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Zoomzoom, not to bash you personally but the article you posted is written by an absolute dumbasss. Here's the prime statement.
[QUOTEFailing to heed the service interval in your owner's manual wastes oil and money, while compounding the environmental impact of illicit waste-oil dumping.][/quote]
There is very little oil just dumped. The motor oils you generate as used are all supposed to be recycled. Nobody in the business of changing motor oil is going to just dump it. Why? Because it's a revenue stream for the dealers and oil change places- they sell it. Most folks that change their own oil will recycle it. Large fleets will recycle it or they put the used oil in their fuel tanks if they have diesel fleets. It burns nice and clean in a diesel. So what happens to the used oil? It's recycled and you're buying it as a synthetic oil. There are several licensed operations of the Chevron ISO/SYN process where they take the used oils and basically re-refine it. It comes out as an ultra pure Gp III base oil- that's synthetic if you didn't know already. These clowns writing this crapola should be shot for doing nothing but causing a lot of folks to get riled up over nothing. About the only truth in the entire article is that the 3000 miles oil change schedule is no longer needed in most cases. This would not be true if the engine is a turbo or supercharged engine that sees a lot of full throttle runs. The issue isn't with the oil breaking down or high heat. The issue is with fuel dilution. Any time the fuel gets to 5% of weight of the oil, the engine can literally explode, blowing the pan and valve covers off of an engine. It can cause an engine fire. Otherwise, most engines burn so clean today with modern technologies and with cleaner burning fuels, the contaminants just are not made in the engine. In the years of our grandfathers there was lead in the gas. It was a cheap way to boost the octane level and it provided a lube for the valve seats, Lead is a wear agent and normally an engine would have around 3000ppms in the used oil at 3000 miles. Kinda like throwing a handful of sand in the oil at 3000 miles. So grandpa changed his oil more often to promote longer engine life. WE don't have lead in the gas and haven't since the 1970's. With the advent of newer and stronger additives, new engine technologies, most all of the current engine designs can easily go twice that far and farther. Why people gravitate to a particular brand of auto maker and swear by that brand yet won't follow the car makers oil change schedule is baffling to the industry. It's his name on the front of the car and he wants you to come back and buy another one. He designed the engine from a piece of paper to installing it in the car. Doesn't it sound reasonable he should know how to take care of it? The key to any oil change schedule is in the owners manual. Follow it to the letter and you'll never have an oil related failure.
I change my oil more then the manufacturers MINIMUM specs. All machines and products have the minimum requirements to keep them going. I choose to do more then the minimum. Some with say extra oil changes are "throwing money down the drain" but a few extra oil changes a year is nothing cost wise.
Look at manual and most will tell you and same applies to synthetic as crude based. The modern cars do not let much be released and oil gets a contaminated by acids and particles .Synthetics most protects better at higher temperatures than anythting else.oil itself does not wear out it get contaminated and the additives packages to clean wearout.
I use regular full synthetic oil in my vehicle. Driving long distances in stop and go traffic creates wear in the engine. I will not go more than 200 miles when the oil change is do. I change my vehicle's oil every 3,000 miles.
I use regular full synthetic oil in my vehicle. Driving long distances in stop and go traffic creates wear in the engine. I will not go more than 200 miles when the oil change is do. I change my vehicle's oil every 3,000 miles.
What benefit/s do you think you derive from changing your oil at 3000K instead of say 10,000K?
I admit I am an outlier in this group, and I was debating whether to post this. It is anecdotal at best. But I'll post it for what it's worth.
I've always changed my oil myself, always using Mobil 1 (Extended Performance when it became available) with a Mobil 1 filter. I even torqued the oil plug and oil filter to specs (in N-m, my German ancestry showing here). I changed oil once a year, which in my case came to about 10,000 miles per oil change.
In 2005 I bought a new Honda Accord and changed oil accordingly. In 2007 I was pretty much persuaded I was going to shortly die (not such a big deal; I'm 75 now and at my age one starts thinking down the road) but thought dam*ed if I'm going to crawl under that car for some other A-hole to drive a well-oiled engine.
So between 2007 and 2009 I drove 20,000 miles on Mobil 1 and a filter.
Needless to say I'm still around, and so is my 2005 Accord with it's 10,000 mile oil changes (plus one 20,000 mile oil change). I suffer from spinal stenosis (amongst other things), but I still manage to swing myself under the car, after a little fortification from Maker's Mark, to do an oil change once a year.
This past week I changed spark plugs at 90,000 miles. I swapped out OEM NGKs for DENSOs. What a waste of money. The NGKs were picture perfect; no carbon build-up, no corrosion of the electrodes, nothing. So I guess I'll stop worrying about that 20,000 mile gap in maintenance back in 2007-2009.
Z-M I agree with using the human lubricant/pain suppression before the annoyance of crawling under the thing (you do use jack stands don't you?) and having hot oil drain down your arm. I have a trusted mechanic do the oil changes instead of the under car dance.
I replace the plugs with platinum tipped plugs and leave them there for the rest of time. Getting to the back plugs on a Buick transverse V-6 is really annoying. Doing it twice would be absurd.
Just wanted to add there's a mechanic I know with an '04 Lexus IS300 that has 190,000mi on it. He's been doing 10K oci's for the life of the vehicle. He currently runs Royal Purple 5w20 with Purolator synthetic filters. It runs like new & the last time he pulled the valve cover off everything looked great he said. Keep in mind this is a Toyota 2JZ, an engine that can handle just about anything.
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