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With synthetics don't use a cheap filter. That's the 1st thing that can go bad over time is the filter. If you can change your filter every 4k should be good enough and cycle in some more synthetic oil.
Take a pan and measure how much oil you lose during the filter change. And add some more oil in.
In fact I would purposely drain a 1 quarts of oil during the filter change and then put 1 quart back in afterwards.
I have never had an engine burn oil even with 300,000 miles it if I had changed the oil the first 100 miles (new). If you think this makes no sense then the next time you have a new engine dump the oil at 100 miles and then shine a light into the oil, the oil will have thousands on shiny metal flakes in it from the manufacturing process. The first 100 miles of operation knocks lose metal flakes of the engine casting and it floats around inside the engine causing damage. This 100 mile oil is always the dirties oil I ever take out of an engine. By changing the oil early, the metal flakes can be removed before they do any damage.
After the original oil change at 100 miles, I change synthetic oil every 5000 miles and non synthetic oil every 3000 miles.
Honda actually uses break-in oil or additive in their new cars and strongly recommends not to change oil until its time.
Simply for the ease of remembering when to change it - I would change it once a year. Pick a good time of year that you can stick to - maybe when your car registration is renewed.
I don't think it will make a bit of difference in the life of the vehicle whether you change it at 5,000, once a year, or 7,000.
The reason many say to change every year, no matter the mileage is due to condensation, gas, etc that can collect in the crankcase when a car is driven for short trips only. Ifthe engine does not come up to normal temp and stay there for say 30 minutes every once in a while, that stuff does not get "burned" or "boiled" off and out of the oil.
If you really hardly ever drive, but when you do drive, it is for a decent amount of time and the engine is up to temperature for a while, you can probably go longer than a year. Now, never driving a car can cause issues with seals, etc, but I imagine the oil will be OK.
You know it is good advice if the people giving it are willing to stand behind their advice if something goes wrong.
The manufacturer of the car publishes the information you need right in the owners manual. We can all argue about who makes money from those recommendations but the fact is that they are responsible and have liability for their recommendations.
You can always count on some fudge factor or extra margin right until something goes wrong and then everyone turns the other way and looks at the sky.
Oils can and do go bad just sitting in the crank case. There is some moisture in there no matter what you do. There are contaminants in there no matter what you do.
If you follow the recommendations of those willing to accept responsibility for the advice you don't have to look around for absentees when bad things happen.
For every person that claims they never had a problem related to oil, there are some that didn't change their oil as recommended and experienced an engine oil related failure. It comes down who you want to be, the one who did it right or the one who says they wish they had.
I have the same issue with one of my cars....I pull about 1k miles a year. I drive it a minimum twice a month with at least 10 miles to make sure all the fluids move around.
I always feel the owners manual is really conservative. That being said, it can't hurt to do all the maint. sooner...it can only hurt your wallet. Anyway, solid insight from real car people is always helpful.
WTH is the point of synthetic oil anyway? I just got a pretty new used car and took it for its first oil change today. The mechanic approached me and said synthetic was the recommended oil because it has a turbocharged engine. How is fake oil better than real (if it even is), and why does it cost more than twice as much? Is it like getting an artificial hip
It's probably still in good shape. If I were you, I'd change it every 5k miles, since that could be around 2-3 years for you. Oil doesn't just break down by itself sitting there, it's caused by contaminants in the oil like gasoline that washes down the cylinder walls and gets past the rings (just a little bit for a well running engine.) I wouldn't go running the engine to redline on old oil, but for the occasional driving that you do, it should be just fine.
while it is true that the oil itself doesnt break down, otherwise we couldnt recycle used oil, the additive package does break down over time.
i recommend chancing the oil at least once per year on a car that isnt used much.
I had a Nissan Pathfinder that didn't get driven much and at one point, I realized I hadn't changed the oil for about 5 years. Seemed to run fine and never used oil. I would not have taken it on a trip without changing the oil though. I have seen some run the same oil in old tractors and farm trucks for a very long time.
I have never had an engine burn oil even with 300,000 miles it if I had changed the oil the first 100 miles (new). If you think this makes no sense then the next time you have a new engine dump the oil at 100 miles and then shine a light into the oil, the oil will have thousands on shiny metal flakes in it from the manufacturing process. The first 100 miles of operation knocks lose metal flakes of the engine casting and it floats around inside the engine causing damage. This 100 mile oil is always the dirties oil I ever take out of an engine. By changing the oil early, the metal flakes can be removed before they do any damage.
After the original oil change at 100 miles, I change synthetic oil every 5000 miles and non synthetic oil every 3000 miles.
You would think that the filter would catch the majority of metal however it could not hurt to be sure and change out the oil and filter after a purchase. The advantages would be 1) Prevent damage as you mentioned and 2) Start using your trusted motor oil brand and filter. It seems like cheap insurance for the cost of an oil change.
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