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If the recommended interval is 1 year or 3,000 miles, that means that if you go one year before hitting 3,000 miles you've probably made a lot of short trips. If your oil isn't getting hot enough to burn off all the moisture and other contaminants, a year is too long to leave it in there. I'd go no more than 6 months if I'm putting on really low miles, just to be on the safe side.
The only place that I see oil changes recommended at 3,000 miles are the oil change places such as Jiffy Lube. For most cases, changing oil that often is a waste of resources.
Yeah, I agree. I go 5K on my 08 Forester, and I'm comfortable with that. We do about 80% highway driving, 20% local. And I'm one of those who changes differential fluids and tranny fluid far more frequently than the recommendations. But there's no way I'd ever go a year between oil changes, no matter how many miles I'm putting on it.
Last edited by Mr. In-Between; 12-29-2013 at 05:04 PM..
Beginning in 1978, Ford said 7500 miles or 12 months between oil changes for most 4 and 6 cylinder engines. Later that year they changed that to 10,000 miles or 12 months. The V8 for whatever reason stayed at 7500 mile intervals. Which is surprising considering the 4's and 6's supposedly worked harder. I do believe (although I have no proof yet) that Ford had gone to at least semi-synthetic oil at that time. Just a hunch based on a Popular Science (or was it Popular Mechanics?) article in which Ford was doing a lot of research into synthetic oil. In fact their oil guy was using Amsoil Synthetic in his 65 Lincoln and had gone 100,000 miles between a change. Of course he had access to regular oil anylasis.
The owners manual for my truck says to change oil every 3,000 or at least once a year I drive a very short commute to work and probably put less than 4,500 miles annually on my truck. So far I think I've had the oil changed about every 8 months. My question is this maintenance sufficient enough or am I causing undue harm to my engine?
Truck is a 2011 GMC Sierra 4.3.
Any General Motors vehicle from the 2011 model year onward, specifically Buick, Chevrolet and GMC, requires the use of dexos or dexos-equivalent oils. (Cadillac requires the use of regular full synthetic oil.)
for the OP, since you have the short commute, i would recommend that you change your oil every three months to get rid of contaminants that will build up in your oil and wont be gotten rid of because the engine doesnt get hot enough.
Engine oil gets hot enough to burn off contaminants even with a short commute. Once an engine reaches it typical operating temperature that is good enough and it doesn't take very long at all.
An engine that runs for 20 minutes gets just a hot as one that runs for an hour. The fact is that typical commuting in a city to urban area gets to operating temperature within minutes. Modern engine controls insure that the coolant systems adjust to being the engine temperature up quickly and then maintain it.
There is a lot of old information regarding engine oil that no longer applies. In most cases, changing engine oil every 3000 miles is a waste of valuable resources not to mention throwing away your money.
There are a lot of opinions on changing oil, most of them have nothing to do with facts.
If the truck is under warranty follow the manufacturer's oil change intervals and oil grade. For example, oil and filter change for my wife's 2010 RAV 4 V6 is as follows: every 5,000 miles, or 5 months (or so), whichever comes first, and regardless of oil being synthetic or not. However, if I were to use a conventional 5W-30 oil, I would replace it every 3,000 miles or three months, even if Toyota recommends 5,000 miles/5 months.
Since synthetic oils are so cheap these days ($25.00 per gal. of Mobil 1 at Walmart), I use this oil on my wife's car, and follow the Toyota's advise. This translates to every 5 to 6 months (twice per year), since my wife drives around 4,500 miles in 6 months.
Your question will always get a 50% for changing sooner and 50% for changing once a year. I am no expert so if you don't put many miles on it--change it every 9 months. Just make sure that is within warranty guidelines.
Enjoy your ride!
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