honda died at 325K and I now have a HHR Chevy with expectations of at least 200K. Always look for specials $24.00 max .
Das
Last edited by DASULAR17; 05-16-2011 at 11:00 PM..
Reason: formating
In the past I did 3000 mile oil changes in Volvos with Castrol 10/40.
Currently I do 7500 mile oil changes with Mobil One 5/30. Factory/warranty recomended.
No less than 3K, no more than 6K. Domestic or import (really doesn't matter). Never had an oil-related failure on any vehicle I've owned. Everything I own gets synthetic at this point.
Mike
Last edited by whiteboyslo; 05-17-2011 at 07:17 AM..
If you run Dino oil then 3 months or 3K miles PERIOD. Synthetic is good for around 5K or 5 months. You don't want to know what comes out of these cars when people leave the oil in for 7500 miles like the manual recommends. By 7500 miles the oil is so contaminated it's not protecting anything.
People also need to pay attention to the time frame. I see people everyday that tell me they change their oil every 3K no matter what then I look at the sticker on the window and realize they only drive 3K a year and they wonder why we're pulling the motor at 20K for a rebuild.
Turbo cars are much harder on oils and in my opinion should use synthetic only. Far too many people don't understand what is happening inside a turbo when they shut the car off after beating the crap out of it and again wonder why we're rebuilding turbos at 10K. Small factory turbo's can spin for 20 to 30 seconds after you shut the motor off and the oil pressure is gone. As you can imagine this is an issue.
Someone mentioned oil formulations changing. This is true and while they are getting better at tolerating heat they are getting worse at wear protection as many of the key wear inhibitors are being removed. Over all oil is not getting better, it's getting worse.
In my regular cars I run whatever the recommended oil is and change it per the manufacturers schedule, or when the little oil life monitor tells me to. Pretty much all newer cars recommend synthetics. In that case I prefer German spec Castrol or Mobil One as they are affordable, easy to find and a lot of places stock them.
On my performance cars, it really depends on what I've been doing with them. If I'm just cruising around with normal driving, I would change at 5k or sooner if that is what the manufacturer requires. If I was racing or pushing the car hard, than I would change the oil much sooner. One weekend at the track equals an oil change in my book. I'm not talking about a few passes at the drag strip, more along the lines of road racing or a drag strip rental day, when you could get in dozens of passes.
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